Viewing Movie Violence & Interest in Guns

May 30, 2019 updated by: Brad Bushman, Ohio State University

Exposure to Gun Violence in Movies Increases Interest in Real Guns

More American children die by accidental gun use than children in other developed countries. One factor that can influence children's interest in guns is exposure to media containing guns. The objective of this study is to test whether children who see a movie containing guns will handle a real gun longer and will pull the trigger more times than children who see the same movie without guns.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

A recent analysis of top selling films found that the depiction of guns in violent scenes in PG-13 films that target youth has increased from the level of G and PG files in 1985 when the rating was introduced, to the level of R films by 2005, to exceed the level of R films since 2012. By definition, a PG-13 movie is supposed to have less violence than an R-rated movie. The Motion Picture Association of America says on its website that the violence in a PG-13 movie "does not reach the restricted R category." Our study shows that it does. By including guns in violent scenes, film producers may be inadvertently increasing aggression in youth via a weapons effect. This experiment directly tests this hypothesis.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

104

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

8 years to 12 years (Child)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

Age 8-12yrs, had not participated in study prior, was able to schedule participation with a known peer (8-12yo).

Exclusion Criteria:

Younger than 8yo, older than 12yo, had participated in study prior, could not schedule participation with a known peer (8-12yo)

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Other
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Experimental Condition
Intervention was guns in movies. Participants in this condition viewed a movie with guns, as it was filmed and distributed. The actual scenes in the movie (National Treasure or The Rocketeer) was not edited, but the same scenes were used as the Experimental Condition Intervention is m
Behavioral: Movies with Guns
Participants in this arm viewed movies (National Treasure, The Rocketeer) without guns. The movies, rated PG, were edited to remove guns from the scenes
No Intervention: Control Condition
Participants in this condition viewed a movie without guns. The movie (National Treasure or The Rocketeer) was edited to remove guns from scenes.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Trigger Pulls
Time Frame: 20 minutes after intervention
The adjusted median of the number of trigger pulls per child. These data refer to the reduced Generalized Estimating Equation model for the two conditions. This model included participant gender and condition, bu not any of the other control variables.
20 minutes after intervention
Seconds Holding Gun
Time Frame: 20 minutes after intervention
Number of seconds participant held gun
20 minutes after intervention

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Ohio State University

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Brad J Bushman, PhD, The Ohio State Universit

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

July 15, 2015

Primary Completion (Actual)

January 1, 2016

Study Completion (Actual)

January 1, 2016

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

July 14, 2017

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 17, 2017

First Posted (Actual)

July 18, 2017

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

June 3, 2019

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 30, 2019

Last Verified

May 1, 2019

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 2013B0542-3

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

UNDECIDED

IPD Plan Description

We are considering making individual participant data available, but need to determine steps and appropriateness according to our institutional IRB board.

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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