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The Relationship Between Crime-Related Television Viewing and Perceptions of the Death Penalty: Results of a Large Cross-Sectional Survey Study.

ABSTRACT: Background: According to cultivation theory, distorted representations of social reality on television can lead to distorted perceptions of reality among viewers. For example, the death penalty has been abolished in most Western countries a long time ago, but is often portrayed or mentioned in US crime shows, which are very popular outside the United States. Previous research suggests that the amount of television viewing can be associated with erroneous perceptions of the use of the death penalty-even when the death penalty is not used in the respective country. Unfortunately, available evidence on this association is inconclusive. Methods: In a cross-sectional web-based survey, we used quota-based sampling techniques to recruit 1,002 individuals representative of the Austrian population in terms of gender, age, education, and region of residence. We asked about their weekly amount of television viewing and use of US crime dramas and measured their beliefs on the use of the death penalty in Austria. Results: Although television viewing in general was not associated with erroneous perceptions of the death penalty (i.e., no overall across-the-board cultivation effect), data analysis provided supporting evidence for the idea of a genre-specific cultivation effect: The more US crime shows participants watched, the more likely they were to mistakenly believe that the death penalty is used in Austria. This association held true even after controlling for the gender, age, and education of participants. Conclusion: The finding that watching US crime shows, which are based on social reality in the United States, is associated with Austrian viewers' confusion with regards to perceptions of the death penalty is consistent with the genre-specific cultivation hypothesis. Some viewers may be guided more by mediated reality than by actual social reality.

SUBMITTER: Till B

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8334551 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:This study, conducted in the Netherlands, evaluated the association between ethnic background and children's TV viewing time at multiple time points and its trajectory. We analyzed 4,833 children with a Dutch, Moroccan, Turkish, or Surinamese ethnic background from the Generation R Study, a population-based study in the Netherlands. Parent-reported television viewing time for children at ages 2, 3, 4, 6, and 9 years was collected by questionnaires sent from April 2004 until January 2015. Odds ratios of watching television ?1 hour/day at each age were calculated for children from the various ethnic backgrounds. Generalized logistic mixed models (GLMMs) were used to assess the association between ethnic background and television viewing time trajectory. The effect modification by family socioeconomic status was examined in cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses. The percentage of children viewing television ?1 hour/day increased from age 2 to 9 years for children from all ethnic backgrounds. After adjusting for maternal educational level and net household income, children from all ethnic subgroups had greater odds of watching television ?1 hour/day at some time points compared with children with a Dutch background (Surinamese: all ages; Moroccan: at ages 4 and 6 years; Turkish: at ages 4 and 9 years). The GLMMs indicated that television viewing trajectories differed between ethnic subgroups. The associations between ethnic background and children's television viewing time were moderated by maternal educational level for child ages 4 and 6 years (p < 0.05). In longitudinal analyses, the ethnic differences in probability of watching television ?1 hour/day were larger in children from high-educated mothers than in children from low-educated mothers. In conclusion, ethnic differences in television viewing time were present at all measuring time points. The discrepancy between children with a Dutch background and children with another background was larger in high maternal educational subgroups.

Dataset Information

The Relationship Between Crime-Related Television Viewing and Perceptions of the Death Penalty: Results of a Large Cross-Sectional Survey Study.

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