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Sorry, Tom & Jerry, Cartoon Violence Doesn't Reel Kids In, Study Finds
Filed under: In The News, Media
Credit: Amazon
Maybe not. A new study in the journal Media Psychology finds violence injected into TV shows and movies aimed at kids doesn't actually make children enjoy the offerings any more.
"Violence isn't the attractive component in these cartoons, which producers seem to think it is," Andrew J. Weaver, assistant professor of telecommunications at Indiana University, says in a press release from the school. "It's more other things that are often associated with the violence. It's possible to have those other components, such as action specifically, in non-violent ways."
Weaver adds that cartoons just don't need the violence to appeal to kids.
"They'll like them without the violence, just as much if not more," he says in the release.
And it's not just Looney Tunes that feature antics such as anvils being dropped on heads, trains smashing into characters or dynamite destroying everything in its path. According to the release, some analyses show up to 70 percent of TV shows for kids feature violent content.
"For many producers and media critics, the question is not if children love violence, but rather why children love violence," Weaver and his co-authors write. "Our goal in this study was to examine children's liking of violent content while independently manipulating the amount of action, which is often confounded with violence in the existing research."
Researchers looked at 128 boys and girls ages 5 to 11, showing them four versions of an animated short made for the study, according to the release. One version included six violent scenes, another version showed nine action scenes, and the other two versions featured less action or violence.
The release states that the shorts with violence had indirect negative effects on boys.
"That was a little surprising," Weaver, who has two young sons, says in the release. "There is a lot of talk about boys being more violent and more aggressive, for whatever reason, social or biological, and yet we found that they identified with the characters more when they were non-violent ... They liked the characters more and they enjoyed the overall cartoon more."
The girls studied, however, didn't "decrease wishful identification of the characters," according to the release. Weaver says the girls probably don't identify with the male-geared slapstick cartoons, and saw the characters as boys, even though they had no sexual attributes.
"They're not going to identify with what they perceive to be male characters, whether they are violent or not," he says in the release. "They didn't prefer the more violent programming. They were just using other cues besides the character's violent or non-violent behavior to determine how much they enjoyed the show."
So, what's a riled up toon to do? Run really fast, Weaver says.
"If you can increase action without increasing violence, which clearly is possible as we did it in this study, then you can increase the enjoyment without potential harmful effects that violence can bring," he says in the release.
Run, Tom, run!
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 1)
5-25-2011 @ 1:25PM
Priscilla said...To me, this cartoon is wonderful, in fact reminds me of my childhood wonderful things.
Reply
5-29-2011 @ 8:22AM
Alan Gardner said...There isn't anything wrong with these catroons it's the nnew one';s that they should take of.Like the ones where they are shooting each other and really beating on each other.All the oldm ones are the best we all grew up with them and they was great.
5-29-2011 @ 9:00AM
Bret said...I think what everyone forgets is these cartoons were trailers for movies written for adults!!! The antics are funny. It's sad that those without a lick of common sense don't remember that those cartoons were written for adults, but moreover, that kids are able to comprehend that those things aren't real.
My recommendation to those who want to sanitize cartoons: Get a life!
5-28-2011 @ 10:19PM
mdthedream said...The violence has always been for the male adults that love watching cartoons. Hell a lot of adult males loved Looney Tones cartoons. Its like watching the Simpsons,Family Guy and so on.
Reply
5-29-2011 @ 2:47AM
BTDT said...I think they missed an important distinction in this study.
It is not action that kids find compelling, it's the unexpected.
Anything with an element of surprise will be well recieved by children.
5-29-2011 @ 4:18AM
Kristen said...I'm a female, mid 30's, and I happen to love "Family Guy" and "The Simpsons".
I grew up watching "Looney Tunes" and the like. Think of it this way: the "'Tunes" were the "Family Guy" for another generation (although not quite so crude. ^.^). The asides to celebrities, the jabs to society as it currently is/was..seeing a pattern here?
5-28-2011 @ 11:42PM
Kevin Brown said...So the violence in Looney Toons (Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote and Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam, etc.) wasn't "necessary"? It wasn't supposed to be necessary, it was supposed to be funny. Leave it the hell alone. Those cartoons were hilarious and intelligent. They were a hundred times better than the garbage they are making as cartoons today.
Reply
5-29-2011 @ 12:37AM
Rose said...your kidding, right ? About the intelligent part ?
5-29-2011 @ 2:06AM
Ray said...I'd prefer Looney Tunes over the current garbage any day.What do you have today let's see. Ed Edd and Eddy, teaches the kids how to lie, how to con, and bs people for money to buy candy. Ben 10 how to be annoying and bratty. How to be a smartass and irresponsible. Spongebob, though I like it, how to be a pest and just plain stupid, or materialistic like the crab. Johnny Test how to be selfish, me, me, me. All these new toons teach kids how to be nothing more than defective. I'm with you Kevin.
5-29-2011 @ 12:21AM
Lily said...What a load of crap!!!!!!
Reply
5-29-2011 @ 12:55AM
Gina said...Everyone I know grew up watching those cartoons and the 3 Stooges and we're fine! We never bonked anyone on the head, tried to plier someone's nose off or dropped an anvil on anyone!
It's just cartoons! It was a great part of my childhood and my children's childhood. My Grand children are still too little so they watch Nick Jr and PBS Kids shows but if they want to watch Bug's Bunny, Road Runner and I say , I say there, Fog Horn Leg Horn.. thats' fine with me!
Reply
5-29-2011 @ 2:07AM
unclecrackre said...Poppycock! Us kids grew up watching Looney Tunes, Popeye, Woody Woodpecker and such, we didn't turn out to be violent people. Kids are smart enough to know, it's not real violence, give them a little credit for Pete's sake! Bda bda bda....that's all folks!
Reply
5-29-2011 @ 2:42AM
Ray said...Have you looked at all the junk on TV? Cartoons today is nothing but trash, kids don't even enjoy them. Because someone get a degree and is now a Phd, Dr., etc. they think what they have to say about the old cartoon is fact. The fact is that those Cartoons were and are funny. GET A LIFE! Looney Tunes are funny and my Grandsons watch them all the time (5 and 9 years old). You are the Looney one for this CRAZY article.
Reply
5-29-2011 @ 3:38AM
Kristen said...As one who grew up lucky enough to enjoy the, old, violent, reprehensible ways of "Looney Tunes" and "Tom and Jerry", (sarcasm there, the older "Looney Tunes" were quite brilliant and clever. Of course, some episodes may not be "PC" for our times, but eh.) I never thought that dropping an anvil on someone's head would solve problems. No matter how much one might deserve it. ;)
Even as children, my brother and I were able to separate cartoons from reality. No, you don't drop an anvil on someone's head. It hurts, and might be deadly. No, throwing a pie into someone's face (while funny), is not proper behavior. Running off a cliff is NOT to be condoned. You will not "poof" in a cloud of dust, looking bewildered, but otherwise unharmed. Common sense, people. Most people, and most children have it.
As my husband and myself are in our mid-30's, we grew up watching "Looney Tunes", "Tom and Jerry" and the like. Heck, we even have a "Three Stooges" collection on DVD, as our parents used to let us watch the "marathon" of Stooges clips that a local television station airs here on New Year's Eve.
Take a deep breath and calm down.
Reply
5-29-2011 @ 5:06AM
Hamrick4 said...C'mon people!!! Our generation was the best and we grew up watching Looney Toons and I'm pretty sure I never wanted to be violent or hurt anyone........geeshhhhhh!!!!! The US as we knew it is a thing of the past but it's not because of Looney Toons making us insane!! It's because of the peer pressure, the bullying and people flat out not giving a damn about their fellow man. That's what's wrong with the world now!!!
Reply
5-29-2011 @ 12:16PM
Gregory Schwartz said...I was a kid in the 1950's. I remember the cartoons of the 1930's as having fantastic artwork (Betty Boop, Popeye, early Warner Brothers, etc.) I never liked Tom & Jerry, since I liked cats, and the cat was always being mean and getting hurt. I never cared for the Road Runner cartoons. They were morbidly violent. When the cartoons of the early 1960's came out, (Rocky & Bullwinkle, The Flintstones, Jetsons, Huckleberry Hound, etc.) my favorite was Rocky & Bullwinkle. If you can catch them, they are still funny today, even for adults. In fact, a lot of the humor was way over the heads of the young kids. But, the great art work of the earlier cartoons was lost in the 1960's. The "new" cartoons were flat, hardly any backgrounds and no details at all. The current cartoons like the Simpsons, Family Guy, etc. are really geared more to the adults. In fact, the kids should not even be watching a lot of the present day cartoons, especially South Park. I still get a kick our of the original, uncut, old black & white Little Rascals, Three Stooges and Laurel & Hardy. Movie-making was still in its' infancy, and these dedicated actors/comedians did their own stunts and a lot of them suffered for it for years to come. I think the older cartoons had much more quality than the cartoons of today. In my humble opinion, a lot of the newer cartoons are garbage and I never watch them. If entertainment is a reflection of current society, we are all headed for hell in a sinking canoe. This is just my humble opinion, it's a free country, so please don't call me names if you disagree. Thanx, -gregg in Sarasota, FL
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