Daniel Linz

The inventory of beliefs about wife beating: the construction and initial validation of a measure of beliefs and attitudes

Although attitudes and beliefs about wife beating have been regarded as important for understanding the factors that cause and perpetuate woman abuse, researchers have not had adequate instruments to measure these attitudes and beliefs. This article reports on the construction of a scale of attitudes about wife beating and an assessment of the scale’s dimensionality and validity. Data were collected from 675 students, 94 residents of a mid-western city, 71 men who batter, and 70 advocates for battered women. Five reliable subscales were derived, and seven tests of validity were supported. Sympathetic attitudes toward battered women were related, as predicted, with liberal views of women’s roles and sympathetic attitudes toward rape victims. Abusers and advocates were the most dissimilar in their attitudes. Male and female students also differed significantly. Many of the results are analogous to those in studies of attitudes toward rape. Several possible uses of the measure are described.

Race and the Misrepresentation of Victimization on Local Television News

A content analysis of a random sample of television news aired in Los Angeles and Orange Counties was undertaken to assess representations of Whites, Blacks, and Latinos as crime victims. Intergroup comparisons (Black vs. White and Latino vs. White) revealed that Whites are more likely than African Americans and Latinos to be portrayed as victims of crime on television news. Interrole comparisons (perpetrator vs. victim) revealed that Blacks and Latinos are more likely to be portrayed as lawbreakers than as crime victims, whereas the reverse is true of Whites. Interreality comparisons (television news vs. crime reports) revealed that Whites are overrepresented, Latinos are underrepresented, and Blacks are neither overrepresented nor underrepresented as homicide victims on television news compared to crime reports. Conversely, African Americans are overrepresented, Latinos are underrepresented, and Caucasians are neither overrepresented nor underrepresented as perpetrators on television news. Whites appear to be overrepresented as victims, whereas Blacks are relegated to roles as perpetrators and Latinos are largely absent on television news. The theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.

Desensitization and resensitization to violence against women: effects of exposure to sexually violent films on judgments of domestic violence victims

An experiment was conducted to examine the effects of repeated exposure to sexually violent films on emotional desensitization and callousness toward domestic abuse victims. Results indicated that emotional response, self-reported physiological arousal, and ratings of the extent to which the films were sexually violent all diminished with repeated film exposure. Three days following exposure to the final film, experimental participants expressed significantly less sympathy for domestic violence victims, and rated their injuries as less severe, than did a no-exposure comparison group. Five days after the final film exposure, their level of sensitivity to the domestic violence victims had rebounded to baseline levels established by the comparison group. Emotional responsiveness at the final film exposure was correlated with levels of sensitivity to the domestic violence victims 3 days later but not at subsequent observation points.

Exposure to sexually explicit materials and attitudes toward rape: A comparison of study results

This article reviews experimental studies conducted since the 1970 pornography commission that have tested the effects of exposure to sexually explicit materials on attitudes and perceptions about rape. Studies of short‐term exposure to nonaggressive sexually explicit communications have yielded mixed results. When effects do exist for this material, they are both fewer and weaker than antisocial effects from sexually violent material. Studies of the effects of long‐term exposure to nonviolent pornography have also yielded mixed results—some experiments finding increases in negative attitudes about rape, others showing no effects. However, one finding is consistent for both long‐ and short‐term studies. Those that have included violent (slasher) film conditions have consistently found less sensitivity toward rape victims after exposure to these materials. The remainder of the paper is devoted to contradictions between the outcomes of long‐term studies and their possible solution.

Television News, Prejudicial Pretrial Publicity, and the Depiction of Race

The current study is a content analysis that measured the extent of pretrial publicity on Los Angeles television news and examined the relationship of race of the accused and amount of prejudicial information in the news- cast. Results indicated that 19% of the defendants described in crime stories were associated with at least one category of potentially prejudicial information, as defined by the American Bar Association. Blacks and Latinos were twice as likely as Whites to be associated with prejudicial statements on local television news. Latinos who victimized Whites were almost 3 times as likely as White defendants to be associated with prejudicial information. The social, legaI, and psychological implications of these findings are discussed.

Applying social science research to film ratings: A shift from offensiveness to harmful effects

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) provides ratings for the majority of commercially released films. The MPAA system is based largely on estimates of what types of film content may be offensive to most parents. We identify four assumptions that underlie the current rating system and show how these assumptions are inconsistent with social science research regarding the impact of media portrayals on young viewers. Finally, we offer an alternative scheme based on what is harmful to children rather than what is offensive to parents.

The Effects of Exposure to Virtual Child Pornography on Viewer Cognitions and Attitudes Toward Deviant Sexual Behavior

Assumptions regarding the harmful effects of exposure to virtual child pornography are tested in a laboratory experiment. Based on a lexical decision-making task, participants exposed to sexually explicit depictions of females who appear to be minors (“barely legal” pornography) were faster to recognize sexual words after being primed with neutral depictions of girls compared to participants who were preexposed to adult pornography. Trend analysis showed that participants took longer to recognize sexual words after exposure to neutral depictions of underage females the older the models they saw in the exposure condition. Contrary to predictions, male and female participants exposed to barely legal pornography estimated lower rather than higher prevalence and popularity of barely legal depictions than those in other conditions. Implications of evidence of a child-sex cognitive schema following exposure to barely legal pornography and explanations for the failure to support predictions concerning Web-based barely legal pornography are discussed.

Predicting self-protections of online privacy

An empirical study was conducted to examine the social psychological processes that may influence an individuals adoption of online privacy protection strategies. Building from the theory of planned behavior, a theoretical model predicting self-protection of online privacy was tested in the present study. This model accounted for nearly a quarter of the variability in actual adoption during a ten-day period immediately after participants completed the initial questionnaire. Overall, the present research provided a strong support for the theoretical utility of psychological factors and processes in online privacy related research.

Women's Reactions to Sexually Aggressive Mass Media Depictions

The idea that the media contribute to a cultural climate that is supportive of attitudes facilitating violence against women, diminishes concern for female victims (desensitization), and produces negative changes in womens views of themselves was investigated. Women viewed a film per day for 4 days from one of three categories: a) sexually explicit but nonviolent stimuli, b) sexually explicit, sexually violent stimuli, and c) mildly sexually explicit, graphically violent stimuli. They then served as jurors in a simulated rape trial. Exposure to both types of violent stimuli produced desensitization and ratings of the stimuli as less degrading to women. Women exposed to the mildly sexually explicit, graphically violent stimuli were less sensitive toward the victim in the rape trial than were other film subjects. However, no differences were obtained between the film groups and the no-exposure control group on womens views of themselves.

A Test of Competing Cognitive Explanations for the Boomerang Effect in Response to the Deliberate Disruption of Media-Induced Aggression

This study advances research on the boomerang effect in response to anti-aggression media literacy interventions. Previous findings indicate that elementary school children can become more aggressive after exposure to such interventions. We test two competing explanations for the boomerang effect, media priming and psychological reactance, in a 2 × 2 factorial experiment with elementary school children (N = 128). Findings indicate that children may cognitively process antisocial elements of an intervention program in a manner that runs counter to the intended effect of prosocial messages. Specifically, children who were exposed to a media literacy intervention with violent media clips as examples reported an increase in willingness to use aggression, whereas children who were exposed to the same lesson without the clips did not. Therefore, the boomerang effect is best explained by the processing of violent clips (media priming) and is not likely due to resistance to the instructional elements of the lesson (psychological reactance). Implications for researchers and practitioners are discussed.