Exposure to violence makes you more likely to lie, cheat

Can watching a violent movie make you more likely to lie, cheat or steal? What about reading a violent book? While that may seem like a stretch, a new research study shows it may be the case.

The study, published in the Journal of Business Ethics, finds that exposure to human violence is strongly linked to an increase in cheating for monetary gain. In other words, violence may be making us less ethical.

“Research shows that violent media increases aggressive behaviour towards others, but what we’re showing here is that it goes beyond that,” said study, co-author Josh Gubler, a professor of political science at BYU.

Gubler and co-author David Wood, a Professor of accounting in the Marriott School of Management, carried out experiments with roughly 1,000 participants for the study.

In the first experiment, participants were paid to review sentences and edit those with mistakes. Half of the participants were given sentences with violent language. Subjects were told they would be paid whether or not they were correct, providing an incentive to mark all sentences “correct” to earn money quicker. Those who reviewed violent sentences were 24 per cent more likely to cheat.

In another experiment, participants were hired to watch and evaluate movie clips. One clip consisted of 10 minutes of a blue screen with a monotone voiceover. The researchers found those who viewed violent movie clips were more likely to lie about watching all the videos.

Surprisingly, while both male and female test subjects responded to violently worded media, only the men's ethics were negatively influenced by violent videos.

“We have whole industries that glorify violence — in video games, in media, in Hollywood — and then, on the opposite side, we have a significant body of research showing very serious effects to this,” Wood said. “There is a disconnect between what science is saying and what we choose to do in society.”

One such study, published in 2009, found that subjects who played violent video games for only 20 minutes took five times longer to help a person in need. The study also found that people who had just seen a violent film took 26 per cent longer to help an injured woman.