Abstract
This study supports the view that young boys are, to some degree, consistent in their tendency to be influenced by what they have seen on films. Seventy-two boys were assigned randomly to an ‘aggressive’ film, a ‘constructive’ film, or a ‘mixed’ condition, in which they saw two ‘aggressive’ films, two ‘constructive’ films or one ‘aggressive’ and one ‘constructive’ film. The number of acts a boy imitated after seeing one film was positively correlated with the number of acts imitated after viewing the second film in all three conditions. This tendency is shown to be independent of the initial tendency to act in the way portrayed in the film. Further research into the question of individual differences in the tendency to imitate filmed behaviour is encouraged.
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Kniveton, B.H., Stephenson, G.M. Susceptibility to filmed models: A study of aggressive and constructive imitation. Current Psychological Research 1, 89–99 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02684481
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02684481