Children's reactions to cartoon violence

An extensive amount of research has now been conducted on the effects of television violence on human behavior. The general conclusion of this research is that viewing violence increases the aggressive behavior of the viewer. This paper is primarily concerned with one aspect of that research — Violent Cartoons. Despite the widespread public concern for “murder on Saturday morning”; only 10 published studies were found. Mixed results were reported in several studies but a careful examination of the dependent variables used revealed a more consistent pattern of findings. While cartoons are consistent in format variation in content has received little attention.