College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Iowa State University

Media effects

As a developmental psychologist, Doug Gentile wants to know how the media affect children.
Every consultant has a favorite client.

Doug Gentile's happened to be the National Institute on Media and the Family, which is based in Minneapolis.

"They were trying to designate a rating system for television," said Gentile, who at the time was a research associate at the Minnesota firm of Anderson, Niebur & Associates.

"What got me interested was the ability of one person to make a difference," he continued.

Gentile soon left Anderson, Niebur & Associates to become the director of research for the National Institute on Media and the Family, a position he held for five years before coming to Iowa State as an assistant professor of psychology this fall. He is still affiliated with that organization.

Like his work at his previous position, at Iowa State, Gentile will continue his research on how the media affect children. This can range from media violence in the movies, television and video games to the sway that advertising has on children.

"My research is true to the land-grant mission," he said. "It will have influence on others outside of my lab."

Those that Gentile tries to influence are parents, schools and policy makers.

"I have seen that the research I and others are doing in this field has important implications for society and it does make a difference," he said.

One of Gentile's studies looks at the physiological affects of violent video games on youth. He says playing such games not only enhances aggressive thoughts and behaviors, but the body's heart rate, adrenaline and blood pressure will also increase.

"We're studying how video games not only affect us behaviorally but physiologically," he said.

Other studies Gentile is researching include video game violence against women, how advertising affects preschool-age children and the use of Iowa State's virtual reality system to gauge the effect of more realistic video games.

He recently completed editing a book, Media Violence and Children: A Complete Guide for Parents and Professionals, which will be published in late November by Greenwood Publishing. In the book, Gentile presents a broad range of approaches and findings to confirm that media violence has profoundly negative effects on children.

He says that parents are the ultimate influence on the impact of the media on their children.

"It's as simple as parents monitoring what their kids watch and play on television," he said.

Gentile's research has generated interest from the general mass media - he fields interview requests virtually everyday.

He also makes frequent presentations to parent organizations. The responses he receives from those parents are more than encouraging.

"I would say half of those parents are going home and doing something different with their kids. That's powerfully motivating for me," he said.

"That's what gets me excited about coming to the office every day."

Gentile admits that media violence isn't the only factor that determines aggressive behavior in individuals, including children.

"Poverty, abuse, drugs, gang influence, the neighborhood you live in - it all has an impact," he said. "But media violence is the easiest to control."