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become scared, or otherwise aroused while watching a violent movie,
you have just been affected. Positive and negative emotional and
physiological reactions to violent media are media effects. Clearly,
many people seek out this type of stimulation. After all, who wants to

watch a “boring” movie? Violent media have many effects, including
emotional, physiological, cognitive, attitudinal, and behavioral effects
(see chapters 4 and 7 for more details). To the extent that we expect

media effects to be exhibited through atrocities, we may be missing
opportunities to see the more typical effects of media.
Myth 3. Media effects are obvious.
In each of the examples at the beginning of this chapter it was

obvious (usually from the perpetrator’s own admission) what media
product had influenced the subsequent behavior. This leads many to
expect that such links should usually be obvious, and thus they take the

absence of a direct and obvious link as evidence that no media effects
should be implicated. Because the effects of violent media are usually
indirect, subtle, and cumulative (and thus not obvious), many people

then argue that researchers and policymakers are trying to find an easy
scapegoat to explain violent behaviors. Indeed, even when the link is
obvious, many people make this argument. The following anonymous

quote was posted in response to the Jackass copycat burning: “TV shows
are not responsible for copycat attempts of dangerous stunts they
portray… Blaming TV shows for the actions of minors is just passing
the buck” (“Texas talkback,” n.d.). Because the effects tend to be subtle

and cumulative, even if people notice that someone is becoming more
aggressive over time, they may not infer that the gradual change could
be due partly to watching violent media. Nevertheless, cause-effect

relationships need not be obvious to be significant. Most people accept
that smoking causes lung cancer, even though the effect is subtle and
cumulative (for a description of the many parallels between smoking and
media violence, see Bushman & Anderson, 2001). One cigarette does

not change a person’s health in any particularly noticeable way, but
years of smoking can have dire consequences (but, importantly, not for
all people!). To the extent that we expect media effects to be exhibited in

an obvious manner, we are missing opportunities to see other less
obvious and perhaps more pervasive effects.
Myth 4. Violent media affect everyone in the same way.

Many people assume that, to be considered valid, media violence
effects must be unidimensional—that is, that everyone must be affected