Risky Behavior in Movies

A Content Analysis

COM 633Elisabeth Tselebidis 12-12-2011

Background• Increase in quantity of media content that glorifies risk-taking

behavior in recent years• Exposure to such media depictions can increase media users’

risk-taking inclinations• Particularly children, adolescents, and young adults susceptible

of being influenced by media portrayals of risky behaviors • Consequences of risky behaviors: impaired health, financial

problems, employment problems, social problems, financial burden for society

Analyses about how risky behaviors are portrayed in different media formats could help shed more light on how these portrayals may influence people Present study took a first step by developing a coding scheme for analyzing broad range of risky behaviors in movies

Literature Review• Derevensky, Sklar, Gupta, and Messerlian (2010)

investigated the impact of gambling ads in different media types on Canadian youth Young people exposed to a great amount of gambling ads Many young people prompted to gamble by such ads,

especially those with gambling problems

Literature Review cont.• Primack, Kraemer, Fine, and Dalton (2009)

examined the effects of different media onU.S. students’ health behaviors Greater exposure to movies related to

more alcohol consumption Comparable relationship between exposure

to music and usage of marijuana

• Wills, Sargent, Stoolmiller, Gibbons, & Gerrard (2008) examined the influence of smoking in movies on smoking onset among children Smoking in movies was found to be a predictor

of favorable smoking expectancies Main effect of movie exposure on smoking

onset

Literature Review cont.• Fischer, Greitemeyer, Kastenmüller, Vogrincic, & Sauer

(2011) meta-analysis summarizes accumulated findings about effects of risk-glorifying media exposure Results showed positive relationship between overall risk

taking and risky behaviors, risk-positive attitudes, and risk-positive emotions

Stronger effects for actively consumed media (e.g., video games) than for passively consumed media (e.g., music)

Rationale• Some effect studies have only measured general media

consumption “that happens to include risk-glorifying content” (Fischer et al., p. 384)

• According to social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1986, 2009) specific depictions of risky behaviors can initiate media users to adopt risk-positive attitudes and behaviors

• Therefore, it should be paid more attention to how exactly those portrayals are depicted in the media

• Moreover, looking at all kinds of risky behaviors depicted in media, instead of just looking at one single behavior provides a better overview of which risky behaviors are prominently portrayed

Research QuestionsRQ1: What types of risky behaviors are most prominent

in which movie genres?

RQ2: Is there a difference between the amount of risky behaviors

portrayed in older movies compared to newer movies in the

different genres?

RQ3: How much emphasis do the movies’ storylines place on the portrayed risky behaviors?

RQ4: What types of characters are mostly involved in risky

behaviors?

RQ5: Are the majority of the risky behaviors positively or negatively reinforced?

Population and Sampling• Population: all non-animated movies of the ten top-

grossing movie genres that earned money in the United States between the years 1995 and 2010 (according to www.the-numbers.com)

• Sampling frame consisted of 7,068 movies

• Simple random sample of 20 movies was pulled from each of the ten movie genres, for a total of 200 movies

• For pilot study, a second random sampling was used to determine a sample of ten movies, each of which represented a movie of one of the ten different genres

• Of each of these ten movies, a 15-minutes time segment was randomly selected and analyzed

Definition of Risky Behavior

“One’s purposive participation in some form of behavior that involves potential negative consequences or losses (social, monetary, interpersonal) as well as perceived positive consequences or gains” (Ben-Zur & Zeidner, 2009, p. 110). It is any “activity that entails novelty or danger sufficient to create anxiety in most people” (Levenson, 1990, p. 1073) and that “can lead to not only grave losses to self and significant others but also unintentional harm to innocent others” (Ben-Zur & Zeidner, 2009, p. 110).

Unit of Data Collection• Unit of data collection is any single incident of a risky

behavior carried out by a human being (no matter if risky behavior is interrupted by a scene change or the like)

• A risky behavior can only be carried out by one single individual , that is, if more than one person engage in the same behavior, two different lines of coding are required

• If more than one risky behavior is carried out by one person simultaneously (e.g., heavy drinking and smoking at the same time or speeding and driving while intoxicated), each risky behavior has to be coded separately

Variables – Risky Behavior• Classic risk-taking domains according to literature:

Risky driving Smoking Drug consumption Alcohol consumption Gambling Delinquency Sexual risk taking

• These typical risky behaviors were taken into account + expanded by including behaviors that are not considered to be conventional risky activities, but that fit within the conceptual definition of risky behavior

• All in all, 19 different subcategories of risky behavior were defined

Variables – Risky Behavior cont.Risky Behavior (variable no. 2)o Risky Driving (represented by codes 0101-0199 in the

codebook)o Risky Riding (0201-0299)o Risky Bicycling (0301-0399)o Risky Use of Any Other Non-Motorized Vehicle Other Than

a Bicycle (0401-0499)o Risky Behavior as a Pedestrian (0501-0599)o Risky Aviation (0601-0699)o Risky Driving or Steering a Ship/Boat/etc. (0701-0799)o Heavy Drinking (0801-0899)o Smoking (0901-0999)o Substance Abuse (1001-1099)

Variables – Risky Behavior cont.Risky Behavior (no. 2)o Risky Sexual Behavior (1101-1199)o Suicide Attempt (1201-1299)o Playing Russian Roulette (1300)o Hazarding One’s Physical Health (1401-1499)o Dangerous (Extreme) Sports (1501-1599)o Unlawful Activities (1601-1699)o At-Risk Gambling (1701-1799)o Being in Unsafe Areas (1801-1899)o Fighting (1901-1999)o Other Risky Behavior (2000)

Variables – Context VariablesRisk Takero Sex of Risk Taker (variable no. 4)o Race of Risk Taker (no. 5)o Age of Risk Taker (no. 6)o Hero versus Non-Hero (no. 7)o Role of Risk Taker (no. 8)o Physical Attractiveness of Risk Taker (no. 9)o Motive for Risk Taking (no. 10)

Variables – Context Variables cont.Interventiono Intervention yes/no (variable no. 11)o Intervening Person or Group (no. 12)o Sex of Intervening Person/Group (no. 13)o Race of Intervening Person/Group (no. 14)o Age of Intervening Person (no. 15)o Hero versus Non-Hero (no. 16)o Role of Intervening Person/Group (no. 17)o Relation of Risk Taker to Intervening Person/Group (no.

18)o Intervention Success/Failure (no. 19)

Variables – Context Variables cont.Consequenceso Consequences of Risky Behavior (CRB) I – Physical

Injury/Death to Risk Taker (variable no. 20)o CRB II – Physical Injury/Death to Innocent Party/Parties

(no. 21)o CRB III – Conviction by Legal Authority (no. 22)o CRB IV – Occupational or School Problems (no. 23)o CRB V – Financial Problems (no. 24)o CRB VI – Interpersonal Problems (no. 25)o CRB VII – Diseases (no. 26)o CRB VIII – Unwanted Pregnancy (no. 27)o CRB VIIII – Material Damages (no. 28)o CRB X – Other Negative Consequence (no. 29)o CRB XI – Positive Outcomes (no. 30)

Variables – Additional VariablesOther/Form Variableso Overlap (variable no. 3)o Length of Risky Behavior Portrayal (no. 31)o Foreground or Background (no. 32)o Degree of Focus on Risky Behavior (no. 33)

Coding Examples

http://riskybehaviormovieexamples.tumblr.com/

Any…… comments?… questions?… suggestions?

ReferencesBandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory.

Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.Bandura, A. (2009). Social cognitive theory of mass communication. In J. Bryant, &

Oliver M. B. (Eds.), Media effects: Advances in theory and research. (3rd ed., pp. 94-124). New York City, NY: Routledge.

Ben-Zur, H., & Zeidner, M. (2009). Threat to life and risk-taking behaviors: A review of empirical findings and explanatory models. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 13(2), 109-128.

Derevensky, J. L., Sklar, A., Gupta, R., & Messerlian, C. (2010). An empirical study examining the impact of gambling advertisements on adolescent gambling attitudes and behaviors. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 8(1), 21-34.

Fischer, P., Greitemeyer, T., Kastenmüller, A., Vogrincic, C., & Sauer, A. (2011). The effects of risk-glorifying media exposure on risk-positive cognitions, emotions, and behaviors: A meta-analytic review. Psychological Bulletin, 137(3), 367-390.

Levenson, M. R. (1990). Risk taking and personality. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58(6), 1073-1080.

Primack, B. A., Kraemer, K. L., Fine, M. J., & Dalton, M. A. (2009). Media exposure and marijuana and alcohol use among adolescents. Substance Use & Misuse, 44(5), 722-739.

Wills, T. A., Sargent, J. D., Stoolmiller, M., Gibbons, F. X., & Gerrard, M. (2008). Movie smoking exposure and smoking onset. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 22(2), 269-277.