caiman

I am conducting a survey on movie violence for my Sociology class. I am trying to determine whether or not real life violence is related to movie violence, and if so, in what way and to what extent. All I need is for you guys to answer these 15 questions. You may elaborate on any of them. Also, feel free to make this a discussion thread, but if you do, please take the time to complete the survey first. Thanks for any and all help.

For the purposes of this survey, lets consider a "violent movie" as any movie that is rated R for violence. If you are unsure of the rating, just use your best judgment.



1. What is your age?


2. What is your sex?


3. What is your race?


4. What percentage of the movies you watched in the last month was violent? (Estimate if necessary)


5. What percentage of the movies you watched in the last year was violent?


6. What percentage of movies you own is violent?


7. If you had the choice, would you rather watch a violent or non- violent movie (if no other deciding factors came into play)


8. When you witness on-screen violence, what is your immediate reaction?


9. Do you feel any more aggressive immediately after viewing a violent movie?


10. How likely are you to imitate a violent act you saw in a movie? Use a scale of 1-10, 1 being extremely unlikely, 10 being extremely likely.


11. From your experience, do you believe that movies have the ability to make a person act out more aggressively than he or she otherwise would?


12. Have you ever committed a violent act? (Giving an example is not necessary, but feel free to do so)


13. Do you ever see violence on the news and are reminded of a movie with a similar scenario?


14. Do you believe that film directors base elements of their films (plot, characters etc) on real life events?


15. If you answered "yes" to #14, do you believe that those real life events are more likely to be incorporated into a film if they are violent in nature?




Thanks for your help!

Mountain Biker

1. What is your age? 22


2. What is your sex? M


3. What is your race? White


4. What percentage of the movies you watched in the last month was violent? (Estimate if necessary) approx 90%


5. What percentage of the movies you watched in the last year was violent? approx 60%


6. What percentage of movies you own is violent? 75%


7. If you had the choice, would you rather watch a violent or non- violent movie (if no other deciding factors came into play) Violent, I guess


8. When you witness on-screen violence, what is your immediate reaction? Depending on the violent act, my reaction can range from amused (Jackass) to disturbed (curb scene in American History X)


9. Do you feel any more aggressive immediately after viewing a violent movie? No


10. How likely are you to imitate a violent act you saw in a movie? Use a scale of 1-10, 1 being extremely unlikely, 10 being extremely likely. 1


11. From your experience, do you believe that movies have the ability to make a person act out more aggressively than he or she otherwise would? No


12. Have you ever committed a violent act? (Giving an example is not necessary, but feel free to do so) Yes--fist-fighting


13. Do you ever see violence on the news and are reminded of a movie with a similar scenario? I remember that shoot-out bank robbery in L.A. a few years back that was extremely reminiscent of Heat.


14. Do you believe that film directors base elements of their films (plot, characters etc) on real life events? Yes


15. If you answered "yes" to #12, do you believe that those real life events are more likely to be incorporated into a film if they are violent in nature? Sure, if they add realism to a film (Ex: Saving Private Ryan opening battle)

evenflow

1. What is your age? 69

2. What is your sex? Male


3. What is your race? Carnivore


4. What percentage of the movies you watched in the last month was violent? 100%


5. What percentage of the movies you watched in the last year was violent? 100%


6. What percentage of movies you own is violent? 99% (ok I own The Sound of Music)

7. If you had the choice, would you rather watch a violent or non- violent movie (if no other deciding factors came into play)
Violent

8. When you witness on-screen violence, what is your immediate reaction? "Cool, I gotta try that tonight"


9. Do you feel any more aggressive immediately after viewing a violent movie? I feel WAY more aggressive and I'm always ready to kick some ass.

10. How likely are you to imitate a violent act you saw in a movie? Use a scale of 1-10, 1 being extremely unlikely, 10 being extremely likely. 10

11. From your experience, do you believe that movies have the ability to make a person act out more aggressively than he or she otherwise would? yes. If Joe Six Pack gets killed on the screen, I want him to be killed in real life too.


12. Have you ever committed a violent act? (Giving an example is not necessary, but feel free to do so) Yes. I've used a chainsaw for violent purposes.

13. Do you ever see violence on the news and are reminded of a movie with a similar scenario? I don't watch the news. Takes away time from porno.


14. Do you believe that film directors base elements of their films (plot, characters etc) on real life events? Hell yeah.


15. If you answered "yes" to #12, do you believe that those real life events are more likely to be incorporated into a film if they are violent in nature? I answered hell yeah not yes so I don't need to reply to this.

Giles

oh I sent the survey in an email to you, was I not supposed to it that way?

caiman

It wouldn't be, except that I just checked my profile and noticed my email address is out of date, as I can no longer access my yahoo account (I guess I should update my stats). If you still have access to your survey replies, you could email them to me at [email protected]. Thanks.

JoeyOhhhh

1. What is your age? 19

2. What is your sex? Male

3. What is your race? White

4. What percentage of the movies you watched in the last month was violent? (Estimate if necessary) between 80-90%

5. What percentage of the movies you watched in the last year was violent? 60%

6. What percentage of movies you own is violent? 1/3 (too lazy to do the math)

7. If you had the choice, would you rather watch a violent or non- violent movie (if no other deciding factors came into play) Not sure, never really chose a movie based on the amount of violence in it. I'll go with yes since I've probably seen more violent movies than non-violent

8. When you witness on-screen violence, what is your immediate reaction? Shocked, disturbed, or taken back (depending on what happened)

9. Do you feel any more aggressive immediately after viewing a violent movie? No

10. How likely are you to imitate a violent act you saw in a movie? Use a scale of 1-10, 1 being extremely unlikely, 10 being extremely likely. 1

11. From your experience, do you believe that movies have the ability to make a person act out more aggressively than he or she otherwise would? No

12. Have you ever committed a violent act? (Giving an example is not necessary, but feel free to do so) Yeah small fights when I was younger, nothing spectacular.

13. Do you ever see violence on the news and are reminded of a movie with a similar scenario? Yeah, or something I see on the news gets a reaction of "Looks like it came out of a movie"

14. Do you believe that film directors base elements of their films (plot, characters etc) on real life events? Yes

15. If you answered "yes" to #12, do you believe that those real life events are more likely to be incorporated into a film if they are violent in nature? Yes they will, they bring realism, accuracy in some cases (i.e. historical films)

PolloDiablo

1. 19


2. Male

3. White


4. 70%


5. 70%

6. 50%


7. Thats a pretty silly question, I would pick the better movie. My selection is going to be completely dependent upon the mood I'm in at the time and not in anyway related to the violent content of the film.

8. Unless its just extremely grotesque then none

9. hehehe....... no


10. 0


11. Well sadly 90% of the world is populated by idiots, and sadly these idiots like to show off. When Fast & the Furious came out the parking lot at the movie theater turned into some kind of frigging drag strip. I'm not going to say that movies don't somewhat effect people, I just feel that people have to be extremely ignorant to let themselves be effected in a way that would cause them to act violently. I don't blame movies, I blame the ignorant herd of sheep that our society has become.


12. Class C Misdemeanor Assault. Punched a guy in the face at work, he went down, told mom & dad, they called cops, he went to the hospital, I got a ticket. I am an extremely passive person but I don't let people walk on me, on the very rare occasion that someone makes me mad then I make sure they know about it.

13. Of course, a lot of movies somewhat mirror reality so its obvious that at times it is possible find similarities between real life (news) and fiction (films). And with the sensationalism the media puts into the news these days it makes it all that much easier.


14. That depends upon the director and the film, of course a filmmaker is going to draw inspiration from the people and events around them.

lisadoris

Anytime. Always willing to help out a fellow student.

Pants

1. What is your age? 24


2. What is your sex? Male


3. What is your race? White


4. What percentage of the movies you watched in the last month was violent? (Estimate if necessary) 75%


5. What percentage of the movies you watched in the last year was violent? 75%


6. What percentage of movies you own is violent? 75%


7. If you had the choice, would you rather watch a violent or non- violent movie (if no other deciding factors came into play) violent I guess, but it is not a determining factor in what I watch


8. When you witness on-screen violence, what is your immediate reaction? It totally depends on the film. Some films drive you to react one way and some another way. Dead Alive has you laughing at grotesque violence, West Side Story has you wincing and crying at offscreen, non-gory gunfire


9. Do you feel any more aggressive immediately after viewing a violent movie? No


10. How likely are you to imitate a violent act you saw in a movie? Use a scale of 1-10, 1 being extremely unlikely, 10 being extremely likely. 3


11. From your experience, do you believe that movies have the ability to make a person act out more aggressively than he or she otherwise would? No


12. Have you ever committed a violent act? (Giving an example is not necessary, but feel free to do so) What is a "violent act". Emotional or physical violence? I guess the answer is yes, but nothing I would get arrested for even if I did it in front of a cop


13. Do you ever see violence on the news and are reminded of a movie with a similar scenario? Sure, but that doesn't mean the suspect copied a movie


14. Do you believe that film directors base elements of their films (plot, characters etc) on real life events? Of course they do


15. If you answered "yes" to #12, do you believe that those real life events are more likely to be incorporated into a film if they are violent in nature? I don't understand the question


I would like to add that you should look at things this way: Have nasty violent films had a negative effect on society? I'm not sure. Have "good" films, happy films filled with messages of joy and peace and understanding had a positive effect on society? I would say no to that. If a great humanist film like The Grande Illusion can't convince the world to be peaceful, then how can you say that Fight Club will convince the world to be violent? If a love story like In the Mood For Love can't convince us all of the fragile, peaceful beauty of love, then how can we say Taxi Driver will drive us into violent, depraved sarrow?

greatjedi

1. What is your age? 27


2. What is your sex? Male


3. What is your race? White

4. What percentage of the movies you watched in the last month was violent? (Estimate if necessary) 25%


5. What percentage of the movies you watched in the last year was violent? 45%


6. What percentage of movies you own is violent? 40


7. If you had the choice, would you rather watch a violent or non- violent movie (if no other deciding factors came into play) Non violent


8. When you witness on-screen violence, what is your immediate reaction? Depending on the setting, I find it anywhere from disturbing to disgusting.


9. Do you feel any more aggressive immediately after viewing a violent movie? No


10. How likely are you to imitate a violent act you saw in a movie? Use a scale of 1-10, 1 being extremely unlikely, 10 being extremely likely. 1


11. From your experience, do you believe that movies have the ability to make a person act out more aggressively than he or she otherwise would? Yes


12. Have you ever committed a violent act? (Giving an example is not necessary, but feel free to do so) No


13. Do you ever see violence on the news and are reminded of a movie with a similar scenario? Yes


14. Do you believe that film directors base elements of their films (plot, characters etc) on real life events? Yes


15. If you answered "yes" to #12, do you believe that those real life events are more likely to be incorporated into a film if they are violent in nature? Yes

Johnny Zhivago

1. What is your age? 32


2. What is your sex? M


3. What is your race? Human


4. What percentage of the movies you watched in the last month was violent? (Estimate if necessary) ~ 75%


5. What percentage of the movies you watched in the last year was violent? ~ 75%


6. What percentage of movies you own is violent? ~ 70%


7. If you had the choice, would you rather watch a violent or non- violent movie (if no other deciding factors came into play) Never thought about it as violent or non-violent.


8. When you witness on-screen violence, what is your immediate reaction? 9 times out of 10 it's just part of the movie, time 10 is usually there just to get a response.


9. Do you feel any more aggressive immediately after viewing a violent movie? Of course not.


10. How likely are you to imitate a violent act you saw in a movie? Use a scale of 1-10, 1 being extremely unlikely, 10 being extremely likely. 1.


11. From your experience, do you believe that movies have the ability to make a person act out more aggressively than he or she otherwise would? No.


12. Have you ever committed a violent act? (Giving an example is not necessary, but feel free to do so) I guess, didn't everyone get into a fight once when they were younger? Nothing in over 20 years however unless you count punching a hole in a wall.


13. Do you ever see violence on the news and are reminded of a movie with a similar scenario? Very Rarely, it's usually the other way around.


14. Do you believe that film directors base elements of their films (plot, characters etc) on real life events? Absolutely.


15. If you answered "yes" to #12, do you believe that those real life events are more likely to be incorporated into a film if they are violent in nature? Not sure I follow the question.

Real Estate Guy

1. 31
2. Male
3. Black
4. 50%
5. 50%
6. 20%
7. Not rather - it doesn't really matter violent or not
8. Depends on how graphic it is - usually no response though
9. Not at all
10. 1
11. No, not at all
12. Not really - maybe yelling is most violent thing.
13. Yes, very often - I'm a movie buff, and I think of this lots.
14. Sometimes
15. Doesn't apply

Amadeus

1.25
2.Male
3.Hispanic
4.70%
5.75%
6.60%
7.Depends if the movie is good.
8.Unless it's real graphic,nothing.
9.No
10.1
11.Yes
12.Yes.Fights in school.
13.Yes
14.Sometimes
15.Yes

Rypro 525

1. What is your age? 17


2. What is your sex? yes please actually male


3. What is your race? korean/asian


4. What percentage of the movies you watched in the last month was violent? (Estimate if necessary) 80%


5. What percentage of the movies you watched in the last year was violent? 60%


6. What percentage of movies you own is violent? 80 out of 110 (i counted movies that have violent scenes but not all of these movies i would consiter violent)


7. If you had the choice, would you rather watch a violent or non- violent movie (if no other deciding factors came into play) depending on the mood


8. When you witness on-screen violence, what is your immediate reaction? depending on the violence, a fight, sometimes squirm a little, but if its styalized like a bond movie, then just happlily watch


9. Do you feel any more aggressive immediately after viewing a violent movie? nope


10. How likely are you to imitate a violent act you saw in a movie? Use a scale of 1-10, 1 being extremely unlikely, 10 being extremely likely. 2


11. From your experience, do you believe that movies have the ability to make a person act out more aggressively than he or she otherwise would? no


12. Have you ever committed a violent act? (Giving an example is not necessary, but feel free to do so) yes, does pretend wrestling count?


13. Do you ever see violence on the news and are reminded of a movie with a similar scenario? yes, 9/11


14. Do you believe that film directors base elements of their films (plot, characters etc) on real life events? no, mostly they make them for us to escape for a few hours.


15. If you answered "yes" to #12, do you believe that those real life events are more likely to be incorporated into a film if they are violent in nature?

caiman

Just wanted to remind you guys to take these questions at face value. Try not to over anylize them.

Thanks for all the replies so far. Keep them coming!

Bechman 2000

1. What is your age? 24


2. What is your sex? Male


3. What is your race? White


4. What percentage of the movies you watched in the last month was violent? (Estimate if necessary) 100%


5. What percentage of the movies you watched in the last year was violent? 85%


6. What percentage of movies you own is violent? 99% (darn that Dirty Dancing DVD that my girlfriend wanted)


7. If you had the choice, would you rather watch a violent or non- violent movie (if no other deciding factors came into play) Violent


8. When you witness on-screen violence, what is your immediate reaction? one of these:"Sweet", or "That was cheesy"


9. Do you feel any more aggressive immediately after viewing a violent movie? Not at all


10. How likely are you to imitate a violent act you saw in a movie? Use a scale of 1-10, 1 being extremely unlikely, 10 being extremely likely. 1


11. From your experience, do you believe that movies have the ability to make a person act out more aggressively than he or she otherwise would? Not sure how it affects other people, but if everyone was like me... NO.


12. Have you ever committed a violent act? (Giving an example is not necessary, but feel free to do so) No. Never even been in a real fight


13. Do you ever see violence on the news and are reminded of a movie with a similar scenario? yes


14. Do you believe that film directors base elements of their films (plot, characters etc) on real life events? sometimes


15. If you answered "yes" to #14, do you believe that those real life events are more likely to be incorporated into a film if they are violent in nature? yes

caiman

Damn. I just realized I messed up on question #15. It should have been "If you answered yes to #14..." I renumbered the questions a few times and didn't catch this. For those who already answered, don't worry about it. For those who haven't replied yet, I will go back and change it. I'm surprised it took me so long to notice this.

Goat3001

1. 17

2. Yes, please (male)


3. Pakistani-American


4. Violent in ANY way? I'd say about 95%


5. same, 95%


6. estimate: 95%


7. Violent


8. Eh, its normal.


9. nope


10. 3


11. Yes but in rare cases. First group I think of are young children. I don't see Adults or teenagers acting violently because they saw it in a movie.


12. Nothing out of the ordinary.


13. Rarely.


14. Yes.


15. Yes, violence sells, its everywhere, lets make a movie.

THORN

for the record ..... i am a firearm owner ..... i target shoot regularly ..... and enjoy action movies such as fight club, matrix, replacement killers, lethal weapon, the professional, and most war movies ....... i have not EVER shot anyone, nor have i ever been angry enough where i have seriously considered it .


movies do not create violence .... violent people create violence !!!!

jetflair

1. What is your age? 23


2. What is your sex? Female


3. What is your race? White


4. What percentage of the movies you watched in the last month was violent? (Estimate if necessary) 50%


5. What percentage of the movies you watched in the last year was violent? 60%


6. What percentage of movies you own is violent? Depends on your definition of a violent movie. If having a scene or scenes of violence counts, probably 60%. If violence is a main, recurring theme in the movie, I'd say 10-20%.


7. If you had the choice, would you rather watch a violent or non- violent movie (if no other deciding factors came into play) Non-violent.


8. When you witness on-screen violence, what is your immediate reaction? I cringe!


9. Do you feel any more aggressive immediately after viewing a violent movie? No. Sometimes I'll feel pumped up, exhilerated, or a little more invincible than usual, but in most cases I feel kinder than usual.


10. How likely are you to imitate a violent act you saw in a movie? Use a scale of 1-10, 1 being extremely unlikely, 10 being extremely likely. 3, but only in self defence.


11. From your experience, do you believe that movies have the ability to make a person act out more aggressively than he or she otherwise would? No.


12. Have you ever committed a violent act? (Giving an example is not necessary, but feel free to do so) Yes, several times, but only in self-defence.


13. Do you ever see violence on the news and are reminded of a movie with a similar scenario? Yes. The first I knew of the WTC attacks was when I logged on to AOL the morning of 9-11 and saw a photo of the tops of the towers exploding. I immediately thought "looks like a scene from Independance Day." My second thought before I absorbed the headline was "what movie is that from?"


14. Do you believe that film directors base elements of their films (plot, characters etc) on real life events? Yes, real life elements seem to be what most fiction is inspired by.


15. If you answered "yes" to #14, do you believe that those real life events are more likely to be incorporated into a film if they are violent in nature? No.

jfoobar

1. 31

2. Male


3. Caucasian


4. I don't know. 50%? I know we aren't supposed to analyze these questions but how do you define violent?


5. Again, I guess about 50%.


6. How about 50%.


7. No preference. I'd rather watch a good movie.


8. Usually none.


9. Generally no, but sometimes I probably do. A good action movie probably causes an increase in adrenaline which, combined with a lack of physical assertion while watching the film...

10. 1


11. I'm sorry, but this is an extremely poorly worded question unless you are specifically trying to get skewed results. "Make someone commit a violent act?" Of course not.

12. Yes.

13. Very rarely.

14. I'm sure many of them do. Life is stranger

15. No. Life is stranger than fiction. I believe that real life events inspire most film screenplays, or major elements of most film screenplays, but I have not seen any evidence that violent events are more likely to inspire a screenplay than non-violent. On the other hand, I doubt myself or anyone else here is really qualified to give an educated opinion on the subject.

caiman

To quote myself from my original post: "For the purposes of this survey, lets consider a "violent movie" as any movie that is rated R for violence."

How would you suggest I word it? How else do you ask the question? Many politicians would have you believe that movies do indeed "make someone commit a violent act" (although that's not even how I worded it).

El-Kabong

1. What is your age?
33

2. What is your sex?
Male

3. What is your race?
White

4. What percentage of the movies you watched in the last month was violent? (Estimate if necessary)
5 percent, if that.

5. What percentage of the movies you watched in the last year was violent?


6. What percentage of movies you own is violent?
According to DVD profiler, 60 out of my 500+ movies are R rated. I couldnt tell you which ones are broken down for violence vs sex.

7. If you had the choice, would you rather watch a violent or non- violent movie (if no other deciding factors came into play)
Depends on my mood. Sometimes I'm down for some good ol' Friday the 13th mindless slaughter. Sometimes I just cant get into it and I'll throw Citizen Kane on.

8. When you witness on-screen violence, what is your immediate reaction?


9. Do you feel any more aggressive immediately after viewing a violent movie?
Nope.

10. How likely are you to imitate a violent act you saw in a movie? Use a scale of 1-10, 1 being extremely unlikely, 10 being extremely likely.
1 - I'm not even on the charts.

11. From your experience, do you believe that movies have the ability to make a person act out more aggressively than he or she otherwise would?
Someone who grabs a chainsaw and hacks up someone is off their nut from the get-go. Watching Pyscho may have set them off, but it didnt plant the idea in their head. It could have been The Sound Of Music that may have tripped them out some day - who knows how the mind of a nutjob works?

12. Have you ever committed a violent act? (Giving an example is not necessary, but feel free to do so)
Define violent. Have I killed someone? No. Have I gotten into a fistfight? Yeah - but that's about it.

Crap - it's late, and I gotta get up early. I'll post 13-15 and refine my answers later.

eedoon

1. What is your age?
22


2. What is your sex?
Male


3. What is your race?
Asian


4. What percentage of the movies you watched in the last month was violent? (Estimate if necessary)
about 40 - 50 percent


5. What percentage of the movies you watched in the last year was violent?
approx. 40 percent


6. What percentage of movies you own is violent?
30%


7. If you had the choice, would you rather watch a violent or non- violent movie (if no other deciding factors came into play)
It depends. If one particular violent movie is better than one certain non-violent movie, I would go to the violent movie. But if the condition is being inverted, I would go to the non violent movie.


8. When you witness on-screen violence, what is your immediate reaction?
Nothing, unless the scene is too violent (which would makes me shocked or disgusted)


9. Do you feel any more aggressive immediately after viewing a violent movie?
Depends on the movie.


10. How likely are you to imitate a violent act you saw in a movie? Use a scale of 1-10, 1 being extremely unlikely, 10 being extremely likely.
7


11. From your experience, do you believe that movies have the ability to make a person act out more aggressively than he or she otherwise would?
yes.


12. Have you ever committed a violent act? (Giving an example is not necessary, but feel free to do so)
yes.


13. Do you ever see violence on the news and are reminded of a movie with a similar scenario?
yes.


14. Do you believe that film directors base elements of their films (plot, characters etc) on real life events?
on some movie, yes.


15. If you answered "yes" to #14, do you believe that those real life events are more likely to be incorporated into a film if they are violent in nature?
yes.

jfoobar

Sorry, I obviously did not read the intorductory text to your questionnaire carefully enough.

I'll let my answers stand, however, as I am not about to go through 300 DVDs and see which of them were rated R for violence.

I would ask it in two questions.

1. Do you believe that heavy exposure to violence in films and other media can lead to a desensitivity towards violence in those exposed to it.

2. If yes, do you believe that such a desensitivity increases the likelihood that someone might commit a violent act?

I would answer "yes" to both.