Third-Person Perception and Television Violence

Abstract

The third-person perception as it relates to the issue of television violence is examined here via survey responses of 624 adults from three regions in the United States. Rather than being asked about generally defined groups of “others,” respondents were instructed to specify which social/demographic groups they deemed more susceptible to negative television influence than others. Social categorization and social identity theories as well as the concept of negative out-group stereotyping are used to explain results that provide preliminary support that some social groups (e.g., children and teens, those with less education, and those with less income) are perceived as more likely to be negatively influenced by television violence than others. The relationship between estimates of groups' susceptibility to effects and respondents' thirdperson perception is also tested.