A possible answer came in the form of the ‘mean world syndrome’, as offered by Sprague. Sprague is a co-director of the Institute on Violence and Destructive Behaviour. He says that by viewing heavy amounts of violence and cruelty through the media such as movies and video games it can “become their reality”. There is too much violence in the media, it enforces an unbalanced view of what is really going on.

To support this, Gerbner and his Cultivation theory state that heavy media use can cultivate attitudes that are more consistent with the TV world than the real world. Heavy violence watching can homogenize or level a person’s perception of actual violence that goes on in the world. It is as though the perception is blended with the raised level of violence shown on TV and the actual lower level that exists in the world. This is the basis of the mean world syndrome.

Resonance can also help influence an individual’s susceptibility to violence. That is, if a person’s environment is similar to the TV’s representation of the world, then they will have stronger feelings towards it. It will become more realistic for them because it is similar to what they live through every day. This can lead to first and second order effects. First order effects are those that are generalized views of the world. These are basically emotions that come from watching violence or crime-filled TV such as fear, anxiety or paranoia. These first order effects can lead into the second order effects, or the attitudes held about violence or crime. Such attitudes can show themselves through thoughts on crime punishment or acceptance of law enforcement brutality. These in turn can be the foundation to an individual’s actions.

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