Television violence and aggression: A genotype-environment correlation and interaction theory

A study of siblings was run to obtain data on the relationships between aggression, the viewing and enjoyment of television (TV) violence, and the personality traits of extraversion, neuroticism, and psychoticism. The results failed to support the theory of a causal effect of the amount of viewing of TV violence on aggression. The correlations between siblings for aggression were very low, indicating an absence of shared family environmental effects including the amount of family viewing of TV violence; and there were no within-family correlations between the amount of viewing of TV violence and aggression, suggesting the absence of a causal relationship. It was proposed that a genotype-environment correlation and interaction theory would be more consistent with the data. The theory would posit genotypic differences in psychoticism generating differences in aggression and the enjoyment of TV violence, which could augment aggression.