Effects of Television Violence on Memory for Violent and Nonviolent Advertising

This study investigated the impact of television violence on memory for advertising, taking into account the possible role of viewer hostility arousal in this context. Experimental participants were exposed to advertising placed within a violent or a nonviolent film clip. One advertisement had 2 versions–violent and nonviolent–and was presented with 2 other nonviolent filler advertisements. Participants completed a mood questionnaire before and after being exposed to the television material, tested for memory for the embedded advertising and asked to rate the film clips and the advertisements using a set of evaluative scales. The nonviolent version of the target advertisement was less well remembered when placed in the violent film than in the nonviolent film, supporting Bushman and Bonacci (2002). In contrast, the violent version of the target advertisement was remembered much better than the nonviolent version when placed in the violent film sequence. Participants' hostility scores were higher only after watching the violent film, and associated with an impairment in the memory of the nonviolent advertisements, while enhancing the memory of the violent advertisement, thus providing some support for Bushman's (1998a) hostile-thought hypothesis.