MOSCOW, September 10 (RIA Novosti) – The Fox television show ‘24’ compels people to favor violence and torture, an experiment carried out by American University’s Erin Kearns and Joseph Young cautions.
“We found that dramatic depictions of torture as being effective increased both stated level of support for torture and behavioral commitment to this belief”, the study showed. “Interestingly, there was no difference in level of behavioral commitment between participants who saw dramatic depictions of torture, regardless of whether or not it was effective, which may indicate people are more likely to support aggression after seeing violence.”
The experiment involved showing torture scenes from ‘24’ to 150 American University students, followed by interviews with them.
“It [the experiment] ultimately suggests that watching torture scenes leads people to become more supportive of aggression and violence, which may lead to increased levels of criminality,” the study said.
The hit series meanwhile seem to be disturbing not only US researchers. Back in 2007, General Patrick Finnegan of the United States Military Academy at West Point, met with the producers of ‘24’ in Hollywood in an attempt to have them remove illegal behavior from the show since it had a detrimental effect on young soldiers, as well as the United States’ reputation abroad. Finnegan’s attempt to influence the producers’ decision on violent scenes was not successful, however.
