Abstract

The main purpose of the study was to examine the impact of violent movies on aggressive cognition of Chinese
adolescents. A modified STROOP word-color naming task was used to examine whether aggressive words could
prime Chinese adolescents’ aggressive cognition. The result showed no significant differences in aggressively
activated score (AAS) for violent movie and non-violent movies, and that no significant differences were found
in main affect of movie type (violent movie vs. non-violent movie). However, it did reveal significant Movie
Type × Gender interaction, and that aggressive cognition was significantly affected by violent movie for boys,
but was not for girls. Additionally, significant Movie Type × Aggressive Level interaction was found, and that
aggressive cognition was significantly influenced by violent movie only for high-aggressive level (HL)
participants, not for low-aggressive level (LL) and mid-aggressive level (ML) participants, which partly
supported General Aggressive Model (GAM). Limitations of the present study were also discussed.

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