Kids enjoy less violent cartoons: Study

Although about 70 percent of children’s TV shows contain aggressive scenes, violence may not make programs and cartoons more attractive for kids.

Indiana University researchers studied the opinions of 128 youngsters aged between 5 and 11years on animated programs.

Despite the common believe among many producers, boys are more connected with less aggressive characters and therefore enjoyed the peaceful programs, the study found.

"That was a little surprising," said study co-author Andrew J. Weaver, who has two young sons. "There is a lot of talk about boys being more violent and more aggressive, for whatever reason, social or biological, and yet we found that they identified with the characters more when they were non-violent," he added. "They liked the characters more and they enjoyed the overall cartoon more."

Girls also did not actually prefer the more violent programs. However, they were not more attached to the characters with less aggressive behavior, possibly because slapstick content generally appeals more to boys than girls, showed the findings reported in Media Psychology.

"Violence isn’t the attractive component in these cartoons, which producers seem to think it is," Weaver added. "You don’t have to cram violence into these cartoons to get kids to like them. They’ll like them without the violence, just as much if not more."

"If producers are willing to work on making cartoons that aren’t violent so much as action packed, they can still capture their target audience better . . . and without the harmful consequences."

Researchers therefore urged producers to create more active characters with faster movements, saying this may work better in attracting children.

Source: presstv.ir