Focus on Research
Penn State Intercom......April 3, 2003

Previews on video rentals
filled with aggression, sex

By Paul Blaum
Public Information

The vast majority of movie previews on video rentals feature scenes of violence, regardless of the MPAA ratings (G, PG, PG-13 and R).

Sexually suggestive scenes also are common, although fewer than violent scenes, and are most likely to appear on previews for PG-13 and R-rated movies, according to a Penn State study.

"Our data revealed that 75.7 percent of movie previews contained at least one scene of aggression, with an average of more than two scenes per minute, and 45.8 percent contained one or more scenes featuring guns, with an average rate of two scenes per minute," said Mary Beth Oliver, associate professor of communications and co-director of the Media Effects Laboratory. "The sheer prevalence of aggression and firearms in the trailers suggests that we live in a violent, gun-oriented culture, and this plays itself out in terms of how we market entertainment."

The study also reported that violence was common among movie trailers directed to a variety of age ranges. "Comparisons between MPAA ratings revealed that materials intended for a younger audience also featured a preponderance of violence, with two-thirds of previews for G/PG and PG-13 rated films containing at least one scene of aggression, and one-third containing at least one gun scene," Oliver noted.

In addition to examining portrayals of violence, the study also examined the presence of sexual or erotic scenes. In the sample of video previews, the average number of sexual scenes per minute was 1.51, with 56 percent of the previews containing at least one instance of sexuality.

However, the researchers reported that previews for G and PG-rated films were less likely to contain sexual scenes than were previews for PG-13 and R-rated films.

"The idea that sexual images are bad for younger viewers but violence is OK is a value system that is curious, at best," Oliver said. "The preponderance of social science research on media influence points to a host of potentially harmful effects of media violence, but the entertainment industry seems to think that violence is an appropriate selling tool for young viewers." Given the prevalence of violence in previews for movies directed toward youth, Oliver suggests that parents should be aware that renting a G- or PG-rated video does not necessarily mean that the trailers included on the video are devoid of aggression.

"Parents might want to take a look at the previews in advance and make an informed decision as to whether to allow their children to watch them," she added.

Oliver and Sriram Kalyanaraman, formerly a doctoral student in the College of Communications and now an assistant professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, teamed up to do the research.

The researchers examined 107 movie previews featured on a random sample of 47 videos that were released in the theater during 1995 and 1996. The most common genre in the sample was comedy (21), followed by drama (18) and action (12). Previews on the videos ranged in length from 23 to 185 seconds, with an average of 94 seconds.

"This study shows that movie previews present viewers with a condensed story of violence that is likely unparalleled by almost any other type of media content commonly encountered," Oliver said. "Movie previews appear to imply unambiguously that what is 'coming to a theater near you' is a film filled with images of violence and aggression."

Although the research did not examine the effects of violent images on viewers' movie selections, Oliver said that future research should head in that direction.

"This study tells us that violence is used as a selling tool, but whether or not viewers want to view violence is another question. Maybe we consume so much violent entertainment in our culture simply because that is what is sold to us in abundance."

Paul Blaum can be reached at pblaum@psu.edu.

Prepare to be surprised
by climate changes

By A'ndrea Elyse Messer
Public Information

Current debate in the United States on climate change often focuses on whether things will really be as bad as scientists say they will be, but according to a Penn State climatologist, perhaps the question we should be asking is, are we confident that things will be as good as they are saying.

"I am not an alarmist," said Richard B. Alley, the Evan Pugh professor of geosciences. "Essentially, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is very good and is doing a very good job."

The IPCC is under the auspices of the World Meteorological Organization and operates through the United Nations Environmental Programme.

"What some policy-makers are seeing as information on climate change looks nicer than what is likely to happen," Alley said.

His concern is that what eventually gets to policy-makers is an executive summary of an executive summary. This diluted, abstracted information nearly always shows a smooth curve. Alley, who is recognized for illuminating the effects of abrupt climate change, is concerned that changes will be quicker and larger than currently predicted. The curve will be rough on a daily, monthly or yearly basis, rather than the smooth curve that appears for predicted aggregate data. So, could changes in the future be bigger than what the models predict they will be?

"If there is one thing we are almost positive of, it is that nature never does anything smoothly" Alley said. "Scientists like to work from models and our current models are really pretty good, but we find that models do not make changes as big as nature did in the past. Models are not as sensitive to change as nature is."

Alley was chair of the National Research Council's Panel on Abrupt Climate Change. Given that the future could be quite challenging, it would be wise for us to start looking for ways we can bend, rather than break, when climate changes, Alley said. There is ample historic evidence of human groups who refused or were unable to adapt to climatic changes and their societies collapsed or failed, while other groups adapted to the new environment and coped and sometimes thrived. Policy-makers like Congress, federal agencies and even local government that must deal with these changes when they happen should look at ways to plan for changes in water supply, crop production, heating oil demand, flood control and other things likely to be affected by climate change. These groups should establish contingencies to meet problems with scarcity of resources before there is competition for these resources.

"Likely we will be surprised no matter how good our models are, and the IPCC and other governmental groups need to plan for this surprise and deal with resource conflicts in a progressive way," the scientist said.

A'ndrea Elyse Messer can be reached at aem1@psu.edu.

RESEARCH IN BRIEF

Restaurants follow the
pack on long-term debt

Restaurant companies listed on the stock exchange followed the majority of firms in their use of long-term debt, incurring less long-term debt when there was potential for growth, according to hospitality industry experts.

"We found that restaurants with a potential for growth used less long-term debt than those without growth potential," said Arun Upneja, associate professor of hotel, restaurant and recreation management. "This is identical to other market sectors, but differs from the lodging industry." Upneja and Michael C. Dalbor, assistant professor, University of Nevada-Las Vegas, looked at restaurant firms traded on the stock market as listed in Standard & Poors COMPUSTAT database. They reported that "restaurant firms with significant growth opportunities tend to use less long-term debt." They also noted that "larger firms can afford the higher fixed costs associated with long-term debt placement."

For more of this story, go to http://www.psu.edu/ur/2002/restaurantdebt.html.

Gene study: Humans,
fruit flies are related

The most comprehensive genetic study to date concerning the evolutionary relationships among the three animal species whose genes have been completely sequenced -- the human, the fruit fly, and the nematode worm -- has determined that the human species is more closely related to the fruit fly than to the nematode.

"We compared 100 genes that are common among these three species -- the largest data set ever used to address this question -- and obtained a result that is unambiguous," said S. Blair Hedges, an evolutionary biologist, whose research team includes other scientists from Penn State and Japan.

The results of the study by Hedges and his colleagues overturn a popular recent hypothesis, based primarily on the study of a single gene, and have important implications for research in fields such as medicine and developmental biology.

For more of the story, go to http://www.science.psu.edu/alert/Hedges4-2002.htm.

PENN STATE'S RESEARCH HERITAGE

Pennsylvania's first pure food laws were largely founded on the work of Penn State chemist William Frear (1860-1922), whose pioneer analyses of foods enabled the state to enforce truth-in-labeling laws. Frear also helped organize the first national pure food congress, and the federal government's landmark Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 was based on guidelines devised by an expert committee he headed.

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