Holy flapping carp! Exposing children to profanity might make them more aggressive. What the fudgenuts!? How could that be? Could that be? I wonder.
A new study has raised many questions. A bunch of them, at least to my mind, are critical.
Consider the title to the news release -
Question 1: Linked? How linked?
The first sentence reads -
While it's been long established that watching violent scenes increases aggression levels, a new study in the medical journal Pediatrics suggests that profanity in the media may have a similar effect.
2: It has been long established? Not to my well-informed mind, it hasn't. You might say that watching violent scenes may increase aggression. But there are many studies that conflict with the above statement. The relationship is far from clear and consistent. [see these posts for more: Null News: Video Games and Violent Scrabble Players, Science Quickie: Depression, Violence, and Video Games, & Skeptical of Research Linking Video Games With Violence]
Next we come to this:
To explore this overlooked issue, scholars at Brigham Young University gathered information from 223 middle school students in the Midwest. The data is not longitudinal, but BYU family life professor Sarah Coyne explains that the statistical techniques applied give more clues than would simple correlation tests.
Brigham Young University, the Mormon school? Hmm. Does a "family life professor" carry any bias or agenda? More importantly,
3: What is/was the scientific value of the statistical techniques that gave more clues than simple correlation? Wait, here comes a partial answer:
Specifically, the statistical modeling points to a chain reaction: Exposure to profanity is associated with acceptance and use of profanity, which in turn influence both physical and relational aggression.
I'm sorry, but this sounds like a lot of gobbledygook: a statistical seek-and-find, a "stumble upon a connection" treasure hunt. Seems to have been. At list judging by a clue provided by this quote:
"On the whole, it's a moderate effect" said Coyne, the lead author of the Pediatrics study. "We even ran the statistical model the opposite way to test if the violent kids used more profanity and then sought it out in the media, but the first path we took was a much better statistical fit even when we tried other explanations."
Um. Scientific findings are much stronger if you first commit to your methods and hypotheses, then do your tests. Otherwise, before any confident conclusions can be made anything you find (generate) should be independently verified, preferably using a different data source.
Finally, there is this ridiculously simplistic reasoning put forth by Coyne-
"Profanity is kind of like a stepping stone," Coyne said. "You don't go to a movie, hear a bad word, and then go shoot somebody. But when youth both hear and then try profanity out for themselves it can start a downward slide toward more aggressive behavior."
Oh fudgenuts. "Hear a bad word"? Did my Mom conduct this research, or a full-fledged scientist? My last question is an important one, having two facets:
4a: How was "profanity" defined? Would an instance of cooing lovers creatively using the f-word count? What about wildlife trackers keeping their eyes open, taking about, and finding bear scat (but using a more informal term).
4b: Did the authors consider, and even better, control for, the nonverbal elements of language? Words are fairly inert in themselves; it is their emotional and motivational connotations that matter. I wonder if the effect would be the same if the tv and video scenes were revised so that the instances of profanity where replaced by a heated tone and perhaps menacing facial expression (and intimidating body language) employed while uttering the following:
BULLSCAT!
DOG-GUMMED SCATHEAD!
YOU MOTHER VOTER!
VOTE OFF!
YOU VOTING EVIL SCATHEAD!!!!!
Or something.
My point: We must remember that using words is a form of behavior. And behavior is complex.
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P.S. I have avoided using profanity in this post. I don't want to be responsible for my readers going ballistic.
Tags: aggression, critical thinking, language
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