{"id":34423,"date":"2024-12-23T17:29:00","date_gmt":"2024-12-23T17:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/stop-watching-mean-people-in-videos\/"},"modified":"2024-12-23T17:29:00","modified_gmt":"2024-12-23T17:29:00","slug":"stop-watching-mean-people-in-videos","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/stop-watching-mean-people-in-videos\/","title":{"rendered":"Stop Watching Mean People in Videos"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Here&#39;s the conclusion from a study published in the journal <em>Aggressive Behavior<\/em>: Watching TV programs about mean people can make you a mean person. The study focused on 250 college women who viewed clips depicting different forms of aggression, from violent fighting to gossiping and excluding others.<\/p>\n\n<p>But here&#39;s the scary part to the study:<\/p>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>Aggressive reactions are more automatic and less conscious than most people assume. &#8230; That means nobody deliberately decides to imitate a Real Housewife; the connection is more subtle and unintentional. &hellip; One of the authors points out that even TV shows depicting friends putting each other down in the name of a joke has its effects, too.<\/p>\n<p>\n\n<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p>Watching a clip of two girls fighting over a boyfriend causes the same kind of reaction that watching a murderous scene would. This leads to a higher chance of engaging in aggressive behavior because the stimuli &ldquo;primes&rdquo; your brain for aggression.<\/p>\n\n<p>So, anyone know of a show where everyone treats each other respectfully, don&rsquo;t make jokes at someone&rsquo;s expense, and no one secretly sabotages anyone?<\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[433],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3414,3435,3477,3559,3677,3869,4086,4124,4171,4245,4417,4444,4803,5131,5302],"tax_ctp_topics":[393,396],"class_list":["post-34423","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-anger","tax_ctp_tags-arguments","tax_ctp_tags-behavior","tax_ctp_tags-character","tax_ctp_tags-consequences-of-sin","tax_ctp_tags-entertainment","tax_ctp_tags-gossip","tax_ctp_tags-hatred","tax_ctp_tags-hostility","tax_ctp_tags-influence","tax_ctp_tags-malice","tax_ctp_tags-media","tax_ctp_tags-renewing-the-mind","tax_ctp_tags-television","tax_ctp_tags-worldliness"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Stop Watching Mean People in Videos - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/stop-watching-mean-people-in-videos\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Stop Watching Mean People in Videos - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Here&#039;s the conclusion from a study published in the journal Aggressive Behavior: Watching TV programs about mean people can make you a mean person. 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