Violence Normalization

The psychological effects of violence as portrayed in mass media like films, TV shows, and video games, has been well-researched.

All that research, though, hasn't provided us with a silver bullet in terms of understanding these potential effects, or in dealing with and counteracting the negative ones.

The primary theory underpinning much of this research is that exposure to violent content—media of all kinds that portrays people being beat-up, shot, murdered, etc—can socialize people, especially but not exclusively children, to think such violence is normal, and maybe even okay or desirable.