Television, Morality and Identification with Characters on

Moral development is often conceptualized as having two components: moral judgments and moral reasoning. Moral judgments involve children's judgments about how right or wrong particular behaviors are, and moral reasoning is their ability to offer explanations for their judgments. At a young age, children's moral schemas are simple and egocentric. As they mature, children develop more complex moral schemas that take into account the needs and concerns of those in their social environment and eventually the larger society.

Although theories differ with regard to the processes that underlie moral development, most agree that children's social interactions—with parents, peers, and others—play a key role. Television is also an important socializing agent in the lives of children and adolescents. The medium offers a wide variety of models interacting with others in a variety of contexts, thus providing salient moral lessons regarding what is right and wrong.

Research shows that exposure to particular types of television content is associated with less advanced moral reasoning about the type of behaviors depicted (e.g., violence, sexual behaviors). For example, adolescents heavily exposed to TV shows featuring sexual indiscretions such as adultery judged similar behaviors as less bad than those with less exposure. Similarly, children who viewed more fantasy violence were more likely to believe that aggression was an acceptable solution. In addition, several studies found that exposure to violent fantasy and reality-based programs was associated with less advanced moral reasoning about violence. Evidence suggests that the link between TV violence and moral reasoning may be mediated by perspective taking with more violence exposure associated with less advanced perspective taking, which in turn leads to less advanced moral reasoning.

Typically, research on television's role in moral development has considered television in general or particular types of content (e.g., violence, sexual content), but it has not explicitly examined identification with television characters. Identification is one outcome of television viewing that is believed to mediate audience responses. In the media literature, the term identification has been used in many ways, but two definitions seem to have been employed most often. First, identification sometimes refers to the process by which an individual puts him- or herself in the place of a character and vicariously participates in the character's experiences during a program. Second, many scholars have recognized that the process of identification can extend beyond the viewing situation. The phrase wishful identification has been used to describe this type of response, a psychological process through which an individual desires or attempts to become like another person. For example, in one study, the most common form of celebrity attachment reported by adolescents was identificatory attachment, or the desire to be like or become the celebrity.

Research indicates that identification with media characters can have significant social and psychological consequences. Much evidence shows that audience members often make changes in their appearance, attitudes, values, activities, and other characteristics in order to become more like admired celebrities or media characters. Identification with media characters also affects adoption or rejection of specific behaviors or life goals. Not surprisingly, the characters whom viewers report wanting to be like possess a variety of desirable attributes. One reason that fantasy violence may affect moral judgments and reasoning lies in the nature of the violent portrayals, with much of the violence committed by attractive characters with whom young viewers are inclined to identify. In addition, violent narratives tend to focus on the characters who commit violence, rather than on [Page 813]the victims. Particularly problematic are the TV heroes or “good” characters who use aggression; content analyses confirm that this is common on television. Several studies found that children and adolescents, especially males, identified more strongly with characters and celebrities whom they perceived as more aggressive. There is evidence that identification with aggressors increases the adverse consequences of viewed violence. Nonetheless, this type of effect is not inevitable. One study found that increasing involvement with the victim, by encouraging children to take his perspective, reduced the adverse perceptual and behavioral effects of the violent program, especially for boys.

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