"For every minute you are angry you loose sixty seconds of happiness." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Environmental Affects on Aggression

Environmental affects on aggression are numerous, and often times untraceable. Electrical power lines, which have been traced as a possible connection to childhood cancer, are now being studied in order to find a possible connection to excessive levels of aggression. Indeed, environmental factors can be found anywhere. Emergency Room and law enforcement personnel can attest to the role that environment plays on aggression. Whenever a full moon occurs, the levels of violent crimes increase dramatically. The full moon is actually believed to directly affect body fluid levels, thus changing the physiological states of humans. This is a direct interaction between environment and biology, creating an almost harmonious combination of factors that lead to aggression.

Several studies have been conducted, showing that in children, the propensity to engage in aggressive behaviors can be significantly affected by the presence of environmental cues. A child in a room with a violent movie playing is more likely to engage in an aggressive act. Add traditionally aggressive toys to the room, like toy hammers and guns, and the child's chances for aggressive behavior will increase again.

New studies are being conducted in an effort to show that teaching children to associate with the victims in the movies and cartoons they view will lower the probability that these children will engage in aggressive behaviors. In fact, some studies have shown that through victim association, the children not only decreased their aggressive behaviors, but were able to form a more distinct separation between media violence and real world situations, and actually became skeptical of what they were viewing on television. These studies are now being used as reason for a debate against the excessive use of violence in the American media. There are many who believe that the way in which aggression is treated in the American media is training a generation of America's youth to be apathetic towards excessive levels of aggression.