Mean world syndrome

Mean world syndrome is a proposed cognitive bias wherein people may perceive the world to be more dangerous than it actually is, due to long-term moderate to heavy exposure to violence-related content in mass media. Proponents of the syndrome—which was coined by communications professor George Gerbner in the 1970s—assert that viewers who are exposed to violence-related content can experience increased fear, anxiety, pessimism and heightened state of alert in response to perceived threats. This is because media (namely television) consumed by viewers has the power to directly influence and inform their attitudes, beliefs and opinions about the world. The term mean world syndrome was coined in the late-1960s by U.S. communications professor George Gerbner, whose life's work explored the effects of television on viewers, particularly violent media. In 1968, Gerbner established the Cultural Indicators Project (CIP), which was a pioneering analysis of the influence of television on people's attitudes and perceptions of the world. Holding a database of more than 3,000 television programs and 35,000 characters, this project documented the trends in television content and how these changes affect viewers' perceptions of the world. The CIP would notably be used to analyze Gerbner's cultivation theory, which suggests that exposure to media, over time, "cultivates" viewers' perceptions of reality through images and ideological messages viewed on primetime or popular television. This content heavily influences the perception of events and thus can skew one's perception of the real world. Cultivation theory asserts that "the more time people spend 'living' in the television world, the more likely they are to believe social reality aligns with reality portrayed on television." In 1968, Gerbner conducted a survey to validate cultivation theory and his hypothesis that watching extensive TV affects the attitudes and beliefs of an individual toward the world.