Victim Effect

Victim effect is in which people develop and experience a heightened fearfulness of violence.

Background

This effect comes out of a discussion and look into how media violence (or violence in a broader general sense) effects people. Individuals can fall into a victim effect when they are seeing constant images and signs of violence. With this in mind, one can has to assume and believe that what one watches in things such as film and television work their way into helping define and perceive reality as someone comes to understand it. An instance can be getting a sense and understanding of the court system and how laws work through binge-watching How to Get Away with Murder, "Law and Order", and "Boston Public". In regards to media violence, if someone constantly sees instances of this, it can spark a victim effect. Repetition and accessibility are huge factors in producing a victim effect - conditioning someone to an image or images.

Uses in other disciplines

It has ties to the "identifiable victim effect" which discusses how people are likely to feel sympathy or contribute to something (like a cause) if they feel someone is being victimized (going through excessive hardship).

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