Arabs ‘more threatened than Jews after watching violent clips’

Some 78 students took part in the study,representing the diverse cultural sectors of Israeli society.

Of these students,39 watched video clips of terror attacks or political attacks on Israelis,as broadcast in the news over the past decade. The control group watched same-length videos showing non-violent everyday events as they appeared in the news.

The results showed that the students who had viewed terror events felt more personally threatened and reported a significantly lower level of psychological resources after watching,compared to the control group. The first group also reported higher levels of negative feelings and mood.

An interesting finding in the study was a difference between the responses of its Jewish and Arab participants. The level of threat that the Arabs felt after watching a violent clip was significantly higher than the Jewish participants,the university said in a statement.

“It is early yet to relate to the longterm effects of viewing terror events in the mass media,but the current study does show that there are definite short-term effects.

“In an age when many violent events around the world are immediately broadcast in everyone’s living room and office,we ought to be aware of the negative effects that this sort of exposure could have,” the researchers said.

Added lead researcher Prof Moshe Zeidner: “Mass media plays a central role in reporting on terrorism and political violence. The present study shows that watching this type of coverage on television has negative effects,even for someone who was not at all involved in an event being viewed.”