Graduation Year

2025

Document Type

Campus Only Senior Thesis

Abstract

As media becomes more prominent in our everyday lives, the battle between freedom of expression and censorship has become a highly polarized subject of debate, especially when considering profanity in music. The current study will assess the impact of profanity in music on listeners' aggressive intentions and the potential moderating effect of acceptance of profanity on this relationship. The study will use a two group (music: profane or non-profane) between-groups experimental design where participants will listen to a series of four song clips. Participants will then complete scale measures of music preference, aggression, and acceptance of profanity. It is hypothesized that listening to profane music will increase aggressive intentions for listeners with a low acceptance of profanity. It is also predicted that listening to profane music will have no effect on aggressive intentions or will decrease aggressive intentions for listeners with a high acceptance of profanity. Identifying the effect of profane music on listener aggression can better inform media legislation to increase artist expression, societal well-being, and representation in music.

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This thesis is restricted to the Claremont Colleges current faculty, students, and staff.

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