Graduation Year

2026

Document Type

Open Access Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Psychology

Reader 1

Professor Theodore Bartholomew

Reader 2

Professor Stacey Wood

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Terms of Use for work posted in Scholarship@Claremont.

Rights Information

© 2025 Taylor M Wanke

Abstract

This proposed correlational study will examine the effect of exposure and involvement with the horror genre in media and the crime genre in media on one’s antisocial personality traits, criminal thinking, criminal behavior/aggression, and morality in the general population and those who are currently incarcerated. Data will be collected through a Qualtrics survey accessed online for the general sample and printed out for the incarcerated sample. Each participant will complete exposure checklists, involvement scales for each genre, and multiple measures to record their level of each dependent variable. Data will be analyzed using a correlational analysis, 1-sample t-tests, and a multivariate multiple regression analysis. Results are anticipated to show that those who are incarcerated will have a higher baseline of each dependent variable except for morality. Additionally, higher exposure to and involvement with the horror genre will correlate with more antisocial personality traits, more criminal thinking, more criminal behavior/aggression, and less morality, while a higher exposure to and involvement with the crime genre will correlate with less antisocial personality traits, less criminal thinking, less criminal behavior/aggression, and more morality. This study aims to fill genre- and media-related gaps in psychological literature. Results from the current study could bring awareness to adverse effects from overexposure to detailed fictionalized violence.

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