I wonder if Jack Thompson is also behind this one. A study done in 1999 was finally published in a pediatrics magazine and says that there is a correlation between being a wrestling fan and being a violent person. While watching John Cena do the 5 knuckle shuffle may make me want to bonk my head in confusion, this study reeks of the same dubious claim that points to videogames as the primary reason that makes children violent.
Take this guy that called in to a TV show debating the issue:
“One call came in where this man says to me, ‘I take great issue with what you’ve been saying about wrestling not being a pervasive negative influence. I absolutely know for a fact that wrestling causes kids to be violent. Every time my son watches the WWF, all he wants to do is wrestle on the floor with me.’
D’oh. That’s what fathers do, dumbass. May it be wrestling, reading bedtime stories, watching Tv together, playing with miniature robots: these are the things that fathers do with their sons. Yes, even if he doesnt particularly enjoy it himself. Parents should be supervising (make that “joining”) their kids whenever they’re watching shows with content that younger minds wont completely understand or put into the proper context. Same goes with violent Movies and Sex. Before pointing the finger at convenient targets such as videogames and wrestling as the cause of violent behavior, these so called researchers should do a parental check first.
On Monday, research performed at Wake Forest University back in 1999 was released in the August issue of Pediatrics, claiming correlation between viewership of professional wrestling and “date-fighting” among teenagers.
Such correlation is something that Robert Thompson, Ph.D., director of the Center for the Study of Popular Television at Syracuse University, finds problematic when drawing conclusions to the findings of the Wake Forest researchers. “What always worries me about these kinds of studies is that they imply a cause; this study claims nothing more than a correlation,” said Thompson. “So many people immediately see these studies, and they suggest that wrestling is causing these things, and I don’t think that is a done deal by any stretch of the imagination.”
that explains a lot. I think.
“These studies are demonstrating a correlation,” added Thompson. “For example, if the tree in my backyard gets bigger, the hair on my head gets thinner. There’s a direct correlation there, no question about it; one happens, the other happens,” he added. “But there’s certainly no cause there, or I would’ve chopped down that tree a long time ago.”