Thurstone, 1930, Influence of Motion Pictures on Children’s Attitudes

Thurstone, L. L. 1931. “Influence of Motion Pictures on Children’s Attitudes”. The Journal of Social Psychology. 2 (3): 291-305.

This was one of a series of studies aimed at determining whether the effect of motion pictures on school-aged children can be measured and whether effects could be predicted. The two films looked at for this study were Street of Chance (a film on the life of a gambler) and Hide Out (a bootlegging film), both shown to the experimental population in 1929. The subjects, school children between 9th and 12th grade, were given the same survey to fill out several days before viewing and the morning after viewing the movie to assess their attitudes toward crime. Surveys included 78 pairs of crimes, such as “gambler-bootlegger,” “drunkard-beggar,” “gangster-tramp.” They were to underline which crime was deserving of a more severe punishment (292). Those who watched Hide Out were given a second survey on Prohibition. They were to agree or disagree with 28 statements, such as “Prohibition should come as the result of education, not legislation” and “the present prohibition laws are necessary for the good of the United States” (300-301).

A lot of complicated statistical math followed.

The researchers found that the film Hide Out “did not have any measurable effect on the attitudes of children toward bootlegging or toward prohibition.” The film Street of Chance “made the children more severe in their judgment of gambling than they were before seeing the film.” They concluded: It seems to be evident from these experiments and from others of a similar type that motion pictures can be used to affect the social attitudes of school children and that these effects can be objectively measured” (304).