Cultivation theory is a social theory that examines long-term effects of television on American audiences of all ages.

George Gerbner and Larry Gross developed the cultivation theory from the University of Pennsylvania. The cultivation theory was developed to track cultivated effects of television on viewers. (BACKGROUND) Gerbner and Gross argue that religion or education had previously been greater influences on social trends now television is the source of the most broadly shared images and messages in history. Television cultivates from infancy the very predispositions and preferences that used to be acquired from other primary sources. The repetitive pattern of television's mass-produced messages and images forms the mainstream of a common symbolic environment" (pp. 17 18). (BACKGROUND) Cultivation theory in its most basic form, then, suggests that exposure to television, over time, finely "cultivates" viewers' perceptions of reality. This cultivation can have an impact even on light viewers of TV, because the impact on heavy viewers has an impact on our entire culture. Gerbner and Gross (1976) say, Television is a medium of the socialization of most people into standardized roles and behaviors. (WHAT THE THEORY ASSUMES) The main hypothesis explored in the cultivation theory is those who spend more time watching television are more likely to perceive the real world in ways that reflect the most common and reoccurring messages of the television world, compared with people who watch less television, but are otherwise comparable in terms of important demographic characteristics (Gerbner, Gross, Morgan, Signorielli, & Shanahan, 2002).

The cultivation theory, assumes media to have long-term passive effects on its viewers. Effects start off small, but will gradually have compound effects. (THEORY HYPOTHESIS) The cultivation theory relates to our research topic of violent behavior and exposure to video games. Upon further research we tend to analyze potential effects of excessive exposure to violent video games/media on ones behavior. The cultivation theory suggests this excessive exposure over time effects ones perception of reality. Such theory would support one of our hypotheses that excessive exposure does in fact affect ones behavior. Theorists argue television and by extensions video games have long-term effects. Effects that can have long term-gradual effects. Such effects will be small, gradual, indirect, cumulative, and significant. HOW IT RELATES