Study: Films Lack Consequences

Unwanted Pregnancy, STDs, HIV, Addiction Largely Missing From Movies

(AP)  Only a quarter of the movies — including spooky drama "The Sixth Sense" and Tom Hanks survival adventure "Cast Away" — were entirely free of behavior such as unprotected sex, drug use, smoking and drinking, the researchers said.

"The most popular movies of the last two decades often show normative depictions of negative health behaviors," the authors concluded. "The motion picture industry should be encouraged to depict safer sex practices and the real consequences of unprotected sex and illicit drug use."

Gunasekera said "there is convincing evidence that the entertainment media influences behavior."

But some experts said the issue was more complex than the study suggested.

"Hollywood doesn't depict anything with any of its consequences," said Adam Smith, a writer with film magazine Empire. "Its job isn't to be a social or moral guardian. It's fiction."

"I don't think you can pinpoint Hollywood as responsible for sexual immorality in the post-AIDS era," said Paul Grainge of the Institute of Film and Television Studies at the University of Nottingham.

"Hollywood responds to social mores as well as creates them."