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300 CANTOR

retrospective study also showed that the percent of respondents who
reported having used a “behavioral” (noncognitive) coping strategy to
deal with media-induced fear declined as age at exposure to the frighten-
ing fare increased.
Another noncognitive strategy that has been shown to have more
appeal and more effectiveness for younger than for older children is cov-
ering one’s eyes during frightening portions of a presentation. In an
experiment by Wilson (1989b), when covering the eyes was suggested as
an option, younger children used this strategy more often than older chil-
dren did. Moreover, the suggestion of this option reduced the fear of
younger children, but actually increased the fear of older children. Wilson
noted that the older children recognized the limited effectiveness of cov-
ering their eyes (while still being exposed to the audio features of the pro-
gram) and may have reacted by feeling less in control, and therefore more
vulnerable, when this strategy was offered to them.

Cognitive Strategies. In contrast to noncognitive strategies, cognitive
(or “verbal”) strategies involve verbal information that is used to cast the
threat in a different light. These strategies involve relatively complex cog-
nitive operations, and research consistently finds such strategies to be
more effective for older than for younger children.
When dealing with fantasy depictions, the most typical cognitive strat-
egy seems to be to provide an explanation focusing on the unreality of the
situation. This strategy should be especially difficult for preschool children,
who do not have a full grasp of the implications of the fantasy-reality dis-
tinction. In an experiment by Cantor and Wilson (1984), older elementary
schoolchildren who were told to remember that what they were seeing in
The Wizard of Oz was not real showed less fear than their classmates who
received no instructions. The same instructions did not help preschoolers,
however. A study by Wilson and Weiss (1991) also showed developmental
differences in the effectiveness of reality-related strategies.
Children’s beliefs about the effectiveness of focusing on the unreality of
the stimulus have been shown to be consistent with these experimental
findings. In Wilson et al.’s (1987) study of perceptions of fear-reducing
techniques, preschool children’s ranking of the effectiveness of “tell your-
self it’s not real” was significantly lower than that of older elementary
schoolchildren.
For media depictions involving realistic threats, the most prevalent
cognitive strategy seems to be to provide an explanation that minimizes
the perceived severity of the depicted danger. This type of strategy is not
only more effective with older children than with younger children, in
certain situations it has been shown to have a fear-enhancing rather than
anxiety-reducing effect with younger children. In an experiment involv-