The Copycat Theory.

The copycat theory is the belief that individuals imitate what they see in the media to get the same attention as given to the media they copied.

The film Copycat (1995) is about a serial killer who kills a police officer by copying the techniques of other serial killers. This film reflects what the copycat theory is all about - imitation.

There are real life case studies that support this theory - such as the James Bulger case where two ten year old boys copied the behaviour that they had seen in the horror movie 'Childs Play 3'.

Another example is the London riots of 2011, what started out as small disturbances turned into a full blown riot - possibly due to people imitating the behavior that they had seen on media outlets of young people robbing and breaking into shops.

Another thing that has a big influence on behavior is exposure to violent video games such as Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto, constant exposure to violent behavior causes desensitization and normalization of such behavior, especially prevalent in young children. People who may see this behavior often may want to repeat the behavior, especially if they see they behavior being rewarded. For example, in Grand Theft Auto you get points and positive attention for killing someone, which may lead someone to believe that they too will be positively reinforced for repeating this behavior.