Gerbner and his colleagues studied whether the media (e.g., prime-time television programming)shape a person's conception of social reality.They found that

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Gerbner and his colleagues found that people who watched a lot of television tended to overestimate the proportion of U.S. citizens who have high-paying, white-collar jobs and the prevalence of criminal activity. This suggests that the media can shape a person's conception of social reality in ways that may not accurately reflect the actual state of affairs. Option A is incorrect because it states that people who watched a lot of television underestimated these things, which is not what the research found. Option B is incorrect because the third-person effect is not directly related to the findings of Gerbner's research. Option D is incorrect because it implies that people who do not watch television have no opinions about these issues, which is not necessarily true.

Gerbner and His Colleagues Studied Whether the Media (E