In an extension of an earlier study by Cline, Croft, and Courrier (1973) the effects of amount of television viewing and preference for televised violence upon autonomic responses to violent and nonviolent videotaped movie sequences were examined. Thirty-six male undergraduates watched a six-minute portion of a boxing film and a six-minute portion of a nonviolent sporting events program. Heart rate and skin resistance were monitored and the highest, lowest, and average skin resistance and the number of skin resistance responses for each of the 12 30-second segments of each film were obtained. Subjects were divided into the following four groups on the basis of pre-experimental questionnaires and logs they had kept of their TV viewing behavior: high/low viewing time x high/low preference for violent programming. The results supported the study's hypotheses: heart rate and average skin resistance differed between high and low viewing time and viewing preference groups, and the effects were stronger in response to the violent than to the nonviolent film. For the boxing film, both heart rate and average skin resistance were greater for low viewing time and high preference for violence subjects. The directions of the findings are interpreted within a habituation-sensitization inverted "U" model. The implications of the findings for human aggression and their relationship to aggression research done by experimental social psychologists is discussed. (Author)