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Affective Responses and Exposure to Frightening Films: The Role of Empathy and Different Types of Content
Abstract
Young adults (N = 172) completed questionnaires that measured empathy, affective responses and exposure to frightening films, and perceptions of how aspects of scary content (suffering, danger, excitement, and a happy ending) affect enjoyment. Empathic concern was associated with less enjoyment of suffering, but more enjoyment of danger, excitement, and happy endings. Enduring negative affect was associated with higher personal distress and less enjoyment of suffering. Exposure to frightening films was associated with lower personal distress, more enjoyment of danger, and less enjoyment of happy endings. Interpretations of the findings are discussed.
... Past research has shown that the variables influencing audience enjoyment of horror films could include personality, cognitive, affective, and gender factors (Hoffner & Levine, 2005) such as empathy (Tamborini, 1996), aggressive tendencies (Fenigstein & Heyduk, 1985), excitation transfer (Zillmann, 1978), affective responses (Hoffner, 2009), and gender-role socialization (Zillmann, Weaver, Mundorf, & Aust, 1986). While a large body of literature exists for horror film viewing, research has yet to investigate why people watch TV series with horror content. ...
... Based on the theory and literature on audience involvement (e.g., Godlewski & Perse, 2010;Lin, 1993a;Rubin & Perse, 1987), horror-film cognition and affect (e.g., Hoffner, 2009;Sparks, Spirek, & Hodgson, 1993;Sun, Rubin, & Haridakis, 2008) as well as Johnston's (1995) study cited above, it is reasonable to assume that an individual's viewing motivations for TV series with horror content could lead to differential cognitive and affective outcomes. To validate these assumptions, the following hypotheses are proposed. ...
... It could affect a range of emotional responses to media violence and fright (Tamborini, 1996) as well as the feeling of fear towards horror media content (Harris et al., 2000;Hoekstra, Harris, & Helmick, 1999). Empathic feelings can also lead to other negative emotions such as nervousness, anxiety, and depression, which may last during and after horror media exposure (e.g., Hoffner, 2009;Johnson, 1980;Sparks, 1989;Sparks et al., 1993). Hoffner (1995) found that those with greater "empathic concern" and "personal distress" usually keep telling themselves that the scenes and characters are unreal-or try to distract themselves frequently-while they are watching horror scenes. ...
This study is the first to explore the motivational, cognitive, affective, and personality factors that influence the enjoyment of and exposure to TV series with horror content. The most-watched TV series identified by 411 study participants were examined in the study. Results indicate that personality traits significantly predict cognitive and affective involvement with these programs and viewing motivations. Viewing motivations significantly influence viewers’ cognitive and affective involvement with these TV series as well as their viewing enjoyment and frequency. While positive affect and negative affect are significant predictors of viewing enjoyment, viewing enjoyment has a positive effect on viewing frequency.
... Lynch and Martins [14] suggested that games present an interesting case for observing fear. However as most horror research focused on non-interactive media [11], the question remains how games' interactivity determines the gratifications players may derive from frightening game experiences. The aim of the present research project is thus to investigate which gratifications players gain from experiencing frightening events in digital games. ...
... Players reported enjoying the thrill of experiencing typically negative emotions, such as fright, fear or anger. This comes to little surprise, as many people enjoy experiencing intense emotions in games [4,5,18], as well as in non-interactive media [1,11]. Specifically, players considered the experience rewarding, because they could experience emotions they do not normally (want to) experience in real life in a safe environment. ...
... Hence, our upcoming online survey aims to provide a better understanding of player experience by exploring how identification with the avatar influences enjoyment of frightening game experiences, and whether there is something such as too much identification or empathy for a frightening game experience to be enjoyable. Research on non-interactive media suggests that empathy must not always decrease enjoyment of frightening experiences, as long as the situation is solved to the viewers' satisfaction [11]. However, this may not fully transfer to digital games, as due to their interactivity, players may hold themselves responsible to a certain degree for the survival of their avatar. ...
Emotional game experiences have garnered increasing attention over the past few years, both from players and researchers. Previous research has not yet explored whether and what gratifications players derive from frightening game experiences. Interviews with eight players revealed several gratifications, including experiencing non-mundane negative emotions, overcoming emotional challenges and identification with the avatar. Although identification was regarded positively and amplified the emotional intensity of the frightening game experience, sometimes this close connection with the avatar almost became too intense. Based on these findings, we discuss opportunities for future research.
... Tamborini, Stiff, and Heidel (1990) found that audience members with higher levels of empathic concern were more sensitive to distress felt by characters in horror films. These types of experiences could lead to negative affect during exposure to disturbing media content, especially if the content is based in reality and there is not a happy ending (Hoffner, 1995;Hoffner, 2009;Hoffner & Levine, 2005). In their metaanalysis, Hoffner and Levine (2005) examined the relationship between trait empathy and enjoyment of media with violent or frightening content, and found that empathic concern was negatively associated with enjoyment of films that included graphic depictions of violence, but it was unrelated to enjoyment of other types of suspenseful or violent films. ...
... Past research has found that people with high empathic concern experience are more susceptible to the negative emotions of those they empathize with (Hoffner, 2009), and a similar effect could be at play in these results. For serious game designers, this finding highlights a potential complication. ...
... Empathic concern is positively associated with prosocial action, so it is advantageous to target messages to people who may be naturally more inclined to help others. But although people with high empathic concern may be more willing to expose themselves to media offerings that feature suffering out of concern for the victims (Hoffner, 2009), their response appears to have a negative impact on their enjoyment, which could hinder their adoption of the game's recommendations. Notably, this finding mirrors research on the relationship between empathic concern and enjoyment of some counter-hedonic media (Hoffner & Levine, 2005). ...
Theorizing about the effects of “serious” digital games contends that they are successful in part because they offer enjoyable experiences. Yet many serious games have counter-hedonic, somber content that is not enjoyable in a traditional sense. To identify determinants of serious game enjoyment, and to investigate the role of enjoyment in learning and self-efficacy, this panel study examined responses to a game promoting genocide awareness. No change in knowledge was observed, but the game increased self-efficacy, an effect that remained weeks after playing. Enjoyment positively predicted self-efficacy increases. Empathic concern, eudaimonic entertainment use motivation, and character identification predicted enjoyment.
... Tuomi 2018; Koistinen & Mäntymäki 2020). True crime -formaateissa erityisesti lähikuvat uhrien kasvoista ovat tärkeässä roolissa: ne kutsuvat katsojaa tuntemaan empatiaa tai todistamaan uhrin tuskaa (Hoffner 2009;Kobach & Weaver 2012). Ohjelmat toteutetaan dokudraamallisesti, ja ne pyrkivät korostamaan, että rikos on tapahtunut oikeasti. ...
... However, the conclusion in this review rests largely on studies that were included in the 2005 meta-analysis and only one additional study is discussed in the review. In the additional study, Hoffner (2009) found that empathic concern was negatively correlated with enjoyment of suffering in horror films, but associated with increased enjoyment of danger, excitement, and happy endings in horror films. In other words, empathy was positively correlated with some aspects of horror films and negatively with other aspects. ...
The horror genre portrays some of the most graphic and violent scenes in media. Because of this, those who enjoy horror may be perceived to be deficient in prosocial traits. In Study 1, I found empirical evidence for the anecdotal observation that people perceive horror fans to be low in empathy, compassion, and kindness. In Study 2, I found that enjoyment of horror movies is either unrelated or positively related to measures of empathy and compassion. In Study 3, participants who had previously reported how much they enjoyed five horror subgenres played a dictator game. Enjoyment of horror and the five subgenres was unrelated to how much money a participant decided to donate to a less fortunate participant. These findings contradict long-held beliefs from the public about horror fans possessing lower levels of empathy and compassion. They also question older findings about the relationship between empathy and horror fandom, suggesting that the relationship has little to do with how much one enjoys horror or the type of horror they enjoy.
... Theoretically, the nature of empathy would suggest those high in empathy would experience more distress and less enjoyment from media that is violent or highly sexual (Vossen et al., 2017). Indeed, a study on affective responses to horror content found less enjoyment of portrayals of suffering among participants high in empathy (Hoffner, 2009). However, Figure 1. ...
Sexual and violent media content is prevalent, and adolescents exposed to this content may be more likely to enact risky sexual and aggressive behaviors. According to the Differential Susceptibility Model, dispositional traits, such as empathy, can predict risky media exposure and moderate the relationship between exposure and behavior. A total of 2,424 US adolescents (ages 14-17) participated in an online study that measured exposure to sex, violence, and their co-occurrence from the same character in a list of movies content analyzed for sex and violence. The survey outcomes of interest included adolescent sexual behavior, aggressive behavior, and both behaviors together, as well as empathy, which was included as a moderator. The exposure to movie character behavior was matched to adolescents' survey responses. Results showed that empathy was a predictor of media exposure to sex and violence in movies, and was a moderator of the exposure-behavior relationship. The exposure-behavior relationship was moderated by empathy, such that empathy had an ameliorating effect on the exposure-behavior relationship, but did not negate it completely. This study furthers our understanding of how exposure to sexual and violent content in media, combined with individual differences, may play a role in adolescent enactment of risky behaviors.
... Hence, trait empathy likely influences individual causal attribution of social problems. For this reason, the effect of trait empathy was measured in this study and used as a potential moderator. 1 To no surprise, researchers exploring emotional experiences in mediated environments have included trait empathy as a moderator of a number of effects, such as reactions to sad films (Oliver, 1993), frightening films (Hoffner, 2009), and crime dramas (Raney, 2002). Regarding news, Kobach and Weaver (2012) found that those high in trait empathy had stronger negative emotional reactions to media images of violence than did those scoring lower in trait empathy. ...
Personalization refers to the journalistic practice of including emotional case studies of ordinary people in news stories, increasing vividness and emotional charge of news and eliciting identification and empathy in news consumers. Previous research suggests that personalization of news stories increases collectivistic (compared with individualistic) causal attributions by the news audience. In response, an experiment was conducted with a week time delay between stimuli presentation and open-ended participant responses to examine the influence of news personalization on how news consumers attribute causes for social issues. Participant (N = 80) trait empathy was included as an additional factor. Findings show that participants with high trait empathy expressed a greater shift to collectivistic attribution after watching personalized news stories than participants with low trait empathy, suggesting that individual differences in trait empathy may be an important factor in how individuals construct their own understanding of social problems.
... Empathy has also been associated with less enjoyment of suffering displayed in frightening films but with more enjoyment of danger, of excitement, and of happy endings (Hoffner, 2009). People high in enduring negative affect have been found to experience more distress and less enjoyment of suffering. ...
Why do we watch and like horror films? Despite a century of horror film making and entertainment, little research has examined the human motivation to watch fictional horror and how horror film influences individuals’ behavioral, cognitive, and emotional responses. This review provides the first synthesis of the empirical literature on the psychology of horror film using multi-disciplinary research from psychology, psychotherapy, communication studies, development studies, clinical psychology, and media studies. The paper considers the motivations for people’s decision to watch horror, why people enjoy horror, how individual differences influence responses to, and preference for, horror film, how exposure to horror film changes behavior, how horror film is designed to achieve its effects, why we fear and why we fear specific classes of stimuli, and how liking for horror develops during childhood and adolescence. The literature suggests that (1) low empathy and fearfulness are associated with more enjoyment and desire to watch horror film but that specific dimensions of empathy are better predictors of people’s responses than are others; (2) there is a positive relationship between sensation-seeking and horror enjoyment/preference, but this relationship is not consistent; (3) men and boys prefer to watch, enjoy, and seek our horror more than do women and girls; (4) women are more prone to disgust sensitivity or anxiety than are men, and this may mediate the sex difference in the enjoyment of horror; (5) younger children are afraid of symbolic stimuli, whereas older children become afraid of concrete or realistic stimuli; and (6) in terms of coping with horror, physical coping strategies are more successful in younger children; priming with information about the feared object reduces fear and increases children’s enjoyment of frightening television and film. A number of limitations in the literature is identified, including the multifarious range of horror stimuli used in studies, disparities in methods, small sample sizes, and a lack of research on cross-cultural differences and similarities. Ideas for future research are explored.
... Therefore, the induced fear should directly influence whether players enjoy such an experience. Studies have shown that when fear is perceived as a negative emotion, the result is decreased enjoyment (Hoffner, 2009;Sparks and Sparks, 2002). ...
Enjoyment of frightening content is a paradoxical issue in communication research. Revising Zillmann’s model of suspense, we propose a three-factor model examining the audience appeal of horror content in a virtual reality (VR) survival horror game. In a laboratory study, participants played a VR horror game. The results show significant effects of the three-way interaction among horror self-efficacy, physiological arousal, and fear on enjoyment and future intentions to play similar games. Horror self-efficacy interacts with fear to affect enjoyment only among high-arousal participants. Among high-fear participants, higher horror self-efficacy leads to significantly greater enjoyment than lower horror self-efficacy. We measured enjoyment through self-reported ratings, future intentions to play similar games, and the behavioral choice of subsequent games to demonstrate the appeal of horror content. Horror self-efficacy in coping with mediated fright is the key to explaining the conditional positive association of fear and enjoyment in the gaming context.
... Finally, the urge to inform oneself about the details of a negative social situation may not only be driven by an information-seeking motivation, but potentially also by a motivation to experience empathy or sympathy for the people portrayed in the images (see for a similar point [50,61]). Indeed, some studies on empathy have used stimuli with similar content as the negative social images used in the present studies (e.g., [37,38,62]). ...
This paper examined, with a behavioral paradigm, to what extent people choose to view stimuli that portray death, violence or harm. Based on briefly presented visual cues, participants made choices between highly arousing, negative images and positive or negative alternatives. The negative images displayed social scenes that involved death, violence or harm (e.g., war scene), or decontextualized, close-ups of physical harm (e.g., mutilated face) or natural threat (e.g., attacking shark). The results demonstrated that social negative images were chosen significantly more often than other negative categories. Furthermore, participants preferred social negative images over neutral images. Physical harm images and natural threat images were not preferred over neutral images, but were chosen in about thirty-five percent of the trials. These results were replicated across three different studies, including a study that presented verbal descriptions of images as pre-choice cues. Together, these results show that people deliberately subject themselves to negative images. With this, the present paper demonstrates a dynamic relationship between negative information and behavior and advances new insights into the phenomenon of morbid curiosity.
... A large part of the research on media-induced fright reactions has examined developmental differences in those reactions (Cantor, 1994;Harrison & Cantor, 1999;Hoffner, 1997) or focused on individual differences in fright reactions and in coping strategies (Hoffner, 1995(Hoffner, , 1997. Other research has emphasized the need to consider the role of content features affecting fright reactions (Cantor, 2006;Hoffner, 2009). Among other features, such as the depiction of blood and gore or supernatural creatures like zombies or ghosts, the emotional expressions of protagonists (i.e., the victims) have been shown to contribute to viewers' emotional experiences (e.g., Tamborini et al., 1990;Zillmann, 1991). ...
This research aimed to demonstrate the effects of an avatar's emotional expressions on players' fear reactions during horror gameplay. In Study 1, we found that the emotional expressions of an avatar decreased fear reactions among players. This effect was mediated by avatar embodiment. More precisely, avatar emotional expressions lower avatar embodiment, which, in turn, positively predicts players' fear reactions. In Study 2, we replicated the findings of Study 1. In addition, we found that the effects observed in Study 1 were only present in interactive gameplay—not when players watched screen-captured footage of the game. In other words, we found evidence of a moderated mediation model in which interactivity moderates the effects of an avatar's emotional expressions on players' fear reactions through avatar embodiment.
... Additionally, trait empathy is the relatively stable level of empathy an individual brings to a situation (Davis, 1983). Researchers focused on emotional experiences in mediated environments have noted trait empathy to be a moderator of media effects, such as reactions to sad films (Oliver, 1993), frightening films (Hoffner, 2009), and crime dramas (Raney, 2002), to name a few. Kobach and Weaver (2012) found that participants high in trait empathy had stronger negative emotional reactions to media images of violence than those lower in trait empathy. ...
This study investigates the influence of personalization (moving testimony from ordinary citizens) on reception of news stories about social issues. The data (N = 80) from this mixed-design experiment, collected at two time points, offer evidence that personalized news stories evoked greater feelings of empathy toward and identification with people affected by social issues, which in turn increased perceived issue importance. Personalization effects persisted over time. Moreover, path analyses revealed gender differences in reactions to personalization. The findings imply that a major goal of journalism-to advance civic engagement with social issues-could be served by personalized story formats. © 2017 Maria Elizabeth Grabe, Mariska Kleemans, Ozen Bas, Jessica Gall Myrick, and Minchul Kim.
... A large part of the research on media-induced fright reactions has examined developmental differences in those reactions (Cantor, 1994;Harrison & Cantor, 1999;Hoffner, 1997) or focused on individual differences in fright reactions and in coping strategies (Hoffner, 1995(Hoffner, , 1997. Other research has emphasized the need to consider the role of content features affecting fright reactions (Cantor, 2006;Hoffner, 2009). Among other features, such as the depiction of blood and gore or supernatural creatures like zombies or ghosts, the emotional expressions of protagonists (i.e., the victims) have been shown to contribute to viewers' emotional experiences (e.g., Tamborini et al., 1990;Zillmann, 1991). ...
Die vorliegende Studie untersucht den Einfluss von Avataremotionen auf das emotionale Erleben beim Spielen eines Survival-Horrorspiels. Die Probanden spielten das Spiel mit oder ohne Emotionsausdruck des Avatars. Im Anschluss daran gaben die Probanden an, wie sehr sie während des Spiels Angst empfunden hatten. Die Ergebnisse verdeutlichen: Wenn der Avatar seinen Emotionen Ausdruck verlieh, fiel die erlebte Angst bei den SpielerInnen niedriger aus, als wenn der Avatar keinen Emotionsausdruck zeigte. Dieser Effekt wurde über die Identifikation mit dem Avatar mediiert. Die Studie liefert damit Hinweise darauf, dass Emotionen bei interaktiven Medienangeboten auf andere Art und Weise entstehen als bei linearen Medienangeboten.
... Horror films are a perfect example. Hoffner (2009) looks at the allure of frightening films, but a distinction must first be made between empathic concern and personal distress. Empathic concern is othercentered, focusing on concern for the welfare of others-and leads to desires to lessen the suffering of others, or altruistic behavior. ...
Children learn in part from what they see and hear, whether modeling parents’ or peers’ behavior, reading books, or viewing movies. Parents and their children share the same and often unspoken goal—to live “the good life”—in a state of well-being. Character strengths are foundational to well-being, and movies are a rich source with which to build character strengths and hence flourishing. However, even though movies are considered efficacious (and more rigorous studies are needed), there are minimal resources for parents on how to use this powerful tool with their children and teenagers. Movies are presented here as an educational force, with the ability to promote altruism and self-improvement. The power of the narrative stimulates emotions, and these emotional responses influence learning and behavior. Immersion into a character in a movie increases empathy, and allows the viewer to live the experiences of the character without having to experience the real-life consequences. The following paper will discuss: movies as positive media, the rationale for how movies build character strengths, the benefits of building character strengths from movies in particular, and curriculum/criteria for “Positive Psychology at the Movies for Families, Children, and Teenagers.” The 24 character strengths will be reviewed, and an exemplar movie presented for each, followed by discussion points and potential positive interventions. A literature review of positive psychology and character strengths can be found in the Appendix.
... Research suggests that those with higher levels of trait empathy experience more emotionally intense responses to media in which characters suffer hardship (Krakowiak & Oliver, 2012). Hoffner (2009) found that the relationship between empathy for characters and enjoyment in frightening films varied based on levels of suffering portrayed, danger excitement, and type of ending, such that empathic concern was associated with less enjoyment when characters were injured or suffering in some way. Gender of the viewer may also influence empathic response for some media; studies have found that women are more likely than men to respond empathically to images of violence (Kobach & Weaver, 2012) and victims of violence in film (Oliver, Sargent, & Weaver, 1998). ...
Recent research has shown that exposure to entertainment media depicting moral beauty may not only influence viewers' affective responses, but also lead to altruistic behavior. Although the process has been tied to a set of feelings commonly referred to as elevation, the mechanisms by which the effects take place have not been examined. This experiment (N = 107) showed that participants who watched a clip portraying moral beauty were more likely to help with an unrelated volunteer task after viewing than those who watched a non-meaningful clip. The effect of the clip was mediated by the degree to which the clip produced mixed affective response in participants. Although the clip portraying moral beauty led to increased empathy with the character and increased feelings of elevation, neither of these predicted helping behavior after controlling for clip content. Helping behavior also increased when the help recipient was less similar to the participants (age, race, and university affiliation).
... The role of empathy in children's media habits is unknown. Yet one study with college students suggests that empathic individuals avoid violent media content (Hoffner, 2004). Applied here, it could be empathic children will avoid exposing themselves to socially aggressive content in order to avoid the personal distress that may come from watching such portrayals. ...
A survey was conducted with over 500 children in grades K-5 to examine whether exposure to socially aggressive content was related to children's use of social aggression. The results of the survey revealed a significant relationship between exposure to televised social aggression and increased social aggression at school, but only for girls and not for boys. Although this relationship was dependent on the sex of the child, the study is the first to provide evidence that viewing social aggression on television is related to an increased tendency for elementary school children to perpetrate such behaviors in the classroom. The findings are discussed in terms of social cognitive theory and information processing theory.
Since the emergence of Albert Bandura's (1971) social/observational learning theory, it comes as no surprise that film plays an important role in helping condition our societal perceptions; influencing our narratives about not only our lived religion, but also that of broader society. Film thus allows us to subconsciously learn new information through observation (Ahorsu & Danquah 2013:63). Do Nascimento (2019) supports this notion in arguing that the stories we watch often reflect and sustain de facto institutional and cultural narratives, whilst simultaneously encouraging many of our actions in 'lived society' (Do Nascimento 2019:19). Moreover, this approach is also relevant for 'lived religion': a term often used synonymously with the Christian notion of practical theology (see Ganzevoort & Roeland 2014:3-4) and which-per definition-is also not alien to the Occult-notion in Crowley's philosophy of Thelema (Crowley 1929:17-26). The Thelemic philosophy regards any (and all) willed actions (as opposed to habitual actions) like walking the dog, brushing teeth or even gardening as magick (Duquette 1993:1-2; Wallace 2015:25), as it enhances one's life focus. This paper will explore how filmic misrepresentations of the Occult in cinema, influences societal narratives circulating around the 'lived religion' of the Occult and its practitioners.
Розкрито специфіку впливу жанрів кінематографа, таких як фільм жахів, комедія, драма, фантастичний фільм, детектив тощо на особистість підлітка. Зазначено, що кожний жанр здійснює своєрідний вплив на психіку, ба більше, надання переваги тому чи іншому жанру зумовлюється внутрішніми потребами особистості, її психічним станом і несвідомими переживаннями.Розглянуто позитивні та негативні особливості впливу кінематографа на поведінку підлітка. Визначено, що жорстокий, агресивний, а часто навіть безглуздий чи аморальний фільм можна використати з метою демонстрації анормальної, деструктивної поведінки. Зазначено, що основним психологічним механізмом позитивного впливу кінематографа на особистість підлітка є обговорення фільму , яке приводить підлітків до конструктивного аналізу своїх переживань, забезпечуючи "імунітет" до можливих негативних наслідків деструктивних фільмів. Підкреслено, що зворотний зв'язок після перегляду фільму здатний не лише зменшити негативний вплив екранних образів, а й спонукати до роздумів, сформувати внутрішні зразки поведінки.Представлено також результати дослідження впливу кінематографа на емоційну сферу підлітка. Здійснено порівняння, зокрема, результатів до та після перегляду фільму. Було виявлено, що після перегляду фільму в досліджуваних дещо підвищився рівень тривожності, однак і збільшився рівень енергійності, значно зріс рівень піднесеності й упевненості. Тобто, незважаючи на дещо підвищений рівень тривожності, можна стверджувати, що фільм позитивно вплинув на емоційний стан досліджуваних. Після перегляду фільму підлітки виявили емоційну піднесеність й упевненість у власних силах.Підкреслено вирішальну роль кінематографа в цілеспрямованому розвитку підлітка, зокрема в моделюванні його сильних сторін характеру, формуванні власної життєвої позиції, а також налагодженні міжособистісних і міжгрупових взаємовідносин, здатності змінити інфантильні погляди на нові, зрілі світоглядні позиції , сформувати моральні й естетичні цінності.
This study examined the impact of news modality (print news vs. 360° journalism) on psychological mechanisms of information seeking intention, as well as individual differences that moderate the observed outcomes. The results of a two condition between-subjects experiment (N = 100) conducted on a community sample showed that news modality affected information seeking intentions, enjoyment of news story, and the feelings of spatial presence, but did not affect actual information seeking behavior and information recall. Exposure to 360° journalism led to the increase in spatial presence, which led to a linear increase in enjoyment, ultimately resulting in greater intentions to seek further information. Participants with a higher need for cognitive closure enjoyed consuming news more when the story was presented as 360° journalism than those with a lower need for cognitive closure. Results contribute to expanding the theories of information seeking and the role of affective responses and spatial presence on news consumption in journalism and communication scholarship.
Since the emergence of Albert Bandura's (1971) social/observational learning theory, it comes as no surprise that film plays an important role in helping condition our societal perceptions; influencing our narratives about not only our lived religion, but also that of broader society. Film thus allows us to subconsciously learn new information through observation (Ahorsu & Danquah 2013:63). Do Nascimento (2019) supports this notion in arguing that the stories we watch often reflect and sustain de facto institutional and cultural narratives, whilst simultaneously encouraging many of our actions in 'lived society' (Do Nascimento 2019:19). Moreover, this approach is also relevant for 'lived religion': a term often used synonymously with the Christian notion of practical theology (see Ganzevoort & Roeland 2014:3-4) and which-per definition-is also not alien to the Occult-notion in Crowley's philosophy of Thelema (Crowley 1929:17-26). The Thelemic philosophy regards any (and all) willed actions (as opposed to habitual actions) like walking the dog, brushing teeth or even gardening as magick (Duquette 1993:1-2; Wallace 2015:25), as it enhances one's life focus. This paper will explore how filmic misrepresentations of the Occult in cinema, influences societal narratives circulating around the 'lived religion' of the Occult and its practitioners.
The ‘Satanic Panic’: exploring the influence of film in formulating narratives surrounding the lived religion of the Occult and its practitioners © 2021 by Tristan Kapp is licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International
Designing 4D effects corresponding to audiences’ emotional responses is important because 4D effects are critical components of 4D movies that provide rich emotional experiences. The recent increasing popularity of 4D content has led to the development of motion effect technology, which involves motions of the chair according to the scene. However, it is difficult to find studies that systematically investigated the influence of motion effects on audiences’ emotional responses. This study investigated the emotional responses of a 4D movie audience to motion effects according to their level of empathy. Participants (mean: 25.0 years, standard deviation: 5.0) with varying levels of empathy watched movie clips provided with or without single pitch motion effects. The degree that the motion effect and empathy affected the elicited emotions differed depending on the emotion type. For example, participants with high empathy reported stronger intensity of fear when short and weak motion effects were exhibited than when there was no motion effect. Distinct motion effect design guidelines that can be adopted to enhance audiences’ emotional experiences were proposed. The findings can be referred to when investigating the emotional responses of 4D movie audiences.
This is a quasi-experimental study; a four-month intervention-program designed to boost the empathetic attitude in public school students of Pakistan. The empathy towards bullying was assessed in experimental (199) and control (184) groups. The study had three phases. In the first phase the students were engaged in different activities to foster empathy which established that empathetic score of students increased and the score of bullying tendencies decreased after the use of interventions. The activity began with a story, followed by a group discussion, highlighting the different aspects of human feelings, emotions and behaviors, alongside encouraging children to give their feedback. In the second phase 98 students were selected from treated group, boys (N= 53) and girls (N= 45). Six more interventions were applied including reciting stories, question-answer sessions related to stories, followed by asking about the lessons students learnt from these stories. These conversations ended on brief lectures of trainers about empathy guided by the researcher during the training of trainers. After completion of this session, in the third phae, for qualitative assessment selected students from treated group were asked to write a story about empathy. The study found that the boys and girls grasped the concept of empathy differently. For boys described empathy as being helpful while girls as a means of getting happiness; but both did not associate empathy with kindness. Also, the boys believed that parents are the first to notice changes in their personality while girls think its their teachers. Moreover, for adopting the attitude of empathy, unlike boys, girls showed more collective rather than personalized approach.
Pakko katsoa?! Nykypäivän provokatiivinen televisiotuotanto mediateollisuuden muotonaMediakulttuuri on tulvillaan niin viihteellisiä kuin vakavia mediasisältöjä, joiden tarkoituksena on provosoida ja synnyttää tunteita. Nykypäivän televisiotarjonta ja ohjelmasisällöt tuntuvat pyrkivän kerta toisensa jälkeen shokeeraamaan ja härnäämään katsojan televisioruudun ääreen. Ilmiönä provokatiivinen televisiotuotanto tarkoittaa yksinkertaisimmillaan tv-sisältöjä, jotka ovat jollakin muotoa yleisiä arvoja, normeja ja jopa moraalikäsityksiä ravistelevia. Normien keikuttamisen keinoina voivat olla esimerkiksi irstailu, sosiaalisten instituutioiden – kuten avioliiton ja perheen – ravistelu ja erilaisuuden sekä poikkeavuuden hyväksikäyttö.Artikkelissa käsitellään Suomessa sekä julkisen että kaupallisen palvelun puolella esiintyvän provokatiivisen televisiotuotannon yleisimpiä esiintymismuotoja sisällönanalyysin ja lähiluvun kautta. Artikkeli esittelee, millaisin sisällöllisin keinoin yleisöä aktivoidaan ja houkutellaan katsomaan nykypäivän lineaarista televisiotarjontaa ohjelmien ja niiden paratekstien kautta. Artikkelin tulokset esittelevät ohjelmien yleisimmät provokatiiviset tendenssit, kunkin kategorian ominaispiirteet sekä toistuvat konventiot, joiden varaan ohjelmat rakentuvat. Provokatiivisuus ymmärretään monimuotoisena, kulttuurisesti rakentuvana ilmiönä, ja artikkelissa sivutaan myös provokatiivisia ohjelmia katselumotivaation näkökulmasta. Must watch?! Provocative TV production as a form of media industryIn aiming to become increasingly appealing, contemporary media landscape often evokes controversial feelings and reactions. It also seems that television needs to be somewhat shocking in order to attract viewers. The phenomenon of provocative television production simply refers to content that in some ways disturbs common values, norms, and even morality. Provocative television content can operate for example through exaggerated sexuality and promiscuity, by shaking social institutions – marriage and family – and by exploitation of abnormality and otherness.The provocative television content is understood as a diverse, culturally-driven phenomenon. The article concentrates on the qualitative content analysis and close reading of provocative nature of reality TV -based TV programs aired on Finnish television – both in commercial and public channels. It analyses how today's linear television content invites its audiences to watch through the notion of provocativeness: what are the main tendencies of provocative TV programs and what are the production characteristics and conventions these TV programs operate with.
Aesthetic elements such as soundtrack music have been neglected in game entertainment research. Based on previous work in games research and the psychology of film soundtracks (Cohen, 2001), we test the hypotheses that soundtrack music contributes to players‘ enjoyment via intensification of emotions (affective route) and via amplification of the sense of spatial presence and identification with the game character (cognitive routes). Study 1 tested these assumptions with N = 68 young male players of an episode of Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag®, either with the original soundtrack music present or absent, and reported game enjoyment, as well as scores of the assumed mediator variables afterward. In Study 2, N = 59 young males played an episode of Alien: Isolation® with soundtrack music present or absent and reported their horror experience, as well as the experiential facets as in study 1. Findings clearly show an indirect effect of soundtrack music on enjoyment through positive emotions (study 1) and an impact of (shocking) music on players’ horror experience (study 2). However, a mediation of the effect of soundtrack music on game enjoyment via spatial presence or identification was not established. We discuss implications for future research in game entertainment.
Fear is a common reaction to television and movies. Research shows that fright reactions to media can often be intense and long-lasting, involving sleep problems, emotional disturbances, and long-term changes in attitudes and behavior. These effects are explained through processes of conditioning, stimulus generalization, alterations in risk perception, evolutionary considerations, and the neurophysiology of fear memories. Although there is a great deal of individual variability, age and level of cognitive development are important determinants of what is frightening and which techniques are best for alleviating fears. Gender differences account for some variability as well.
This study was conducted to examine enduring fright reactions to mass media via recollective self-reports of a sample of undergraduates (average age 20.6 years) from two universities. Ninety percent (138 of 153) of the participants reported such a reaction. Most experiences occurred in childhood or adolescence, with 26.1% of the participants still experiencing residual anxiety at the time of measurement. More than half of the sample reported subsequent disturbances in sleeping or eating patterns, and a substantial proportion reported avoiding or dreading the situation depicted in the program or movie and mental preoccupation with the stimulus. Stimulus types were coded according to the jive categories of stimuli related to phobic reactions—animal, environmental, situational, blood/injection/injury, and "other" (disturbing sounds and distorted images)—described in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV; American Psychiatric Association, 1994). Almost all of the films or movies reported contained stimuli from at least one of these categories. Developmental differences were observed in both the types of stimuli that provoked fright responses and the coping strategies used by viewers.
Two autobiographical memory studies were conducted in order to better understand the social experience and short- and long-term effects of seeing frightening movies at a young age. Young adult participants (a) recalled the experience of watching a movie they had been frightened by as a child or teen, and (b) were assessed for levels of four kinds of dispositional empathy. They also reported who they watched the movie with, who chose it, what sorts of emotional reactions were experienced during viewing, and what negative effects they experienced following viewing. Participants typically remembered horror movies seen on video in the evening or at night at a mean age of 11 years. Results also showed that (a) fantasy empathy and perspective taking played a role in negative experiences; (b) some situational factors predicted later likelihood of viewing, anticipated fear; and enjoyment of the genre; and (c) a younger age at viewing and higher degree of perceived realism were associated with more negative effects of viewing.
The present study used autobiographical memory to investigate the social experience and short- and long-term effects of seeing frightening movies on a date, extending Zillmann and Weaver's (1996) model of differential gender-role behaviors to persons' own real-life dating experiences. Young adult participants (a) recalled the experience of watching a scary movie on a date, and (b) were assessed for levels of gender-role traditionality, sensation seeking, and dispositional empathy. Results showed that almost all individuals could recall such a date. Although men reported more positive reactions to the film and women more negative reactions, the experience appeared to have some social utility for both. Sex was a better predictor than the gender-role measures for Negative Reactions, Sleep Disturbances, and the likelihood of being Scared Today by the movie. Sensation-Seeking and Empathy were modest predictors of the same variables. In sum, the dating context seemed to encourage both men and women to behave and react in highly gender-stereotypical ways.
In this meta-analysis, we synthesized data from published journal articles that investigated viewers' enjoyment of fright and violence. Given the limited research on this topic, this analysis was primarily a way of summarizing the current state of knowledge and developing directions for future research. The studies selected (a) examined frightening or violent media content; (b) used self-report measures of enjoyment or preference for such content (the dependent variable); and (c) included independent variables that were given theoretical consideration in the literature. The independent variables examined were negative affect and arousal during viewing, empathy, sensation seeking, aggressiveness, and the respondents' gender and age. The analysis confirmed that male viewers, individuals lower in empathy, and those higher in sensation seeking and aggressiveness reported more enjoyment of fright and violence. Some support emerged for Zillmann's (1980, 1996) model of suspense enjoyment. Overall, the results demonstrate the importance of considering how viewers interpret or appraise their reactions to fright and violence. However, the studies were so diverse in design and measurement methods that it was difficult to identify the underlying processes. Suggestions are proposed for future research that will move toward the integration of separate lines of inquiry in a unified approach to understanding entertainment.
Describes the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) and its relationships with measures of social functioning, self-esteem, emotionality, and sensitivity to others. 677 male and 667 female undergraduates served as Ss. Each of the 4 IRI subscales displayed a distinctive and predictable pattern of relationships with these measures, as well as with previous unidimensional empathy measures. Findings provide evidence for a multidimensional approach to empathy. (29 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).
To facilitate a multidimensional approach to empathy the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) includes 4 subscales: Perspective-Taking (PT) Fantasy (FS) Empathic Concern (EC) and Personal Distress (PD). The aim of the present study was to establish the convergent and discriminant validity of these 4 subscales. Hypothesized relationships among the IRI subscales between the subscales and measures of other psychological constructs (social functioning self-esteem emotionality and sensitivity to others) and between the subscales and extant empathy measures were examined. Study subjects included 677 male and 667 female students enrolled in undergraduate psychology classes at the University of Texas. The IRI scales not only exhibited the predicted relationships among themselves but also were related in the expected manner to other measures. Higher PT scores were consistently associated with better social functioning and higher self-esteem; in contrast Fantasy scores were unrelated to these 2 characteristics. High EC scores were positively associated with shyness and anxiety but negatively linked to egotism. The most substantial relationships in the study involved the PD scale. PD scores were strongly linked with low self-esteem and poor interpersonal functioning as well as a constellation of vulnerability uncertainty and fearfulness. These findings support a multidimensional approach to empathy by providing evidence that the 4 qualities tapped by the IRI are indeed separate constructs each related in specific ways to other psychological measures.
The goal of the study is to better understand the relationship between factors involved in moral judgment of entertainment and the enjoyment of crime drama. After completing numerous social-justice measures, the 139 participants viewed one of two clips from a crime-punishment movie and then responded to survey items regarding their enjoyment of the clip. The clips differed in the type of crime presented. It was predicted that the different crimes would elicit different levels of moral judgment about the punishments for those crimes, which would then impact enjoyment. Although the levels of enjoyment reported for the two clips were similar, enjoyment was predicted by different factors of moral judgment in each condition, as predicted. The results lend further support to disposition theory and the integrated model of crime-drama enjoyment, as well as identify factors of moral reasoning that consistently serve as predictors of crime-drama enjoyment.
A total of 228 9th and 10th graders completed a questionnaire that measured (among other variables) the use and perceived effectiveness of strategies for coping with scary films (distraction, unreality, momentary avoidance, interpersonal comfort), coping style (monitoring, blunting), and two dimensions of empathy (empathic concern, personal distress). Regression analyses identified predictors of each strategy for coping with scary films. In general, the results for coping style were consistent with evidence that blunting is characterized by distraction or reinterpretation of scary events, whereas monitoring is characterized by attention to threat cues. With regard to empathy, results were consistent with expectations based on the other-oriented focus of empathic concern and the self-oriented focus of personal distress. Findings also suggested that effective coping may enhance empathic viewers' enjoyment of scary films. Finally, gender differences in coping were interpreted as evidence of gender role socialization of emotions.
The author analyzes the Halloween series, particularly Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982), to assess the prevalence (and endurance) of modern horror film franchises. He argues that economic realities of Hollywood more directly explain the continuation of such series than does postmodern theory.
This investigation was based on the premise that cognitive processes play a role in an individual's fear response to scary movies. One implication of this assumption is that past experiences stored in long‐term memory may be an important component of the fear response. The present research was undertaken to develop a reliable and valid measure of the nature of these past experiences. The result was a 10‐item scale that has evidence of reliability and validity. Implications for using this scale were discussed.
Many recent studies in mass communication have investigated emotional responses to frightening movies and television programs. However, little research has been directed toward documenting and explaining the occurrence of enduring fright reactions that linger on, in one form or another, long after exposure to the media stimulus. The present study investigated the relationship between individual differences in “arousability”; (as measured by the Stimulus Screening Questionnaire) and the tendency to report enduring negative reactions from exposure to frightening media. In addition, participants in the study were exposed to a segment from a frightening film and self‐report indicators of emotional response were collected and related to arousability. Skin temperature and skin conductance were also monitored during the film segment and related to arousability. The results indicated that arousability was related to both enduring and immediate fright reactions. The physiological indicators were associated with arousability for males, but not for females. Future research directions are suggested.
This paper reports data from a survey of college students that indicates that the experience of intense, enduring fright after media exposure is common. In order to understand why some individuals experience such intense levels of fright, the activation‐arousal framework is explicated and linked to these responses. Mehrabian's Stimulus Screening Scale and Miller's Behavioral Style Scale are taken as indicators of a bias toward activity in the arousal system. The data shows that individuals who experience intense, enduring fright from mass media exposure are likely to receive high scores on these measures. Limitations and future research are discussed.
A study of viewer responses to film clips containing scenes of graphic horror was designed to evaluate the effect of empathy upon emotional reactions. Prior to viewing, subjects completed questionnaires measuring dimensions of empathy, including wandering imagination, fictional involvement, humanistic orientation, and emotional contagion. Several weeks later, subjects were exposed to movie clips containing graphic scenes of horror. During exposure, measures of skin temperature were obtained as an indicator of physiological response. Immediately following exposure, subjects filled out a questionnaire measuring emotional and behavioral responses. The data were subjected to path analysis in order to test a model relating dimensions of empathy to emotional and behavioral responses. The results indicate that empathy is a critical variable for consideration in research on emotional reactions to graphic horror.
An experiment examined the factors that contribute to children's enjoyment of frightening mass media, in an effort to extend recent research with adults. The study focused on suspense (indexed by worry and fear) and character liking as mediators of enjoyment. Children at two age levels viewed a scary program that concluded with either a successful resolution of a threat or no resolution. Forewarning of the threat and information about the happy outcome were varied. Predictions were derived from excitation transfer theory and disposition theory, as well as from theory and research on relevant developmental changes. Prior knowledge of the happy outcome reduced liking for the program, but this effect was not mediated by worry or fear. For both age groups, negative affect during the program was associated with marginally greater enjoyment of the resolved ending, but less enjoyment of the unresolved ending. In contrast, negative affect was associated with greater enjoyment of both versions of the program overall. This and other findings support the view that certain elements of suspense are enjoyable, independent of the outcome. There was some evidence that children's ability to enjoy fear‐inducing media develops with age, and that their enjoyment is increasingly influenced by their affect toward the characters. Skin temperature and heart rate provided no physiological support for the excitation transfer hypothesis. Sex differences in the relationship between negative affect and enjoyment were also observed.
The present investigation explores the enjoyment of cinematic tragedy. In particular, it examines the seemingly paradoxical relationship between the intensity of empathic distress during exposure, on the one hand, and the magnitude of enjoyment following exposure to the entire drama, on the other. In a quasi-experimental design, trait empathy (low, high) was cross-varied with gender of respondent. Empathic reactions of negative hedonic valence were obtained at three points during the film. After film exposure, respondents indicated their enjoyment of the film as a whole. Results showed proportional hedonic reversals from distress to enjoyment. High empathizers experienced more empathic distress during the film than low empathizers, but also enjoyed the film as a whole more than low empathizers did. Additionally, females experienced more empathic distress than males, but also enjoyed the film as a whole more than males did. Those who experienced greater hedonic lows during exposure to tragic happenings thus came to experience greater hedonic highs after the resolution of tragic drama.
This study explores whether amount of exposure to entertainment television violence, local newspapers, and local television news relates to reactions to reading news stories that recount violent events. Survey results from three regions in the United States show bivariate connections between average media exposure levels and each of three indicators of desensitization. Multivariate results provide partial support for the idea that heavy local news consumption—presumably due to the presence of violent content—can contribute to a blunted response to news stories regarding real-life violent events when individuals have low trait empathy.
To explore lingering effects of frightening media, 530 papers written by students over a three-year period (1997-2000) were reviewed. The students could write about their own fright reactions or about a response they had witnessed in another person. Almost all students (93 percent) wrote about their own experiences, and the overwhelming majority (91 percent) described reactions to realistic fiction or fantasy content (depicting impossible events) rather than to the news or a docu- mentary.The ninety-one papers about the four presentations cited most frequently— Jaws, Poltergeist, The Blair Witch Project, and Scream—were content analyzed. Of the papers, 46 percent reported an effect on bedtime behavior (e.g., sleep disturbances) and 75 percent reported effects on waking life (e.g., anxiety in related situations). Among the prominent effects on waking life were difficulty swimming after Jaws (in lakes and pools as well as the ocean); uneasiness around clowns, televisions, and trees after Poltergeist; avoidance of camping and the woods following The Blair Witch Project; and anxiety when home alone after Scream. More than one-third of the papers reported effects continuing to the time of the study. These consequences attest to the enduring power of emotional memory even when the viewer is aware that the response is to a large extent irrational. Possible reasons for these lingering effects are discussed.
In this chapter, the author presents the research ideas discussed at the 1995 conference on "Altruism, Ethics, and Compassion" that took place in Dharamsala, India. The capacity to feel others' emotions and to experience concern for their welfare, as well as the prosocial behavior that is believed to result from other-oriented concern, are the focus of this chapter. In particular, the relation between empathy-related responding and prosocial behavior is discussed briefly, after which the socialization correlates of empathy/sympathy and prosocial behaviors are reviewed. The author concludes that certain parental practices and behaviors, particularly those related to the socialization of emotion, are associated with Western children's empathy-related reactions. In addition, the constellation of socializers' practices, beliefs, and characteristics, as well as the emotional atmosphere of the home, seems to be related to children's prosocial development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
This study identifies four motivations adolescents report for viewing graphic horror films: gore watching, thrill watching, independent watching, and problem watching. On the basis of a uses and gratifications model of media effects, it is argued that viewing motivations are predictors of responses to graphic horror. This study also seeks to extend Zillmann's excitation-transfer model of media effects to predict under what conditions viewing-generated arousal is transferred to positive or negative affect. The dispositional characteristics of fearfulness, empathy, and sensation seeking are found to be related to different viewing motivations, providing a viewing-related personality profile for the four different types of adolescent viewers. The four viewing motivations are found to be related to viewers’cognitive and affective responses to horror films, as well as viewers’tendency to identify with either the killers or victims in these films. Directions for future research addressing the role of viewing motivations in the relationship between violent media, cognitive and affective responses, and subsequent behavioral aggression are discussed.
The concept of met emotions (appraisals of emotional reactions) was used in three studies designed to explore the enjoyment of sad films and to develop a scale that would reflect such gratifications. Study 1 showed that sad reactions in response to this type of entertainment were positively related to enjoyment and that females reported stronger reactions both in terms of enjoyment and in terms of sad responses than males. The Sad-Film Scale (SFS) developed in Study 1 was positively associated with measures of empathy, femininity, and positive appraisals of sad emotions. Study 2 found evidence of the scale's reliability and validity. Study 3 demonstrated predictive validity of the SFS in terms of the enjoyment of a specific sad film and in terms of favorable ratings of met emotions reported directly after viewing a sad film.
“Transportation into a narrative world” is an experience of cognitive, emotional, and imagery involvement in a narrative. Transportation theory (Green & Brock, 2000, 2002) provides a lens for understanding the concept of media enjoyment. The theory suggests that enjoyment can benefit from the experience of being immersed in a narrative world, as well as from the consequences of that immersion. Consequences implied by transportation theory include connections with characters and self-transformations.
By using a survey interview, two adult populations ( n = 53 and 72) were randomly sampled to determine how common it is for theatrical motion pictures to produce clinically significant stress-type reactions. A special questionnaire was prepared to gather data that would, among other things, determine whether or not a subject had been disturbed by a film and what that person's emotional and behavioral reactions were when they indicated that they were disturbed. There were three hypotheses: (1) At least 25% of individuals in the populations sampled can identify at least one film each that had stimulated a stress-type reaction lasting at least 2 days. (2) Films identified would include movies in addition to The Exorcist and Jaws, the only ones identified in clinical literature as having produced reactions to stress. (3) Graphic violence would be the principal element identified as a stressor in the films. Data from the samples support the first and second hypotheses but do not support the third.
A model of empathy and emotional reactions to horror
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Empathy-related emotional responses, altruism, and their socialization Visions of compassion: Western scientists and Tibetan Buddhists examine human nature
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