Art films foster theory of mind

Emanuele Castano

doi:10.1057/s41599-021-00793-y

Abstract

Research shows that reading literary but not popular fiction enhances the Theory of Mind (ToM). This article builds on the symmetry between literary theory and film theory and investigates whether exposure to art films, but not Hollywood films, enhances ToM. Participants (N = 232) were randomly assigned to view either art or Hollywood films and then answered questions about the film and its characters before completing two separate measures of ToM (the Read the Mind in the Eyes Test and the Moral Judgement Task). Results showed that art film viewers scored higher on both ToM measures and that the effect was sequentially mediated by perception of complexity and predictability of the characters. The findings are discussed in the context of the emerging literature on the impact of fiction on social cognition.

Highlights

Just 100 years ago Soviet filmmaker Kuleshov showed, to different audiences, footage in which a character’s neutral facial expression was followed by the image of a plate of soup, a dead girl in a coffin, or a woman on a sofa
The same analysis revealed that art films were judged to be less easy to understand
In this article, I propose that viewing art films, compared to Hollywood films, results in greater performance on Theory of Mind tasks, and that this effect is mediated by how film characters are perceived by the viewer

Summary

Introduction

Just 100 years ago Soviet filmmaker Kuleshov showed, to different audiences, footage in which a character’s neutral facial expression was followed by the image of a plate of soup, a dead girl in a coffin, or a woman on a sofa. Asked about the mental state of the character, spectators from the three audiences gave different answers, inferring hunger, grief, or desire, respectively. This is known as the Kuleshov effect: a spectator’s inferences about the mental states of a character on the screen depend on the broader context in which the character appears. The Kuleshov effect elucidates the art of feature-length film-making, through which spectators’ perceptual and cognitive processes, as well as sociocultural knowledge, are leveraged to create the cinematic experience. I propose that characteristics of the film influence what spectators infer about the characters’ mental states, and the spectators’ accuracy in making inferences about the mental states of others, outside of the fictional world of film.

Methods

Results

Conclusion