Abstract
As we identify with characters on screen, we simulate their emotions and thoughts. This is accompanied by physiological changes such as galvanic skin response (GSR), an indicator for emotional arousal, and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), referring to vagal activity. We investigated whether the presence of a cinema audience affects these psychophysiological processes. The study was conducted in a real cinema in Berlin. Participants came twice to watch previously rated emotional film scenes eliciting amusement, anger, tenderness or fear. Once they watched the scenes alone, once in a group. We tested whether the vagal modulation in response to the mere presence of others influences explicit (reported) and implicit markers (RSA, heart rate (HR) and GSR) of emotional processes in function of solitary or collective enjoyment of movie scenes. On the physiological level, we found a mediating effect of vagal flexibility to the mere presence of others. Individuals showing a high baseline difference (alone vs. social) prior to the presentation of film, maintained higher RSA in the alone compared to the social condition. The opposite pattern emerged for low baseline difference individuals. Emotional arousal as reflected in GSR was significantly more pronounced during scenes eliciting anger independent of the social condition. On the behavioural level, we found evidence for emotion-specific effects on reported empathy, emotional intensity and Theory of Mind. Furthermore, people who decrease their RSA in response to others’ company are those who felt themselves more empathically engaged with the characters. Our data speaks in favour of a specific role of vagal regulation in response to the mere presence of others in terms of explicit empathic engagement with characters during shared filmic experience.
Highlights
The youngest film adaptation of Stephen King’s ‘It’ brought more people into the cinema than any other horror movie in history
In order to address our main hypothesis about the role of vagal flexibility in response to others’ mere presence during the enjoyment of film clips, we included the between-subject factor ‘baseline respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA)’ into the subsequent ANOVA on RSA during film viewing with the within-subject factors ‘condition’ and ‘emotion’
The aim of the present study was twofold: to understand how social company affects empathetic processes elicited by film and to investigate the role of vagal flexibility to others’ mere presence during the enjoyment of movie clips
Summary
The youngest film adaptation of Stephen King’s ‘It’ brought more people into the cinema than any other horror movie in history. The film has grossed over $653 million worldwide and set numerous box office records How can we explain that people prefer to experience the narrative around harrowing clown ‘Pennywise’ in the cinema and not at home? Scientists in the field of aesthetics, cultural and media studies claim that the future of cinema is built upon horror movies as ‘It’, suggesting that intensive societal experience lies in sharing negative emotions such as fear[1,2,3,4,5]. The aim of this study was to reveal the underlying physiological mechanisms of shared experience during film reception in a cinema, focusing on filmic experience as shared activity based on the intention to jointly attend to the same object–the movie [6]
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