THE INFLUENCE OF PSYCHOLOGY IN SUPERNATURAL BELIEFS THROUGH ENJOYMENT IN WATCHING HORROR MOVIES

Abstract

The Malaysian film industry in the 21st century is overwhelmed with the production of various genres of films with the horror genre was seen dominating other genres in the industry. Amidst concerns by both the public and leaders on the effect on horror movies to the society, audiences seem to continue to enjoy watching horror movies as seen from the movie ticket sales trend in the market. This has raised a question on the factors leading to the enjoyment of watching horror movies and the effect on supernatural belief. The basic model of Suspense Enjoyment Watching Horror Movies developed by Zillmann (1996) and Zillmann and Weaver (1996) was used to identify the relationship between big five personalities and psychology towards supernatural beliefs through the influence of enjoyment. Specifically the study looks into the effect of the psychology factors namely (i) empathy; (ii) negative feelings; and (ii) positive feelings on supernatural belief through the mediating role of enjoyment. In the first phase of the research, data was collected to explore on the preferred horror movie genre among the audience. 36.1% of the respondents were in favor of the psycho thriller genre compared to eight other genres, such as horror, crime thriller, horror, action horror, drama horror, comedy horror and romantic horror. Based on the results in the first phase of data collection, Jwanita (2015) film was chosen to prime stimulus for the research. Interviews with the experts in the film studies were also conducted to support the findings. The next phase involved 317 Muslim adolescent audiences aged 14 to 23 from Kedah, Malaysia who agreed to take part in the research. Structural Equation Modeling, together with SmartPLS 3.0 software were used to analyse 23-research hypotheses developed. The results showed that there is a significant correlation between the three variables in psychology (empathy, positive feelings and negative feelings) with enjoyment. Further findings indicate on the significant mediating effect of enjoyment on the relationships between positive feelings with supernatural beliefs. The importance of enjoyment as a mediating factor is proven from the full mediation result between with supernatural beliefs. The forecasting model through SEM analysis showed a high goodness of fit (GoF) value of 0.832. The findings of the study can be used to extend the Model of Suspense Enjoyment in watching horror movies through scientific evidences and analysis.