The Relationship between Religious Beliefs and Attending the Fear-Provoking Religiously Oriented Movie - “The Exorcist”

Abstract

The relationship between religious beliefs and attending the fear-provoking, religiously oriented movie “The Exorcist” was investigated. Subjects completed a Likert-type questionnaire which measured their attitudes toward various religious issues. The data showed that subjects who did not attend the movie believed more in prayer, believed less in exorcism, and attended church more than subjects who attended the movie. Furthermore, subjects who did not attend the movie scored higher on both internal and external religiosity items than subjects who did attend the movie.