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Chapter 13

Reactions to Disturbing or Frightening Media Content

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Frightening Stories As Entertainment Throughout history, people have enjoyed

hearing frightening stories. Frightening stories have also been used to

help face personal fears. Dracula and Frankenstein War of the Worlds Friday the 13th

Halloween X-Files

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Explanations for the Appeal of Fright Catharsis

– When viewers witness graphic violence on the screen or read about it in books, they purge or rid themselves of their own violent tendencies or inclinations.

The transformations that monsters undergo provide cathartic relief for teens who are experiencing physical changes as they mature sexually. (Evans, 1984)

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Explanations for the Appeal of Fright People are able to enjoy taboo experiences in

a vicarious manner. (Wood, 1984) Rosenbaum suggested that people enjoy

horror because it encourages a belief in a superior spiritual being capable of destroying evil forces. (1979)

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Measuring Fright

Self-reporting measures– Subjects are shown frightening or disturbing

content, then asked to select words or phrases that best describe their reactions to the content.

Measures of physiological responses– Fright reactions are measured through

physiological responses such as a person’s heart rate.

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Fright Reactions in Children

Parents are usually unaware that their children experienced intense fright reactions.

Parents underestimate the severity or significance of their children’s fright.

Children enjoy being frightened.

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Long-Range Effects of Fright Reactions in Children

Sometimes children react with nightmares after viewing a disturbing program.

Years after seeing a frightening movie, children may experience night “terrors” or have strange fantasies.

Frightening media content threatens to impair psychological development.

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Dynamics of Fear Reactions to Media Content

Classical conditioning is the reason that fright reactions occur despite the fact that the viewer is not in danger and understands that.

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Classical Conditioning

Certain stimuli cause certain responses, and similar stimuli evoke similar, but less intense, responses

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Fear-Producing Stimuli

Three types of media content that result in fear responses in real life:

1. Dangers and injuries

2. Distortions of natural forms

3. Experience of endangerment and fear by others

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Dangers and Injuries

Natural disasters Violent confrontations Major wars Animal attacks Major accidents

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Distortions of Natural Forms

Familiar sights or organisms are shown with a deformity, distortion, or mutilation– Movie monsters

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Experience of Endangerment and Fear by Others

Only category with indirect responses to scary content

Two mechanisms that produce an indirect response of fear:

1. Empathy: identifying with the characters2. Vicarious involvement: fear of audiences in

situations in which characters are unafraid because they are unaware of impending danger

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Emotional Response Factors

3 important factors that cause viewers to react emotionally:

1. Realism of depiction

2. Motivations of the viewer

3. Other factors that affect a viewer’s emotionality

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Realism of Depiction Stimulus generalization: when viewers witness highly

realistic action their fright responses tend to be intensely emotional.

Particular fears of individuals also affect the intensity of emotional responses evoked.

Stimulus discrimination: the ability of audience members at various ages to be able to distinguish screen events from real-life occurrences.

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Motivations of the Viewer

Viewers who want to be entertained might purposely “forget” that the events are being staged in order to enhance enjoyment.

Viewers who want to keep fright reactions to a minimum might continue to remind themselves that the actions are only mediated.

Viewers who watch for informational purposes tend to pay more attention to the program and thus may become more aroused.

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Factors Affecting Viewers’ Emotional Responses

Excitation transfer– Audience members who are aroused before

viewing an exciting or disturbing scene build on that arousal with new responses to film scenes and produce more intense emotional reactions.

Foreshadowing of impending threats enhances the effects of a movie.

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Gender Differences

Social pressures to conform to gender-specific behavior– Girls- scream at horror shows– Boys- self-controlled mastery of the disturbing

content

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Age Differences At different ages children experience different

types of fear reactions:– 3-8 yrs

monsters, ghosts, supernatural creatures, the dark, animals, strange and fast-moving creatures

– 9-12 yrs threats of injury or destruction to self or loved ones

– 12+ personal injury, social and peer pressures and

accompanying fears, & global fears

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Reason for Differences

Cognitive development of children– As children grow older, they respond more

intensely to media depictions that are based more on reality than fantasy or the unrealistic.

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Strategies for Coping With Fear

Noncognitive strategies- do not require the viewer to process verbal information

Cognitive strategies- require the activation of cognitive processes

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Types of Noncognitive Strategies

Visual desensitization Physical activity

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Types of Cognitive Strategies

Children are told to remember that a program is not real.

Offer reassuring information about the minimal danger of any threats presented in the media.

Information can be provided verbally or visually to calm children.