The Startle Effect: Implications for Spectator Cognition and Media Theory

Baird, Robert D.

doi:10.2307/1213732

Cited by 30 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…The most well-used auditory (and visual) device in horror film is the startle reflex (SR), and this tends to be provoked by the jump scare referred to earlier – the sound of a bump, a sudden burst of noise, some dialogue, or music (Baird, 2000). The first known example of a startle effect in horror film is seen and heard in The Cat People (1942) when the sound of a bus door opening occurs just when the viewer is expecting an attack, but the film cuts to this noise and the shot of the door opening.…”

Section: Sound In Horrormentioning

confidence: 99%

(Why) Do You Like Scary Movies? A Review of the Empirical Research on Psychological Responses to Horror Films

Martin

2019

Front. Psychol.

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Why do we watch and like horror films? Despite a century of horror film making and entertainment, little research has examined the human motivation to watch fictional horror and how horror film influences individuals’ behavioral, cognitive, and emotional responses. This review provides the first synthesis of the empirical literature on the psychology of horror film using multi-disciplinary research from psychology, psychotherapy, communication studies, development studies, clinical psychology, and media studies. The paper considers the motivations for people’s decision to watch horror, why people enjoy horror, how individual differences influence responses to, and preference for, horror film, how exposure to horror film changes behavior, how horror film is designed to achieve its effects, why we fear and why we fear specific classes of stimuli, and how liking for horror develops during childhood and adolescence. The literature suggests that (1) low empathy and fearfulness are associated with more enjoyment and desire to watch horror film but that specific dimensions of empathy are better predictors of people’s responses than are others; (2) there is a positive relationship between sensation-seeking and horror enjoyment/preference, but this relationship is not consistent; (3) men and boys prefer to watch, enjoy, and seek our horror more than do women and girls; (4) women are more prone to disgust sensitivity or anxiety than are men, and this may mediate the sex difference in the enjoyment of horror; (5) younger children are afraid of symbolic stimuli, whereas older children become afraid of concrete or realistic stimuli; and (6) in terms of coping with horror, physical coping strategies are more successful in younger children; priming with information about the feared object reduces fear and increases children’s enjoyment of frightening television and film. A number of limitations in the literature is identified, including the multifarious range of horror stimuli used in studies, disparities in methods, small sample sizes, and a lack of research on cross-cultural differences and similarities. Ideas for future research are explored.

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Section: Sound In Horrormentioning

confidence: 99%

(Why) Do You Like Scary Movies? A Review of the Empirical Research on Psychological Responses to Horror Films

Martin

2019

Front. Psychol.

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“…In line with the notion that games can build narrative through their spatial architecture (Jenkins, 2003), we designed the world as a series of rooms that the participant walks through and explores. Critically, the threatening content of these rooms varies to elicit different levels of threat (Ntokos, 2018), including both ominously quiet periods and jump-scare style startling events (Baird, 2000). The order of these rooms was further designed to follow a narrative arc common across suspenseful media (Boyd et al, 2020;Lehne & Koelsch, 2015), beginning in a seemingly safe, neutral space, and then proceeding through a series of ambiguously threatening scenes, before returning to another neutral space.…”

Section: The Virtual Worldmentioning

confidence: 99%

The underwood project: A virtual environment for eliciting ambiguous threat

et al. 2022

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Threatening environments can be unpredictable in many different ways. The nature of threats, their timing, and their locations in a scene can all be uncertain, even when one is acutely aware of being at risk. Prior research demonstrates that both temporal unpredictability and spatial uncertainty of threats elicit a distinctly anxious psychological response. In the paradigm presented here, we further explore other facets of ambiguous threat via an environment in which there are no concrete threats, predictable or otherwise, but which nevertheless elicits a building sense of danger. By incorporating both psychological research and principles of emotional game design, we constructed this world and then tested its effects in three studies. In line with our goals, participants experienced the environment as creepy and unpredictable. Their subjective and physiological response to the world rose and fell in line with the presentation of ambiguously threatening ambient cues. Exploratory analyses further suggest that this ambiguously threatening experience influenced memory for the virtual world and its underlying narrative. Together the data demonstrate that naturalistic virtual worlds can effectively elicit a multifaceted experience of ambiguous threat with subjective and cognitive consequences.

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“…This is a respond for people who want to be interested in other lives and other worlds and media provides them a large facility. Meanwhile media use an attractive language and attract people to fantastic worlds via their languages (Baird, 2000). Media use all materials in the world and in universe to design attractive productions.…”

Section: Role Of Media In Societymentioning

confidence: 99%

Social responsibility of media on environmental dangers: Warning productions

Cereci

2017

WJER

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Environmental problems are the most serious matters which are caused by electrical and electronical and technological conditions in the world. Media are the most common instruments in the world and numerous messages are conveyed via media, even warnings or threats. Media have sovereignty on people and have power to persuade people and to persuade administrators. All topics and all matters can be used by media and media can change all matters to attractive topics and media can set a fantastic imaginary world for people. Environmental matters are sometimes used by media but media ususally focus sensational dimensions of environment and serious problems about environment are generally ignored. Media have many facilities and great power to warn people about environmental risks and envitonmental dangers and environmental responsibilities.

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The Startle Effect: Implications for Spectator Cognition and Media Theory

Cited by 30 publications

References 2 publications

(Why) Do You Like Scary Movies? A Review of the Empirical Research on Psychological Responses to Horror Films

(Why) Do You Like Scary Movies? A Review of the Empirical Research on Psychological Responses to Horror Films

The underwood project: A virtual environment for eliciting ambiguous threat

Social responsibility of media on environmental dangers: Warning productions

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