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Chapter 13
Reactions to Disturbing
or Frightening Media
Content
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Frightening Stories As
Entertainment
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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
Explanations for the Appeal of
Fright
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Catharsis
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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)
Explanations for the Appeal of
Fright
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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)
Measuring Fright
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Self-reporting measures
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Measures of physiological responses
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Subjects are shown frightening or disturbing
content, then asked to select words or phrases
that best describe their reactions to the content.
Fright reactions are measured through
physiological responses such as a person’s heart
rate.
Fright Reactions in Children
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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.
Long-Range Effects of Fright
Reactions in Children
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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.
Dynamics of Fear Reactions to
Media Content
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Classical conditioning is the reason that fright
reactions occur despite the fact that the
viewer is not in danger and understands that.
Classical Conditioning
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Certain stimuli cause certain responses, and
similar stimuli evoke similar, but less intense,
responses
Fear-Producing Stimuli
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Three types of media content that result in
fear responses in real life:
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Dangers and injuries
Distortions of natural forms
Experience of endangerment and fear by others
Dangers and Injuries
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Natural disasters
Violent confrontations
Major wars
Animal attacks
Major accidents
Distortions of Natural Forms
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Familiar sights or organisms are shown with
a deformity, distortion, or mutilation
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Movie monsters
Experience of Endangerment and
Fear by Others
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Only category with indirect responses to
scary content
Two mechanisms that produce an indirect
response of fear:
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2.
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Empathy: identifying with the characters
Vicarious involvement: fear of audiences in
situations in which characters are unafraid
because they are unaware of impending danger
Emotional Response Factors
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3 important factors that cause viewers to
react emotionally:
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2.
3.
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Realism of depiction
Motivations of the viewer
Other factors that affect a viewer’s emotionality
Realism of Depiction
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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.
Motivations of the Viewer
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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.
Factors Affecting Viewers’
Emotional Responses
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Excitation transfer
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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.
Gender Differences
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Social pressures to conform to genderspecific behavior
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Girls- scream at horror shows
Boys- self-controlled mastery of the disturbing
content
Age Differences
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At different ages children experience different
types of fear reactions:
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3-8 yrs
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9-12 yrs
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threats of injury or destruction to self or loved ones
12+
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monsters, ghosts, supernatural creatures, the dark,
animals, strange and fast-moving creatures
personal injury, social and peer pressures and
accompanying fears, & global fears
Reason for Differences
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Cognitive development of children
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As children grow older, they respond more
intensely to media depictions that are based more
on reality than fantasy or the unrealistic.
Strategies for Coping With Fear
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Noncognitive strategies- do not require the
viewer to process verbal information
Cognitive strategies- require the activation of
cognitive processes
Types of Noncognitive Strategies
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Visual desensitization
Physical activity
Types of Cognitive Strategies
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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.