Summary: A new study reveals that your favorite film genre may indicate how your brain processes emotions. Action and comedy lovers show strong brain reactions to negative stimuli, while those preferring crime films, thrillers, or documentaries exhibit weaker emotional responses.
Researchers used fMRI scans on 257 participants to uncover this link, offering insights into the connection between media preferences and emotional processing in the brain.
Key Facts:
- Action and comedy fans have heightened brain responses to negative stimuli.
- Crime film and documentary lovers show less emotional reaction in key brain areas.
- The study highlights how film preferences might be tailored to stimulate individual brain activity.
Source: Martin Luther University
Crime films, action films, comedies, or documentaries? A person’s favourite film genre reveals a lot about how their brain works.
This is the finding of a new study led by the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) that compared data on film preferences with recordings of the brain activity of around 260 people.
Fans of action films and comedies reacted very strongly to negative emotional stimuli, while participants who favoured documentaries or crime films and thrillers had a significantly weaker reaction.
The results were published in the journal “Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience”.
Films are an interesting phenomenon for psychologists. “Films are so fascinating because they not only depict every human emotion, but they also evoke them. Negative emotions, such as anger or fear, play a central role in many films,” says Esther Zwiky, a psychologist at MLU.
Up until recently, relatively little was known about the connection between film preferences and the processing of negative emotions in the brain.
The researchers investigated this interplay in detail by analysing data from 257 people. As part of a larger study, the respondents also provided information about their film preferences.
In addition, the participants’ brain activity was analysed using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Subjects were shown fearful or angry faces and geometric shapes while lying in an MRI machine. “With this established test, we can measure how the brain processes emotional stimuli,” explains Zwiky.
The researchers focused on two areas of the brain. First, the amygdala, which is responsible for processing vital emotions.
“The amygdala can trigger a fight-or-flight reaction in response to threats,” says Zwiky.
The team also investigated the neuronal activity of the nucleus accumbens, known as the reward centre in the brain.
The results were surprising: “We found that fans of action films showed the strongest reactions in both areas. We hadn’t expected this, as action films typically provide many stimuli. Thus, it would have made more sense if action fans had been less easy to stimulate,” Zwiky continues.
However, the results suggest that action film aficionados are particularly susceptible to emotional stimuli and find this stimulation appealing.
The team found similar brain activity in the brains of people who preferred comedies. A different picture emerged, however, for fans of crime films or thrillers and documentaries. Here, both areas of the brain reacted significantly less to the emotional stimuli than in the other groups of participants.
“It appears that people choose the film genres that most optimally stimulate their brains,” concludes Zwiky.
About this emotion and neuroscience research news
Author: Tom Leonhardt
Source: Martin Luther University
Contact: Tom Leonhardt – Martin Luther University
Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News
Original Research: Open access.
“How movies move us – movie preferences are linked to differences in neuronal emotion processing of fear and anger: an fMRI study” by Esther Zwiky et al. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience
Abstract
How movies move us – movie preferences are linked to differences in neuronal emotion processing of fear and anger: an fMRI study
Introduction:
As a source of audio-visual stimulation, movies expose people to various emotions. Interestingly, several genres are characterized by negative emotional content. Albeit theoretical approaches exist, little is known about preferences for specific movie genres and the neuronal processing of negative emotions.
Methods:
We investigated associations between movie genre preference and limbic and reward-related brain reactivity to close this gap by employing an fMRI paradigm with negative emotional faces in 257 healthy participants.
We compared the functional activity of the amygdala and the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) between individuals with a preference for a particular movie genre and those without such preference.
Results and discussion:
Amygdala activation was relatively higher in individuals with action movie preference (pTFCE-FWE = 0.013). Comedy genre preference was associated with increased amygdala (pTFCE-FWE = 0.038) and NAcc activity (pTFCE-FWE = 0.011). In contrast, crime/thriller preference (amygdala: pTFCE-FWE ≤ 0.010, NAcc: pTFCE-FWE = 0.036), as well as documentary preference, was linked to the decreased amygdala (pTFCE-FWE = 0.012) and NAcc activity (pTFCE-FWE = 0.015).
The study revealed associations between participants’ genre preferences and brain reactivity to negative affective stimuli. Interestingly, preferences for genres with similar emotion profiles (action, crime/thriller) were associated with oppositely directed neural activity. Potential links between brain reactivity and susceptibility to different movie-related gratifications are discussed.
