英文摘要 |
Why does the exposure to horror movies lead to enjoyment? Current theories tend to use the effect-based definition of horror movies and ignore psychological mechanisms underlying the processing of horror movies. As a result, these theories fail to interpret the source of the enjoyment of horror movies. This paper redefines horror movies in terms of the supernatural, life threat, and movie scene, and proposes that mixed emotion (the minimum of concurrent positive and negative emotions) can resolve the mist. Participants watched sixteen movie clips while bipolar valence, unipolar valence, physiological data, and enjoyment were collected. The findings showed that the supernatural, life threat, and movie scene significantly increased mixed emotions and enjoyment. It is concluded that mixed emotion may be able to explain why and how negative events lead to positive feelings. |