Why We Like to Watch Sad Films. The Pleasure of Being Moved in Aesthetic Experiences
Why We Like to Watch Sad Films. The Pleasure of Being Moved in Aesthetic Experiences
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DOI：
10.1037/a0035690
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发表时间：
2014-05-01
影响因子：
3.6
通讯作者：
Menninghaus, Winfried
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Hanich, Julian;Wagner, Valentin;Menninghaus, Winfried
本文探讨了一个古老而令人费解的问题：悲伤等负价情绪如何与审美喜好甚至愉悦相结合？我们认为，这个问题的答案必须考虑到被感动的感觉，这是一种复杂的情感状态，在诗学和美学史上发挥着重要作用，并且最近开始引起心理学研究的兴趣。我们在真实的电影院中进行了一项研究，使用电影剪辑作为引发悲伤的刺激。总共 76 名参与者观看了 38 个片段，这些片段呈现了同一悲伤场景的不同形式：一个角色或一组角色得知一位亲密之人的去世。该研究揭示了悲伤和快乐之间存在高度显着的正相关关系。然而，这种相关性几乎完全是由感动的感觉来调节的。因此，悲伤的主要作用是推动和强化被感动的情绪状态。此外，研究表明，被感动在两个意义上是一个积极的术语。首先，它指的是整体积极的感觉。其次，它表明了对电影引发这种感受的力量的积极价值判断。因此，我们得出的结论是，悲伤电影和其他形式的艺术的接受者所享受的是被感动本身的整体积极感觉——我们只是喜欢被感动。总而言之，我们的发现对于调查所谓的“悲伤电影悖论”以及更普遍地与负面情绪相关的审美愉悦具有重要意义。
This article investigates an age-old, puzzling question: how can a negatively valenced emotion such as sadness go together with aesthetic liking and even pleasure? We propose that an answer to this question must take into account the feeling of being moved, a complex emotional state that plays a major role in the history of poetics and aesthetics and has recently begun to attract interest in psychological research. We conducted a study in an actual cinema using film clips as sadness-eliciting stimuli. In total, 76 participants watched 38 clips that presented variations of the same sad scenario: a character or a group of characters learns about the death of a close person. The study revealed a highly significant positive correlation between sadness and enjoyment. However, this correlation was almost fully mediated by the feeling of being moved. Hence sadness primarily functions as a contributor to and intensifier of the emotional state of being moved. Furthermore, the study revealed that being moved is a positive term in two senses. First, it refers to an overall positive feeling. Second, it indicates a positive value judgment regarding the power of a film to elicit such feelings. Therefore, we conclude that it is the overall positive feeling of being moved itself that recipients of sad films and other forms of art enjoy-we simply like to be moved. Taken together, our findings are significant for investigations of the so-called 'sad-film paradox' and the aesthetic pleasure associated with negative emotions more generally.