When choosing which movie to watch, you can choose from whatever genre you prefer, whether it’s comedy, drama, horror, or documentary. It turns out that the genre of movie we go to can tell us something about how our brain processes emotions.
In a published study Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience The journal explains how the scientists were able to make these connections. The team analyzed data from 257 participants, including information about movie preferences and brain activity monitored with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). While in the MRI machine, the subjects were shown scared or angry faces and geometric shapes, allowing the scientists to closely observe their neural responses. “With this built-in test, we can measure how the brain processes emotional stimuli,” Esther Zwiky, lead author of the study, said in a statement.
The team specifically observed the response of the amygdala, the brain's emotional processing center, and the nucleus accumbens, known as the brain's reward center. “Movies are so fascinating because they not only depict every human emotion, they also evoke them. Negative emotions like anger or fear play a central role in many movies,” Zwiky explained. “The amygdala can trigger a fight-or-flight response in response to threats.”
As a result, the researchers found that those who liked action and comedy movies had the strongest reactions to negative emotional stimuli, while those who preferred documentaries or crime films and thrillers had significantly weaker reactions.
“We found that action movie fans showed the strongest responses in both areas. We didn’t expect this because action movies typically provide a lot of stimulation. So it would make sense if action fans were less easy to stimulate,” Zwiky said. “It seems like people choose the genres of movies that best stimulate their brains.”
The findings are supported by previous studies that have shown why thriller and mystery enthusiasts, for example, gravitate towards these genres because they provide our brains with some form of satisfaction – in this case, uncovering facts and solving mysteries.
The next time you watch a movie, both one you like and one you're not familiar with, pay attention to how key scenes make you feel.
