Can horror movies induce PTSD-like syndrome?

Araújo, Alexandre Xavier Gomes de; Luz, Mariana Pires; Berger, William; Pagotto, Luiz Felipe; Figueira, Ivan; Mendlowicz, Mauro V.

doi:10.1590/1415-4714.2019v22n2p360.11

Cited by 1 publication

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References 13 publications

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“…Horror movies were chosen as the experiment stressor in the present study because of their ubiquitous applicability and generalizability; watching horror movies is an activity people regularly participate in. Additionally, they have been reliably shown to elicit a physiological reaction [ 46 , 52 , 53 ]. This hypothesis was supported as shown by both the tonic and phasic pupil analyses.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spousal emotional support and relationship quality buffers pupillary response to horror movies

et al. 2021

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Being satisfied in marriage provides protective stress buffering benefits to various health complications but the causal mechanisms and speed at which this is accomplished is less well understood. Much of the research on health and marriage has conceptualized marital quality in a unidimensional way, with high levels of either positivity or negativity. This conceptualization may not fully capture the nuanced benefits of marital relationships. Pupillometry is an innovative method which captures the effects of marital stress buffering on the body’s autonomic nervous system in real time; pupil dilation occurs within 200ms to stress exposure. Additionally, this method records hundreds of readings per second, providing precision and sensitivity. This preregistered experiment aimed to conceptually replicate previous pupillometry stress buffering results and extend the previous findings by including a generalizable, real-life stressor—viewing a horror movie—and multidimensional relationship quality effects. Eighty-three couples (166 participants) were quasi-grouped, based on a self-reported multidimensional relationship quality scale, to either supportive or ambivalent marital relationship conditions. They were then randomly assigned to either a spousal support (i.e., handholding) or non-support (spousal absence) condition and watched clips from both horror and nature movies while pupil dilation was measured. Tonic pupillary response results revealed that the horror video clips elicited a stress response and there were significant differences between the support and non-support conditions, as well as marital relationship quality conditions. These results frame the precision, speed, and sensitivity of pupillometry as a potentially fruitful method to investigate the causal mechanisms linking stress buffering and supportive marital relationships.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%