Making Sense of Entertainment
On the Interplay of Emotion and Cognition in Entertainment Experience
Abstract
This contribution explores the relationship of emotion and cognition in entertainment experience. Drawing on the reflective model of aesthetic experience (Cupchik, 1995) and the concept of appreciation (Oliver & Bartsch, 2010), we propose a multi-level view of affective processing that includes simple affect schemata as well as more elaborate forms of sociomoral reasoning that build on this basic layer of emotional meaning. To better understand how affective factors can stimulate or impede cognitive elaboration processes, we review research on motivated cognition that has dealt with the influence of arousal, valence, and personal relevance on cognitive depth. The role of affect in defensive information processing (i.e., the motivated neglect or denial of information) is also considered. Specifically, we discuss how research on motivated cognition can help explain thought-provoking entertainment experiences, and the potential of such experiences to stimulate self-reflection and personal growth.
References
2007). Persuasive effects of fictional narratives increase over time. Media Psychology, 10, 113–134.
(1996). Effects of victim exemplification in television news on viewer perception of social issues. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 73, 878–803.
(in press ). Predicting emotions and meta-emotions at the movies. The role of the need for affect in audiences’ experience of horror and drama. Communication Research. .2009, September). Movie enjoyment and appreciation: Exploring the multi-dimensionality of entertainment gratification. Paper presented at the Sixth Conference of the Media Psychology Division (German Psychological Society), Duisburg, Germany.
(2008). Transportation and transportability in the cultivation of genre-consistent beliefs and attitudes. Journal of Communication, 58, 508–529.
(1995). The crisis of public communication. London: Routledge.
(2009). Measuring narrative engagement. Media Psychology, 12, 321–347.
(1986). Communication and persuasion. New York: Springer.
(1995). Emotion in aesthetics: Reactive and reflective models. Poetics, 23, 177–188.
(2011). The role of feeling in the Entertainment = Emotion formula. Journal of Media Psychology, 23, 6–11.
(2007). Finding meaning and expressing emotion in response to artworks. Visual Arts Research, 33, 56–71.
(1998). Emotional effects of reading excerpts from short stories by James Joyce. Poetics, 25, 363–377.
(1998). Generating and receiving contextualized interpretations of sculptures. Empirical Studies of the Arts, 16, 179–191.
(1994). Descartes’ error. Emotion, reason, and the human brain. New York, NY: Putnam.
(2008). In the mood to face the facts: When a positive mood increases systematic processing of self-threatening messages. Motivation and Emotion, 32, 221–230.
(1993). The psychology of attitudes. San Diego, CA: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
(2001). The formation of beliefs in the interface of affective and cognitive processes. In , The influence of emotions on beliefs (pp. 144–170). New York: Cambridge University Press.
(1990). How emotions develop and how they organize development. Cognition and Emotion, 4, 81–127.
(1995). Mood and judgment: The Affect Infusion Model (AIM). Psychological Bulletin, 117, 39–66.
(2002). Growing up with television: Cultivation processes. In , Media effects: Advances in theory and research (pp. 43–67). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
(2009, May). Film involvement and narrative persuasion: The role of identification with the characters. Paper presented at the 59th Annual International Communication Association Conference, Chicago, USA.
(1973). Use of mass media for important things. American Sociological Review, 38, 164–181.
(1995). Increasing the persuasiveness of fear appeals: The effect of arousal and elaboration. Journal of Consumer Research, 22, 448–459.
(2006). Parasocial interactions and relationships. In , Psychology of entertainment (pp. 291–313). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
(2000). The limited capacity model of mediated message processing. Journal of Communication, 50, 46–71.
(2008). Understanding the interactive effects of emotional appeal and claim strength in health messages. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 52, 432–447.
(1991). Emotion and adaptation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
(2002). Synaptic self: How our brains become who we are. New York: Viking.
(2001). The need for affect: Individual differences in the motivation to approach or avoid emotions. Journal of Personality, 69, 583–615.
(1998). The development of self through the coordination of component systems. In , Self-awareness. Its nature and development (pp. 332–384). New York: Guilford Press.
(1999). A cognitive-functional model for the effects of discrete negative emotions on information processing, attitude change, and recall. Communication Theory, 9, 292–320.
(1993). Exploring the paradox of the enjoyment of sad films. Human Communication Research, 19, 315–342.
(2010). Appreciation as audience response: Exploring entertainment gratifications beyond hedonism. Human Communication Research, 36, 53–81.
(2009, May). The role of mixed affect in the experience of meaningful entertainment. Paper presented at the 59th Annual International Communication Association Conference, Chicago, USA.
(2008, May). Development of hedonic and eudaimonic measures of entertainment motivations: The role of affective and cognitive gratifications. Paper presented at the 58th Annual International Communication Association Conference, Montreal, Canada.
(1986). The elaboration likelihood model of persuasion. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 19, 123–205.
(1985). Amusing ourselves to death: Public discourse in the age of show business. New York: Viking.
(2002). Walking the tightrope between feeling good and being accurate: Mood as a resource in processing persuasive messages. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83, 510–525.
(1988). The effects of physiological arousal on information processing and persuasion. Journal of Consumer Research, 15, 379–385.
(2001). Appraisal considered as a process of multilevel sequential checking. In , Appraisal processes in emotion (pp. 92–120). New York: Oxford University Press.
(2000). Tabloid tales. Global debates over media standards. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
(1988). On the perceived functions of movies. Journal of Psychology, 122, 441–449.
(1995). Positive mood can increase or decrease message scrutiny: The hedonic contingency view of mood and message processing. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 5–15.
(1999). Fictional narratives change beliefs: Replications of Prentice, Gerrig, and Bailis (1997) with mixed corroboration. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 6, 136–141.
(2000). Exemplification in communication: The influence of case reports on the perception of issues. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
(