According to the experts, film watching leads to a “flatter” brain hierarchy, suggesting that less neural computation is needed when performing such an activity, a finding which could explain the pleasurable and escapist feelings people have when engaging in such activities.
We have a brain that processes information very deeply and feels emotions very vividly, compared to other people. This trait is linked with many good qualities — empathy, creativity, and giftedness among them — but it also means we experience unsettling scenes very differently than other people.
Cinema serves as a mirror to society, reflecting its joys, struggles, and complexities. Through films, we witness stories that resonate with our own experiences, making us feel connected and understood. It portrays diverse cultures, lifestyles, and issues, promoting audience empathy and understanding.
However, movies can affect society in both positive and negative ways. They can help the economy grow, inspire individuals, and expand our basic knowledge of the world around us. Movies can also create violence and bad habits, can make people greedier, and can send a bad message to the public.
When we watch a TV show or movie, we empathize with fictional characters as we would with another “real” person right in front of us. We experience psychological effects such as identification, self-other taking, and the proximity effect.
How Your Favourite Movie Affects Your Brain | The Psychological Impact
How do movies affect the human brain?
The Power of Cinematic Immersion
This immersion has a profound impact on our brain activity. Research in neurocinematics has shown that immersive film experiences can synchronize brain activity across viewers more effectively than non-immersive experiences, enhancing emotional responses and cognitive engagement.
Highly sensitive people, or HSPs, can be easily overstimulated by their environment and also tend to be more empathetic than the average person. This means they may have a different or more intense physiological reaction to violent or scary movies, HSP researchers say.
As previously said, watching movies can have a positive emotional impact. Movies can calm us down and soothe us. We reduce the stress within us by lowering worry, and even watching a movie may turn all negative thoughts into the better, as long as it is enjoyable.
Films have the ability to change our lives. With stories that open up other experiences to us, and characters who navigate the forces that we also face in our own lives, the right film at the right time can be transformative.
Engaging in activities you enjoy, such as watching movies, can be beneficial. It could boost your mental health, relieve stress, and foster relationships. Still, movies aren't a treatment or cure for your mental health symptoms. If your symptoms interfere with your daily life, a mental health professional could help.
Films such as The Hunger Games contribute to adolescents' developing a realistic view of themselves and of the world, which not least creates a balance to the sometimes excessive optimism concerning actions seen in superhero or action movies.
They help us see the world through the eyes of others and to understand things that were previously alien. We empathise with the characters, see their struggles up close and will them to success.
Reality influences movies in terms of real life events and inspiration for scripts and characters. Movies can also influence reality in terms of misconceptions of culture and people.
A sad film might help us release our emotions or a comedy might lift our mood. Movies can also offer a chance to connect with and explore our emotions in a safe way. Because of the effect that films can have, there's growing interest in using them as a therapeutic tool.
Historical documents, eyewitnesses accounts, and archeological objects all claim a direct connection to events or situations that historians evaluate and interpret. Film, however, offers a unique ability to reflect and resemble historical figures and events.
We all know that feeling when leaving the cinema: inspired, driven, and imbued with a desire to take action. These sentiments come from the ability of movies, even with the most absurd plotlines, to speak to us. From action to comedy, from drama to thriller each movie can influence us and inspire people.
Films not only reflect society, but they can also change it by telling compelling, shocking, or impactful enough stories. There are examples throughout history of a film having an immense cultural impact, from widespread Dirty Dancing fever to Potter-induced mania.
It is linked to with psychological and physical health and well-being, and greater emotional intelligence helps to deal with stress and conflict. Crying in response to a movie reveals high empathy, social awareness and connection – all aspects of emotional intelligence.
It could be a sign of your emotional strength. University of Canberra professor of psychology Deborah Rickwood tells Afternoons crying in the movies is a sign that your brain is releasing the hormone oxytocin.
Our sympathetic nervous system responds to the threat and throws us into the "fight or flight" response. This results in physiological responses like increased heart rate and muscle contracting. Horror movies are designed to throw us into fight or flight mode and elicit emotions like fear and stress.
In fact, film is so effective at inducing empathy and emotion in people, it is used by researchers as a method to actually induce emotions in subjects, in order to study the brain simultaneously as they feel them.
Many studies have shown that the more time we spend viewing media, the higher the chance we'll experience low self-esteem. One study found that boys who felt pressure about their weight were more likely to have depression and engage in drug use or binge drinking.
Movies can communicate concepts, ideas and stories. They allow us to be cognitively transported to a different time or a place, and experience life through different eyes- gaining new perspectives, inspiration and understanding.
Movies teach us all sorts of things: how to aspire, who to fantasize about (all those princes will come), how to smoke, dress, walk into a room (always like Bette Davis). They teach us who to love and how, as well as the ostensible necessity of sacrificing love along with careers.
Through solid storytelling, movies sometimes stir a change within us. Good cinema teaches us lessons of resilience, hard work and being true to oneself.
