BRIEF REPORT. A revised film set for the induction of basic emotions. Johannes Hewig. Friedrich-Schiller-UniversitaÈt Jena, Germany

Transcription

1 COGNITION AND EMOTION 2005, 19 (7), 1095±1109 BRIEF REPORT A revised film set for the induction of basic emotions Johannes Hewig Friedrich-Schiller-UniversitaÈt Jena, Germany Dirk Hagemann and Jan Seifert UniversitaÈt Trier, Germany Mario Gollwitzer UniversitaÈt Koblenz-Landau, Germany Ewald Naumann and Dieter Bartussek UniversitaÈt Trier, Germany In the past decade several film sets for the induction of emotions have been developed. These film sets mainly consist of emotional clips from feature films. Since the neutral stimuli in these sets were abstract scenes, documentary or television excerpts, the aim of the present study was to develop a set that includes comparable neutral stimuli from commercially available feature films that match the emotional ones in their content. Furthermore, the capacity of the emotional film clips to elicit a specific target emotion was evaluated. Four neutral clips were selected and shown to 38 subjects, together with 16 emotional clips from earlier studies on emotion induction. Four clips were selected to elicit anger, and three clips to elicit each of the target emotions disgust, fear, sadness, and amusement. The participants rated their feelings on 21 emotion scales. Cluster analysis confirmed the six a priori groups of films. ANOVA further revealed that the four neutral clips, were rated neutral on the valence and low on the intensity dimension. Most of the emotional film clips primarily elicited their respective target emotion. In summary, at least two clips for each target emotion were able to elicit that emotion selectively. There is a large range of procedures that have been used to elicit emotions in the laboratory (e.g., hypnosis, imagination, feedback, facial expressions, social interactions, Correspondence should be addressed to Dr Johannes Hewig, Biologische und Klinische Psychologie, Friedrich-Schiller-UniversitaÈt Jena, Am Steiger 3, Haus 1, D Jena, Germany; e- mail: hewig@biopsy.uni-jena.de # 2005 Psychology Press Ltd DOI: /

2 1096 HEWIG ET AL. music, texts, films, slides). However, film clips have several important advantages in comparison with some of these methods. Film induction protocols can be easily standardised, it is not necessary to deceive the participants about the intention of the study, and films have a rather high ecological validity, as individuals in western societies often use dynamic visual stimuli in order to experience emotions (for discussions see Gross & Levenson, 1995; McHugo, Smith, & Lanzetta, 1982; Philippot, 1993). Furthermore, meta-analyses on emotion induction propose that film clips seem to be one of the most effective ways to elicit emotions (Gerrards-Hesse, Spies, & Hesse, 1994; Westermann, Spies, Stahl, & Hesse, 1996). Since the early studies of Lazarus and colleages (e.g., Lazarus, Speisman, & Mordkoff, 1963; Lazarus, Speisman, Mordkoff, & Davison, 1962), the use of film clips for the elicitation of emotional reactions has become increasingly popular (e.g., Boiten, 1998; Gross & Levenson, 1995; McHugo et al., 1982; Philippot, 1993; Tomarken, Davidson, & Henriques, 1990). The interest in emotion induction using films does not only include verbal emotional reactions, but also physiological data, such as electroencephalogram (EEG), facial electromyogram (EMG), heart rate, skin conductance, and startle responses (e.g., Davidson, Ekman, Saron, Senulis, & Friesen, 1990; Hubert & de Jong-Meyer, 1990; Jansen & Frijda, 1994; Mewborn & Rogers, 1979). Some studies tried to elicit a specific valence and intensity (e.g. Hubert & de Jong-Meyer, 1990; van Rooijen & Vlaander, 1984), while others tried to elicit a specific target (basic) emotion (e.g., Brown, Corriveau, & Monti, 1977; Pillard, McNair, & Fisher, 1974). For example, in the context of brain asymmetry research, Tomarken, Davidson, and Henriques (1990) developed a set of eight film clips for the induction of four target emotional states. Two clips were selected to elicit positive affect and two further clips were selected for each of the target emotions sadness, anger, and disgust. In a study, which was more specifically aimed at emotion induction, Philippot (1993) developed a film set, which includes two clips for each of the target emotional states of happiness, fear, disgust, anger, and sadness, and two further neutral clips. Although most of the film clips could reliably elicit the intended target emotion, there were some difficulties in selectively eliciting anger and disgust. Anger films also elicited strong feelings of disgust and vice versa. In another study, Gross and Levenson (1995) reported on a set of 16 films, including 2 films each, for the induction of amusement, anger, contentment, disgust, fear, sadness, and surprise, and 2 neutral clips. While the induction of amusement, disgust, sadness, and surprise was achieved, this was not as clearly the case for the induction of contentment, anger, and fear. In a more recent study Hagemann et al. (1999) presented eight clips from the film set developed by Tomarken et al. (1990), four clips from Gross and Levenson's (1995) film set, and one additional neutral clip. The study confirmed the capacity of the clips to selectively induce amusement, sadness, anger, and disgust in a German sample. Although these film sets provide valuable stimuli for the induction of emotions, some limitations must be noted. A first problem may be that in some film sets, not all important emotions were included (e.g., fear in the sets of Hagemann et al., 1999; Tomarken et al., 1990). A second problem is that some studies had difficulties in selectively eliciting some of the target emotions (e.g. anger in the sets of Gross & Levenson, 1995; Philippot, 1993). Another problem may apply to the neutral film clips used in previous studies. The reported film sets (Gross & Levenson, 1995; Hagemann et al., 1999; Philippot, 1993; Tomarken et al., 1990) mainly consist of emotionally film clips from commercially available feature films. However, the neutral control stimuli were not taken from such

3 FILM AND EMOTION INDUCTION 1097 feature films. Thus, their format and content is not directly comparable to the emotional stimuli. For example, Gross and Levenson (1995) used abstract film clips, such as shapes and bars of colour, and noted that: ``In different applications, other kinds of `neutral' films may be preferable'' (p. 102). Other investigators used different material as neutral stimuli, Phillipot (1993) used excerpts from documentary films on town policy and a police officer, and Hagemann et al. (1999) included a television excerpt of a train journey. At first, all of these neutral stimuli differ from the emotion stimuli in several technical aspects, such as montage and cinematography. Furthermore, they are not part of a narrative film story and do not feature professional actors in a feature film setting. Some of the neutral clips do not even present humans at all. How these differences between the emotional and the neutral clips in their form and content may induce unwanted differences on subjective and physiological variables remains an open question. In the present study, 4 neutral clips were presented together with 16 emotional film clips used in recent studies (Boiten, 1998; Gross & Levenson, 1995; Philippot, 1993; Tomarken et al., 1990). The first aim was to validate and replicate previous findings on emotion induction using films and to confirm the capacity of the emotional film clips to induce distinct basic emotions. We included at least three clips for each of the target emotions: amusement, sadness, anger, disgust, and fear. The second aim of the present study was to identify neutral film clips that are more comparable to the emotional film clips. Thus, we selected four emotionally neutral film clips from commercially available feature films. These neutral clips were taken from films of the same period as the emotional stimuli we intended to use. METHOD Participants A total of 39 students were recruited from the University of Trier. One subject had to be excluded because his first language was Russian, not German. The remaining 38 participants (21 females, 17 males; mean age: 22.3 years, range 19±39 years) took part in four film-viewing group sessions. Stimulus material and rating scales The present film set comprised 20 film clips (see Table 1), which were extracted from commercially available feature films. All eight clips from the film set developed by Tomarken et al. (1990) were used in the study. This set includes two films for each of the four target emotions: happiness/amusement, sadness, anger, and disgust. Six film clips were taken from the film set developed by Gross and Levenson (1995). Two of them were designed to elicit anger, and four more film clips were selected to elicit sadness, amusement, disgust, and fear (we failed to get the further fear clip The Shining from the Gross and Levenson set in Germany at the time of the study, others were excluded because they were not excerpts from feature films). As we aimed to include at least three films for each target emotion, two further film clips were selected for the target emotion fear and were culled according to descriptions by Boiten (1998) from Marathon Man and according to descriptions by Philippot (1993), from Halloween. In addition, we obtained four emotionally neutral film clips from commercially available feature films. These clips were taken from Hannah and her Sisters, The Last Emperor, All the President's Men, and

4 Film title Length (s) Short clip title (Target emotion) On Golden Pond 32 Golden (amusement) An Officer and a Gentleman 111 Officer happy (amusement) When Harry met Sally 149 Harry (amusement) The Last Emperor 75 Emperor (neutral) Crimes and Misdemeanors 63 Crimes (neutral) All the President's Men 65 President (neutral) Hannah and her Sisters 92 Hannah (neutral) Gandhi 128 Gandhi (anger) Witness 91 Witness (anger) TABLE 1 Description of the film clips Synopsis read to subjects/clip description Company, year, reference Ethel is on holiday and walks through the wood. There, she meets her daughter Chelsea./Two women meet in a sunny forest. Paula works in a factory and has met the young marine officer Zack. She does not yet know, whether this acquaintance will result in something./a man meets a woman, kisses her and carries her out of a factory. Harry and Sally discuss about whether Harry would notice it if a woman could fake an orgasm./a man and a woman are talking to each other in a restaurant. The young heir of China meets the British teacher who has been assigned to him. They are talking about the lessons./a boy and an old man are talking to each other. Judah and Jack are walking through an autumnal garden. They are talking about last night's football match./two older men are talking to each other in a garden. Bob is a reporter and writes about a court case. Meanwhile, during the hearing he asks one of the attendees what had just happened./ Two men are talking to each other in a courtroom. Hannah and Holly go shopping. They are talking about last night./ Two women stroll through a shopping centre. Mahatma Gandhi, who stood up for equality and non-violence all his life, works in South Africa as a lawyer. One day the government informs the population that coloured people have to carry a certain pass./a man is beaten by a policeman for burning passes. The Amish live in small communities far from the hectic big cities and reject modern techniques and any form of violence. One day a group of Amish from Pennsylvania drives to town. There they are being stopped by a group of teenagers./a group of Amish is harassed by teenagers. Universal Pictures, 1981 (Tomarken et al., 1990) Lorimar Film Entertainment, 1982 (Tomarken et al., 1990) New Line Cinema, 1989; (Gross & Levenson, 1995) Hemdale Film Corporation/Columbia Pictures, 1989 Orion Pictures, 1989 Warner Bros/Wildwood, 1976 Orion Pictures, 1986 Goldcrest Films International, 1982 (Tomarken et al., 1990) Paramount Pictures, 1985 (Tomarken et al., 1990) 1098

5 Cry Freedom 150 Cry (anger) My Bodyguard 236 Bodyguard (anger) The Godfather 59 Godfather (disgust) Maria's Lovers 58 Maria (disgust) Pink Flamingos 29 Pink (disgust) Silence of the Lambs 202 Silence (fear) Halloween 208 Halloween (fear) Marathon Man 161 Marathon (fear) An Officer and a Gentleman 101 Officer: sad (sadness) The Killing Fields 83 Killing (sadness) The Champ 171 Champ (sadness) A group of Blacks is protesting against the racial discrimination laws in South Africa. In peaceful demonstrations they are walking through their villages./a group of black people is attacked by soldiers. Ricky is a rather shy and reserved boy. He got a new motorbike by his parents. In the park he meets a group of elder pupils./a young man is attacked and beaten up by a group of older pupils. Jack, a wealthy film producer, lives in an ostentatious villa. One morning he wakes up in his bed./a man finds the head of a horse in his bed. Ivan spends a night in a cheap hotel. While sleeping he has a dream./ A man is attacked by a rat while sleeping. John makes unusual video films. One day he films a transvestite with a poodle./a transvestite eats a dog's faeces. Clarice, a young FBI agent, is searching for a serial killer. In her investigation she also questions the tailor James./A woman follows a dangerous killer into a basement. Laurie is working as a babysitter at her parents' friends. When she arrives there one evening she does not find anybody on the ground floor, she goes upstairs./a woman finds a corpse and is being pursued by the killer. Babe has discovered the plans of a group of diamond robbers and has been captured. They try to find out from him how much he has already given away./a man is tortured by a dentist. Zack and Paula are looking for their friend Sid. They knock on the door of his motel room. As no one answers they enter the room./a couple finds a dead friend. Pran, a Cambodian reporter, has helped his American colleagues in the Cambodian civil war and fled to their embassy. His colleagues tried everything to get him a permit, but did not get one./a man has a tearful farewell with his friends. As Billy is wounded in a boxing match he summons his son./a boxer is lying severely injured on a table, when his little son enters. Marble Arch/Universal, 1987 (Gross & Levenson, 1995) 20th Century Fox, 1980 (Gross & Levenson, 1995) Paramount Pictures, 1972 (Tomarken et al., 1990) Cannon Films, 1984 (Tomarken et al., 1990) Dreamland, 1972 (Gross & Levenson, 1995) Orion Pictures, 1991 (Gross & Levenson, 1995) Falcon Films, 1978 (Philippot, 1993) Paramount Pictures, 1976 (Boiten, 1998) Lorimar Film Entertainment, 1982 (Tomarken et al., 1990) Goldcrest Films Ltd., 1984 (Tomarken et al., 1990) Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), 1979 (Gross & Levenson, 1995) 1099

6 1100 HEWIG ET AL. Crimes and Misdemeanors. Thus, the final film set included four emotionally neutral clips, four clips designed to elicit the target emotion anger, and three clips for each of the target emotions sadness, fear, disgust, and amusement. The length of the clips varied from 29 to 236 seconds. As the film set was initially developed for brain asymmetry research, the films were shown silent. This is necessary in order to avoid confounding influences of speech, music, and sounds on asymmetry measures (Tomarken & Davidson, 1994). Table 1 provides short descriptions of the film clips. The inventory for the assessment of the emotional reaction comprised 21 emotionrelated items. In order to assess the power of the film clips to distinctively induce a specific target emotion, 17 different monopolar ratings that cover a wide range of emotional states were used. The subjects were asked to rate how they felt while watching the film clip on a 0±9 scale (0 indicated not at all and 9 indicated very strong). The items were happiness, pleasure, amusement, hope, affection, desire, sympathy/empathy (MitgefuÈhl), relief, boredom, frustration, anger, rage, sadness, fear, disgust, shame and guilt. In addition we included four bipolar ratings according to the theoretical background of Russell's (1980) circumplex model of emotion (for a discussion on the use of different self-report measures see Philippot, 1993). The subjects were asked to rate whether the feeling was unpleasant (0) or pleasant (9), weak (0), or strong (9), and whether they felt stressed (0), or content (9), ecstatic (0), or depressed (9). The subjects needed about 2 minutes to complete the inventory. This was supposed to be enough time for the emotional reaction to diminish until the next film clip was presented. Procedure Four groups of participants (group size: 7±14) viewed the 20 film clips on a colour television in a normal classroom. The groups comprised either only women or men in order to avoid an interaction of both sexes in the film sessions. We used two restricted random orders of the films; each was presented to a group of men and a group of women. The first film was always the clip from Hannah and her Sisters. This clip was thought to accustom the subjects to the task and give a constant baseline stimulus (Hagemann et al., 1999). Furthermore, two clips of the same target emotion were not allowed to follow each other. The subjects were instructed to watch each film carefully and to complete 21 items on a selfreport inventory directly after each film presentation. They were further instructed to report their own feelings, rather than the feeling that might be expected while watching the film. Before each film began a synopsis (see Table 1) was read to the subjects, which roughly described a setting for the film clip and was not always identical to the real plot. These short synopses were supposed to increase the subject's involvement in the clips and improve the understanding of the events depicted in the film sequences (Tomarken et al., 1990). After the presentation of each film the subjects completed the inventory and noted whether they had already seen the film clip on television or at the cinema. RESULTS Cluster analysis of the film clips A first analysis tested whether the film clips of different target emotions were distinguishable from each other. A cluster analysis was performed on the film clips using the 17 unipolar emotional ratings averaged across all subjects as distance measures. The Ward

7 Figure 1. Dendogram of the cluster analysis on the film clips using the Ward method. 1101

8 1102 HEWIG ET AL. method based on squared Euclidean distances was used (as recommended by Milligan, 1981; for discussions see also Breckenridge, 1989; Dreger, Fuller, & Lemoine, 1988). Figure 1 shows that the distances between clips of the same target emotion were always smaller than the distances between clips of different target emotions. Thus the cluster analysis of all monopolar ratings confirmed the a priori expectation of five groups for the five different target emotions anger, disgust, fear, happiness/amusement, and sadness and of a separate sixth group of neutral clips. Film clips and emotion ratings A subsequent analysis focused on the capacity of each film clip to elicit the specific target emotion without eliciting one of the other four target emotions. We included the items that corresponded most closely to the target emotion for each class of films. For the anger clips ``rage'' (Wut), and ``anger'' (AÈ rger) were included. ``Rage'' may be even more suitable especially in German samples as the common translation of ``anger'' (AÈrger) has a connotation, which is closely linked to ``annoyance''. Furthermore, ``amusement'', ``pleasure'', and ``happiness'' were used for the happiness/amusement clips, ``disgust'' for the disgust clips, ``fear'' for the fear stimuli, and ``sadness'' for the sadness stimuli. A Film (20 levels) 6 Rating (8 levels) analysis of variance was performed, with repeated measures on both factors. There were significant main effects of Film, F(19, 703) = 34.94, p =.000, e =.75, o 2 =.49, and of Rating, F(7, 259) = 10.20, p =.021, e =.50, o 2 =.22. These main effects were further specified by a significant interaction Film 6 Rating, F(133, 4921) = 72.26, p =.000, e =.22, o 2 =.66. Thus the rating profiles of the clips differed from each other (see Figure 2). The latter interaction was directly followed by post hoc t-tests in which the target emotion of each film clip was tested against the nontarget emotion with the highest rating for that clip (20 t-tests, one for each film clip). The alpha-level was Bonferroni-adjusted to for these analyses (0.05 divided by 20). Amusement stimuli. The significantly highest rating for When Harry met Sally was ``amusement'' (M = 7.92, SD = 1.28). For An Officer and Gentleman (M = 6.16, SD = 2.37) and On Golden Pond (M = 5.13, SD = 2.57) ``pleasure'' was the highest rated emotion (all positive emotions received high ratings). The lowest rated positive emotion was still significantly higher than any of the negative emotions for all three clips (all ts>9.77 and ps<.001). Disgust stimuli. For all three disgust stimuli the highest ratings were obtained for ``disgust'': Pink Flamingos (M = 7.95, SD = 1.64), The Godfather (M = 5.90, SD = 2.45), and Maria's Lovers (M = 6.05, SD = 2.32). For Pink Flamingos the rating on ``disgust'' was significantly higher than the rating on ``amusement'' (the second highest rating, M = 2.18, SD = 2.39), t(37) = and p <.001. ``Fear'' was the second highest rating obtained for The Godfather (M = 2.63, SD = 2.28) and Maria's Lovers (M = 3.00, SD = 2.48). The ratings of ``fear'' were significantly lower than the ratings of ``disgust'', both ts(37) > 8.58 and ps <.001. Fear stimuli. For Silence of the Lambs (M = 4.63, SD = 2.69), Halloween (M = 5.08, SD = 2.68), and Marathon Man (M = 4.03, SD = 2.66) ``fear'' obtained the highest

9 ratings. The second highest rating for the fear clips was ``disgust''. The ratings of ``disgust'' for Silence of the Lambs (M = 3.03, SD = 2.60), and Halloween (M = 3.18, SD = 2.52) were significantly lower than the ratings of ``fear'', ts(37) > 3.68 and ps <.001. However, for the clip from Marathon Man the rating of ``fear'' was not significantly higher than the rating of ``disgust'' (M = 3.63, SD = 2.90), t(37) = 0.89 and p =.380. Sadness stimuli. The highest rating for the sadness films was ``sadness'': An Officer and a Gentleman (M = 5.63, SD = 2.36), The Killing Fields (M = 5.79, SD = 2.32), and Champ (M = 7.21, SD = 2.07). The second highest ratings for the sadness clips were ``disgust'' for An Officer and a Gentleman (M = 2.66, SD = 2.71), and ``rage'' for The Killing Fields (M = 3.84, SD = 2.94) and Champ (M = 2.66, SD = 2.77). For An Officer and a Gentleman sadness was rated significantly higher than ``disgust'', t(37) = 5.99 and ps <.001. For The Killing Fields and Champ, ``sadness'' was rated significantly higher than ``rage'', ts(37) > 4.80 and ps <.001. Anger stimuli. The anger clips obtained their significantly highest ratings on ``rage'': My Bodyguard (M = 7.24, SD = 2.12), Witness (M = 5.34, SD = 2.85), Cry freedom (M = 7.87, SD = 2.13), and Gandhi (M = 6.71, SD = 2.34). The highest nontarget rating was ``sadness'', My Bodyguard (M = 3.63, SD = 3.04), Witness (M = 2.03, SD = 2.34), Cry Freedom (M = 7.34, SD = 2.30), and Gandhi (M = 5.53, SD = 2.55). The ratings of ``rage'' were significantly higher than the ratings of ``sadness'' for My Bodyguard and Witness, ts(37) > 7.13 and ps <.001. However, there were no significant differences between ``rage'' and ``sadness'' for Cry Freedom, t(37) = 1.64 and p =.110, and Gandhi, t(37) = 3.01 and p =.005. (The same pattern was obtained for a comparison between anger and sadness.) Neutral stimuli. For all four neutral stimuli the highest mean emotional rating was below The highest rating was ``happiness'' for Crimes and Misdemeanors (M = 2.08, SD = 1.96), ``pleasure'' for The Last Emperor (M = 2.42, SD = 2.16), and for Hannah and her Sisters (M = 2.03, SD = 1.75), and ``amusement'' for All the President's Men (M = 1.50, SD = 1.70). For Hannah and her Sisters and for All the President's Men the positive ratings did not differ from the highest negative emotional rating (both ts < 1.55 and ps >.130), whereas for Crimes and Misdemeanors and The Last Emperor the comparison with the highest negative emotion was significant (both ts > 4.76 and ps <.001). In summary, all film clips except Cry Freedom, Marathon Man, and Gandhi met the criterion of eliciting their respective target emotion to a significantly higher degree than any other target emotion. The neutral clips Crimes and Misdemeanors and The Last Emperor showed somewhat increased positive as compared to negative affective ratings. However, these differences were on a rather low level of the rated emotions. Further findings for other ratings FILM AND EMOTION INDUCTION 1103 An additional analysis of the intensity ratings revealed that the neutral stimuli received significantly lower intensity ratings (M < 2.13, SD: 1.50±1.97) than the emotional stimuli (M > 3.92, SD: 1.16±2.79; all ts > 3.89 and ps <.001). In addition, it has to be noted that the clip from On Golden Pond received low intensity ratings (M = 3.92, SD = 2.34) as

10 1104 Figure 2 (above and opposite). Affective profiles of the set of 12 best films.

11 1105

12 1106 HEWIG ET AL. compared to all other emotional clips (all M > 4.95). The valence ratings of the neutral clips revealed medium valence ratings (M between 4.42 and 5.08, SD = 1.51±1.95), which were significantly lower than the valence ratings for all positive clips (happiness/ amusement, M > 6.74, SD = 1.29±1.77) and higher than the ratings of all negative clips (anger, fear, sadness, and disgust; M < 3.32, SD = 0.93 to 2.02; all ts > 2.72 and ps <.010). Further analyses revealed that most of the other monopolar emotional items showed very low ratings and/or no specific pattern across different classes of films (e.g., hope, desire, relief, shame, and guilt). However, the neutral clips received the highest ratings of boredom (M > 5.34, SD = 2.24±2.96) as compared to all other films (M < 2.92, SD = 0.76±3.13). Furthermore, the sadness clips and the anger clips were rated rather high on empathy (M > 4.97, SD = 1.38±2.63). Both findings will be debated in the discussion section below. DISCUSSION The aim of the present study was to present a new film set for the elicitation of basic emotional states. We included emotional film clips from earlier studies (Boiten, 1998; Gross & Levenson, 1995; Philippot, 1993; Tomarken et al., 1990), which successfully induced fear, anger, sadness, disgust and amusement. As these studies did not use comparable neutral stimuli we completed the film set with four excerpts from commercial feature films which were supposed to be emotionally neutral. The results suggest that the selective induction of anger, fear, disgust, sadness, and amusement was successful for at least two clips of each target emotion (see Figure 2 for a selection of the two best films for each class of films). Furthermore, the neutral clips received low intensity and neutral valence ratings. The cluster analysis revealed that the 20 films can be classified into five emotional (anger, fear, sadness, disgust, and amusement) and one neutral group. A subsequent ANOVA evaluated the capacity of each single film clip to elicit a specific target emotion without eliciting other target emotions. The results for the amusement clips showed that ``amusement'', ``pleasure'', and ``happiness'' yielded the significantly highest ratings for An Officer and a Gentleman, When Harry met Sally, and On Golden Pond. However, the low intensity ratings of the latter clip may advocate the use of the former clips. All three disgust clips yielded their significantly highest ratings on ``disgust''. The clip from Pink Flamingos selectively elicits disgust to a very high degree. The elicited extreme disgust may be desirable under some but not under all circumstances of laboratory research. If more moderate degrees of disgust are wanted the other two clips from The Godfather and Maria's Lovers can be used. The fear clips from Silence of the Lambs and Halloween also yielded their significantly highest ratings on their target emotion ``fear'', but the clip from Marathon Man also elicited ``disgust'' to a similar degree. All sadness clips successfully elicited ``sadness'' (significantly highest ratings). The clip from The Killing Fields received somewhat higher nontarget ratings than either The Champ or An Officer and a Gentleman (Sad). Thus, the latter clips might be preferred to the former clip. Of the anger clips, My Bodyguard and Witness selectively elicited ``rage'' (and ``anger''). However, for Gandhi and Cry Freedom high levels of ``sadness'' were reported as well. The ratings of all target emotions on the neutral clips were very low. This supports the view that the emotional reactions to these clips were small. Furthermore, the clips from

13 FILM AND EMOTION INDUCTION 1107 Hannah and her Sisters and All the President's Men did not differ in the degree they elicited positive vs. negative emotions. Though there were differences between positive and negative emotions for Crimes and Misdemeanors and The Last Emperor these differences were on a very low level of the elicited emotions, and all four neutral clips received low intensity and medium valence ratings as compared to the emotional stimuli. Conclusively, the attempt to include comparable neutral stimuli from feature films in the film set was successful. Taken together, two clips each for the selective induction of anger, fear, and amusement proved to be suitable. Furthermore, this was also the case for all clips for the induction of sadness and disgust. Additionally, all four neutral clips can be considered to be neutral according to the valence and intensity ratings and the clips from Hannah and her Sisters and All the President's Men seem to have the best properties. Some of the other emotional ratings (nontarget emotions) revealed unexpectedly high values. For example, for the neutral film clips high ratings of boredom were observed. In agreement with this result, some data suggest that boredom is inversely related to motivational relevance (Griner & Smith, 2000). It might be concluded that the state of boredom in the context of the present study may be described as an absence of an affective state. It is important to note that the participants described their emotional reaction to the neutral stimuli as neutral according to the valence of the elicited emotion and described the intensity of the emotion as very low. According to an early study by Geiwitz (1966) low arousal may alone be sufficient to trigger boredom. Thus, it can be concluded that the low intensity might be the main cause for the boredom ratings. In addition, the analysis further revealed that the anger and sadness clips triggered strong feelings of sympathy/empathy (for discussions on ``MitgefuÈhl'' and its translation in the German literature see Lueck & Rechtien, 1983; Ulich & Volland, 1998). The German word MitgefuÈhl generally refers to the empathy felt for someone who is confronted with a negative event. Thus the term may be more open to other emotions (e.g., anger and sadness) than sympathy (empathic sadness according to Eisenberg et al., 1988) but is less general than empathy (for a discussion on empathy and sympathy see Eisenberg & Strayer, 1987). Thus, it may be concluded that the finding of high ratings of sympathy/empathy does not necessarily question the successful induction of sadness and anger (or rage). Two limitations of the generality of the present findings and of using clips from feature films may be noted. First, the task of the participants is to sit and watch a screen. Thus, there is an important difference between many real-life situations where the person is active and the more passive observation of film clips. Second, the ability of the film clips to elicit the target emotions may be rather specific for western cultures. The selected film clips were taken from American feature films and their interpretation is partly due to conventions of western culture and film making. The findings, therefore, might not generalise across different cultures. CONCLUSION The aim to develop comparable neutral stimuli for the emotional feature film clips was successful. Furthermore, the finding that films clips can selectively elicit specific target emotions could be corroborated. Finally a set of two films for each of the six classes can be proposed (see Figure 2): Hannah and her Sisters and All the President's Men (neutral), An Officer and a Gentleman (happy) and When Harry met Sally (amusement), Pink

14 1108 HEWIG ET AL. Flamingos and The Godfather (disgust), Silence of the Lambs and Halloween (fear), The Champ and An Officer and a Gentleman (sad), My Bodyguard and Witness (anger/rage). Manuscript received 31 March 2003 Revised manuscript received 30 August 2004 REFERENCES Boiten, F. A. (1998). The effects of emotional behaviour on components of respiratory cycle. Biological Psychology, 49, 29±51. Breckenridge, J. N. (1989). Replicating cluster analysis: Method, consistency, and validity. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 24, 147±161. Brown, W. A., Corriveau, D. P., & Monti, P. M. (1977). Anger arousal by a motion picture: A methodological note. American Journal of Psychiatry, 134, 930±931. Davidson, R. J., Ekman, P., Saron, C. D., Senulis, J. A., & Friesen, W. V. (1990). Approachwithdrawal and cerebral asymmetry: Emotional expression and brain physiology: I. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58, 330±341. Dreger, R. M., Fuller, J., & Lemoine, R. L. (1988). Clustering seven data sets by means of some or all of seven clustering methods. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 23, 203±230. Eisenberg, N., Fabes, R. A., Bustamante, D., Mathy, R. M., Miller, P. A., & Lindholm, E. (1988). Differentiation of vicariously induced emotional reactions in children. Developmental Psychology, 24, 237±246. Eisenberg, N., & Strayer, J. (1987). Critical issues in the study of empathy. In N. Eisenberg & J. Strayer (Eds.), Empathy and its development (pp. 3±13). New York: Cambridge University Press. Geiwitz, P. J. (1966). Structure of boredom. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 3, 592±600. Gerrards-Hesse, A., Spies, K., & Hesse, F. W. (1994). Experimental inductions of emotional states and their effectiveness: A review. British Journal of Psychology, 85, 55±78. Griner, L. A., & Smith, C. A. (2000). Contributions of motivational orientation to appraisal and emotion. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 26, 727±740. Gross, J. J., & Levenson, R. W. (1995). Emotion elicitation using films. Cognition and Emotion, 9, 87±108. Hagemann, D., Naumann, E., Maier, S., Becker, G., LuÈrken, A., & Bartussek, D. (1999). The Assessment of affective reactivity using films: Validity, Reliability, and sex differences. Personality and Individual Differences, 26, 627±639. Hubert, W., & de Jong-Meyer, R. (1990). Psychophysiological response patterns to positive and negative film stimuli. Biological Psychology, 31, 73±93. Jansen, D. M., & Frijda, N. H. (1994). Modulation of the acoustic startle response by film-induced fear and sexual arousal. Psychophysiology, 31, 565±571. Lazarus, R. S., Speisman, J. C., & Mordkoff, A. M. (1963). The relationship between autonomic indicators of psychological stress: Heart rate and skin conductance. Psychosomatic Medicine, 25, 19±30. Lazarus, R. S., Speisman, J. C., Mordkoff, A. M., & Davison, L. A. (1962). A laboratory study of psychological stress induced by a motion picture film. Psychological Monographs, 76, 553. Lueck, H. E., & Rechtien, W. (1983). MitgefuÈhl ± Empathy. In H. A. Euler & H. Mandl (Eds.), Emotionspsychologie. Ein Handbuch in Schluesselbegriffen (pp. 188±194). Munich: Urban & Schwarzenberg. McHugo, G. J., Smith, C. A., & Lanzetta, J. T. (1982). The structure of self-reports of emotional responses to film segments. Motivation and Emotion, 6, 365±385.

15 FILM AND EMOTION INDUCTION 1109 Mewborn, C. R., & Rogers, R. W. (1979). Effects of threatening and reassuring components of fear appeals on physiological and verbal measures of emotion and attitudes. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 15, 242±253. Milligan, G. W. (1981). A review of Monte Carlo tests of cluster analysis. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 16, 379±407. Philippot, P. (1993). Inducing and assessing differentiated emotion-feeling states in the laboratory. Cognition and Emotion, 7, 171±193. Pillard, R. C., McNair, D. M., & Fisher, S. (1974). Does marijuana enhance experimentally induced anxiety? Psychopharmacologia, 40, 205±210. Russell, J. A. (1980). A circumplex model of affect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 39(Suppl. 6), 1161±1178. Tomarken, A. J., & Davidson, R. J. (1994). Frontal brain activation in repressors and nonrepressors. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 103, 339±349. Tomarken, A. J., Davidson, R. J., & Henriques, J. B. (1990). Resting frontal brain asymmetry predicts affective responses to films. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 59, 791±801. Ulich, D., & Volland, C. (1998). Erfassung und Korrelate von Mitgefuehl bei Erwachsenen [Assessment and correlates of sympathy in adults]. Zeitschrift fuèr Entwicklungspsychologie und Paedagogische Psychologie, 30, 89±97. van Rooijen, L., & Vlaander, G. P. (1984). Dramatic induction of depressive mood. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 40, 1318±1322. Westermann, R., Spies, K., Stahl, G., & Hesse, F. W. (1996). Relative effectiveness and validity of mood induction procedures: A meta-analysis. European Journal of Social Psychology, 26, 557±580.

16