Descriptions of neurotics are typically unflattering: they’re fearful, tense people, prone to catastrophise and will often shy away from challenges. Well, here’s some more uplifting news for folk matching this personality description. A study of film immersion has found that people who score highly in neuroticism (as measured by agreement with statements like “I worry a lot”) tend to feel more absorbed in films. This is associated with their enjoying horror and sad films less, but comedies more.
David Weibel and his team had 64 participants (average age 28 years) watch three movie clips taken from The Shining (the scene where the boy is playing in the hallway); The Champ (a boy’s father dies after suffering a severe beating in the ring); and When Harry Met Sally (the scene where Sally fakes an orgasm in a cafe). The participants, half of whom were students, rated how immersed they felt in the clips and how detached they felt from their real, physical environment. They also said how much they’d enjoyed the film excerpts.
The half of the participants who scored higher in neuroticism experienced more immersion during all three clips - happy, sad and scary - compared with the lower scorers in neuroticism. “A possible explanation,” the researchers said, “could be that neurotics usually have a highly reactive sympathetic nervous system making them sensitive to any environmental stimulation.”
The more neurotic participants also liked the scary and sad clips less, but enjoyed the funny clip more. The implication is that immersion mediates enjoyment, but unfortunately this wasn’t tested.
Weibel’s team said their finding has theoretical import because media experts tend to assume that engendering greater immersion in an audience will always lead to more enjoyment. “Our findings contradict this assumption,” they said. “In the two negatively connotated conditions, participants scoring high on neuroticism experienced more presence than those scoring low, but at the same time reported less enjoyment than individuals with low neuroticism scores. We therefore assume that for these participants, the feeling of being there in the sad or fearful world was experienced in a negative way. This in turn resulted in decreased enjoyment.”
_________________________________Weibel, D., Wissmath, B., & Stricker, D. (2011). The influence of neuroticism on spatial presence and enjoyment in films Personality and Individual Differences, 51 (7), 866-869 DOI: 10.1016/j.paid.2011.07.011
Buuuuuut since I love you guys for still trying here you go! Superheroes drawn in a Picasso style! It’s really really cool I recommend you check out the rest here: http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/picasso-style-superheroes
thefixtape #36
[bobec/ipecac]
01 - Peter Murphy - Velocity Bird
02 - Ben Harper - Clearly Severely
03 - Kaiser Chiefs - Back In December
04 - My Morning Jacket - Victory Dance
05 - Kasabian - Switchblade Smiles
06 - EMA - Milkman
07 - Royal Bangs - Fireball
08 - Kakkmaddafakka - Your Girl
09 - Electrelane - Saturday
10 - Vetiver - It’s Beyond MeDownload: MU
Игра на Хендж — Стоунхендж
Игра на Хендж — Стоунхендж
Филип Грос
Една игра на Хендж, мои господари?
Фигурите са подредени, изгубихме кутията
с инструкции преди години.
Виждате ли Обесника? Или
часовника в Пасианса? Кубчетата, от които
боговете израснаха? Домино?
Вие сте на ход. Вие сте пръстенът
в хълмовете, в камъните, във стените
на вашите умения. Искате да си вървите?
Търсите изход? Добре — ето и
играта. Нагдето се обърнете,
врати. Избирайте. И пристъпете, точно тъй…
И в който и от световете да се озовете,
ще е различен от всички други, само
какъв ли бил е
не ще узнаете.
Over the past few weeks there have been a lot of discussions around the blogosphere about matters of gender balance, particularly with respect to women science fiction writers. These matters are, of course, not new. One of the reasons for the sudden interest may in fact be the recent sad death of Joanna Russ, whose How to Suppress Women’s Writing deals explicitly with this topic. Previous years have also seen debates about the number of women in anthologies, on award short lists and so on…
