Do Others Influence Our Movie Reviews?

Do Others Influence Our Movie Reviews?

Researchers have determined the presence of other people may enhance the movie-watching experience. The researchers at the Journal of Consumer research are the first to examine how a shared experience affects our overall impressions of an experience as a whole. Researchers observed that movie-watchers influence one another and gradually synchronize their emotional responses while watching a film together. The bottom line is that mimicry of this type affects each participant’s evaluation of the overall movie experience, and therefore the movie reviews are usually in sync.

The research was accomplished as follows. The researchers asked the participants in the study to watch a video clip. While some viewers watched the film alone, others had comrads watch it with them. There was a partition in between some of the paired participants so their expressions could not be viewed. There were others left with no partition, whose expressions could be seen. Joysticks were used by all to indicate their feelings at each moment while viewing the clip.

When the participants were asked how much they liked the movie clip, each reported higher ratings the more their assessments lined up with the other person. Apparently when they mimicked expressions, people catch each other’s moods. This leads to a shared emotional experience. In the end, that feels good to people, so they attribute that good feeling to the quality of the movie.

Researchers determined that those people watching who watched the film clip together appeared to evaluate the film within the same broad mood – either tracking up or down. The researchers also videotaped the participants and found that people adopt the observed expressions of others – the synchrony of their evaluations can be traced to the fact that they glanced at the other person while they watched the movie clip.

If by chance they looked at one another at the exact same moment in time …the researchers said they appeared to note whether the other person’s face expressed the same or different emotion than their own. If they perceived congruity – or the same expression as their own, the participants kept their current emotional expression . . . however if they perceived incongruity, or a different expression, this led to a dampening of subsequent expressions. Researchers concluded that these social effects were bi-directional, meaning that the influences were not the result of a leader-follower pattern, but rather mutual.

The study was the first to look at contagious emotions in a naturally developing relationship between two participants.

Source: Suresh Ramanathan and Ann L. McGill, “Consuming with Others: Social Influences on the Moment-to-Moment and Retrospective Evaluations of an Experience.” Journal of Consumer Research: December 2007.

Watch the video related to Movie Reviews

20th, Summit Entertainment has released an EPK for the media to use. If youre not familiar with the term EPK, it stands for Electronic Press Kit. An EPK is where the studio puts movie clips, trailers, and behind the scenes footage from whatever movie theyre promoting. Anyway, Ive taken the movie clips Summit released, as well as all the behind the scenes footage, and posted two videos after the jump. While the three clips have already been released over the past two weeks, the ten …

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9 Responses to “Do Others Influence Our Movie Reviews?”

  1. teegees1 says:

    couldnt do it they where his leutinants

  2. BlasterMaster321 says:

    At 7:30 they shot devastator like in revenge of the fallen.

  3. omygodsword says:

    the way the autobot jumps on to the decepticon tank at 0:52 and moves it so it misses hot rod, kinda looks like what jazz did to brawl in the 2007 movie…coincedence? :D

  4. BrutalityExtensions says:

    I just barely noticed at 3:42 shrapnel only has one pincer

  5. JesterzPlauge says:

    “Dare” by Stan Bush

  6. RedGuards says:

    What is the name of the song played at 0:50?

  7. babiankladd says:

    why couldn’t they kill off all the shitty characters and leave the best ones.. Optimus Prime, Ratchet, Ironhide should have made it

  8. DonKain says:

    Because that move was based on the one shown here.

  9. 360wii156 says:

    lol ahh my foot!

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