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In addition, recent developments in behavioral decision theory have formally incorporated anticipated pleasure as the critical determinant of choice, showing its stronger predictive power compared to standard utility constructs (Mellers 2000). Ironically, however, mainstream media, commercial sponsors, and the entertainment industry appear to assume that, more than ever, consumers desire to acquire and consume experiences known to elicit fear, pain, sadness, or disgust. This extends from popular television programs such as Fear Factor to horror movies

A second group of hypotheses proposes that people are focusing on the aftermath (Berlyne 1960; Solomon and Corbit 1974; Zillmann 1980). Once the aversive stimuli are removed and some level of arousal remains, subsequent feelings of relief or pleasantness emerge

People come to understand that most television programs and movies end with a feeling of relief rather than lingering negative consequences. Thus, people may be willing to endure the fear and unpleasant experiences in order to enjoy the positive

feelings brought on by relief. In fact, it is conceivable that people who can fully anticipate relief may even prefer heightened levels of negative arousal.

feelings brought on by relief. In fact, it is conceivable that people who can fully anticipate relief may even prefer heightened levels of negative arousal.

People’s somatic and psychological reactions to fear, anxiety, stress, and other aversive states have evolved as part of a complex pattern of response to real (i.e., personally relevant and consequential) events.

Horrifying and/or suspenseful movie scenes (especially those depicting people like ourselves at risk, under bodily threat, or worse) can also produce meaningful levels of negative affect and consequently fairly high arousal

We predict that, contrary to the results found in experiment 3A, no difference should emerge between FAPs and FAVs when they are all embedded within a given protective frame. In other words, FAVs should be capable of experiencing positive feelings along with feelings of fear and display a positive correlation between the two affective states. No change should be perceived among those who repeatedly chose to expose themselves to fear-arousing horror movies (FAPs), since they have apparently learned how to disengage to a necessary degree or to create a protective frame and our framing instructions should add little.

In a horror movie scenario, we provided participants with cues that would continuously remind them that the main characters were “simply actors playing a role.” Two cues were provided. First, participants were exposed to the actors’ biographies prior to the video, distancing them as “real people” from participants. Second, during the video, regular pictures of the two main actors (i.e., the scared person and the ghost) were placed next to the screen (see figs. A3 and A4 in the appendix). To avoid participants’ potential bias toward a general evaluation of the movie or of the actors,