title: Emotion Elicitation: A Comparison of Pictures and Films.
abstract: Pictures and film clips are widely used and accepted stimuli to elicit emotions. Based on theoretical arguments it is often assumed that the emotional effects of films exceed those of pictures, but to date this assumption has not been investigated directly. The aim of the present study was to compare pictures and films in terms of their capacity to induce emotions verified by means of explicit measures. Stimuli were (a) single pictures presented for 6 s, (b) a set of three consecutive pictures with emotionally congruent contents presented for 2 s each, (c) short film clips with a duration of 6 s. A total of 144 participants rated their emotion and arousal states following stimulus presentation. Repeated-measures ANOVAs revealed that the film clips and 3-picture version were as effective as the classical 1-picture method to elicit positive emotions, however, modulation toward positive valence was little. Modulation toward negative valence was more effective in general. Film clips were less effective than pictorial stimuli in producing the corresponding emotion states (all p < 0.001) and were less arousing (all p ≤ 0.02). Possible reasons for these unexpected results are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Media Studies, Film, Television and Audiovisual Media, Tuebingen University Tuebingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Meike K
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Uhrig
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Psychological Institute, University of Mainz Mainz, Germany.
authors.forename: Nadine
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Trautmann
authors.affiliation: Chair of Neurophysiology, Centre of Biomedicine and Medical Technology Mannheim, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University Mannheim, Germany.
authors.forename: Ulf
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Baumgärtner
authors.affiliation: Chair of Neurophysiology, Centre of Biomedicine and Medical Technology Mannheim, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University Mannheim, Germany.
authors.forename: Rolf-Detlef
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Treede
authors.affiliation: Chair of Neurophysiology, Centre of Biomedicine and Medical Technology Mannheim, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University Mannheim, Germany.
authors.forename: Florian
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Henrich
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Psychological Institute, University of Mainz Mainz, Germany.
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Hiller
authors.affiliation: Media Studies, Film, Television and Audiovisual Media, Tuebingen University Tuebingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Susanne
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Marschall
keywords: IAPS pictures; emotion elicitation; film clips; media effects; movies