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164 10 Cinematic Creation of Emotion Dolf Zillmann THE DYNAMICS OF emotion that govern responses to actual situations versus to cinematic presentations thereof may be much the same.There is ample research evidence that demonstrates considerable commonality in the mediation of affect by the two formats (Zillmann , 2000a). However, one principal condition exists that sets cinematic storytelling apart from alternative means of relating chains of events, and this condition proves to be pivotal in considering the creation and modification of emotional reactions. The condition in question is simply that cinematic narrative invariably compresses the time course of the happenings that make up a story and then, in delivering the story, imposes reception time (Grodal, 1997). Emotions evoked in actuality by personal success or failure are usually allowed to run their course. A person, after achieving an important goal, may be ecstatic for minutes and jubilant for hours. Alternatively, a grievous experience may foster despair or sadness that similarly persists for comparatively long periods of time. Mostly for physiological reasons and also as a result of reflection, emotions are not momentary experiences , but cinematic narrative treats them as if they were. As a rule rather than the exception , featured events that instigate emotions are followed by the presentation of other events long before all relevant aspects of the instigated emotions have subsided. Such compression of emotional and nonemotional events has, as we will see, intriguing implications for emotional experience. It should be noted at this point that the compression of events in cinematic narrative does not necessarily extend to fiction generally. Written prose allows readers to pause when emotionally stirred and to continue only after recovery. All presentational formats that permit the pacing of information intake afford recipients a degree of control over their affective responding. All formats that dictate the pace of intake, whether concerning fiction or nonfiction, do not. These formats, because they impose reception time, entail unique means of evoking and escalating emotional experience. The paradigm that addresses these means focuses on the transfer of excitation from an initial emotional reaction to subsequent ones, primarily to the immediately following reaction. Excitation Transfer Cognitive activity does not sufficiently define emotional experience. It is generally thought that emotions entail a stirring, rousing, and driving component. This component of the emotions has been labeled arousal or excitation, and it has been conceived of in bodily terms. Two-factor theories have suggested an interaction between cognition and arousal, with cognition determining emotions in kind and arousal their expe- CINEMATIC CREATION OF EMOTION / 165 riential intensity and behavioral urgency (Hebb, 1955; Schachter, 1964). This conception has been elaborated in a three-factor theory that more fully accounts for the mostly involuntary evocation of excitatory activities as well as for their waxing and waning over time (Zillmann, 1978). Three-factor theory distinguishes between dispositional, excitatory, and experiential components of emotion. Both the dispositional and excitatory components integrate reflexive response tendencies with reactions acquired through learning, whereas the experiential component involves cognition in the service of behavioral guidance and response correction. Basic emotions, such as specific fears and aggressive impulsions, often defy rationality and are not instigated by reflection. Excitation associated with these emotions is obviously not controlled by contemplation either. Rather archaic mechanisms mediate these reactions, whether they are made in response to actual situations or to their iconic representations. However, cognitive elaboration can function as a corrective and diminish and shortcut emotions that are recognized as inappropriate and groundless. On occasion, it also can exacerbate and even initiate emotions. This brings us to emotional misreactions that are not recognized as such, misreactions that are regularly and often deliberately created in cinematic presentations. On the well-founded premise that cognitive adaptation to stimulus change is rapid and quasiinstantaneous whereas excitatory adaptation is sluggish and time-consuming, it can be expected that persons will quickly switch cognitively from situation to situation. In contrast, excitation instigated by a first situation will persist through a second one and possibly through yet others (Zillmann, 1996a). It is established beyond doubt that excitation , once triggered, decays rather slowly. For all practical purposes, it takes at least three minutes, often ten or more minutes, on occasion hours for excitation to return to normal levels. This is for reasons of humoral mediation. Specifically, excitatory reactions are instigated by the release of adrenal hormones (the catecholamines, epinephrine, norepinephrine, and dopamine, in particular) and, to a lesser degree, of gonadal steroids (mostly testosterone) into systemic circulation.The excitatory reactions persist until these agents...

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