General Occurrence of Stressful Reactions to Commercial Motion Pictures and Elements in Films Subjectively Identified as Stressors

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Abstract
By using a survey interview, two adult populations ( n = 53 and 72) were randomly sampled to determine how common it is for theatrical motion pictures to produce clinically significant stress-type reactions. A special questionnaire was prepared to gather data that would, among other things, determine whether or not a subject had been disturbed by a film and what that person's emotional and behavioral reactions were when they indicated that they were disturbed. There were three hypotheses: (1) At least 25% of individuals in the populations sampled can identify at least one film each that had stimulated a stress-type reaction lasting at least 2 days. (2) Films identified would include movies in addition to The Exorcist and Jaws, the only ones identified in clinical literature as having produced reactions to stress. (3) Graphic violence would be the principal element identified as a stressor in the films. Data from the samples support the first and second hypotheses but do not support the third.

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