Love, Suspense, Sex, and Violence: Men’s and Women’s Film Predilections, Exposure to Sexually Violent Media, and their Relationship to Rape Myth Acceptance

This investigation addressed the relationship between men’s and women’s predilections for film with a love story, suspense, or sex and violence theme and how that predilection related to rape myth acceptance (RMA). Also examined was how men’s and women’s predilections, as they related to RMA, were moderated by exposure to different levels of sexually violent media based on a true story. Finally, the relationship between traditional attitudes and film predilection, as well as the relationship between film predilection and attitudes toward film editing, were investigated. Results indicate that men prefer film with sex and violence significantly more than women do, whereas women prefer love stories significantly more than men do. Those with sex and violence film predilections are more accepting of RMA than those with love story or suspense predilections. Women’s film predilections and their relationship to RMA attitudes are moderated to an extent by exposure to sexually violent media based on a true story, whereas men’s attitudes remain unaffected. Finally, those with sex and violence film predilections are less in favor of film editing than are those with suspense or love story predilections. Theoretical explanations for the findings are discussed and their implications.     

Package size and perceived quality: The intervening role of unit price perceptions

This research examines how package size can influence quality judgments for packaged goods, and also identifies a price-based mechanism for the observed size–quality relationship. Results from several studies show that a product in a smaller package is rated more favorably than the equivalent product in a larger package. Further, this effect is due to the smaller package being associated with a higher unit price (despite having a lower overall price), which suggests that unit price information is more diagnostic than overall price information when forming judgments of product quality. We also find a theoretically-derived reversal of this effect under conditions in which the greater diagnosticity of unit price is overwhelmed by its lower ease of use. Namely, when overall price is the only explicitly-provided price cue and consumers are too distracted to estimate unit price, a larger package is now rated as being better. Finally, two concluding studies examine the downstream consequences of changes in package size, building off our basic conceptualization to document effects on product choice as well as consumption experience.     

Socratic Film

This article is about a relationship between the Socratic practice of philosophy and the aesthetic practice of watching and appreciating film. The conclusion that I defend is that certain narrative films, like the elenctic method in the hands of Socrates, are philosophical tools for examining our cognitive and emotional life and thus for gaining insight into aspects of our character. In the early sections of the article I construct an analogy between the practice of watching narrative film and the practice of self‐examination through dialogue and reflection. I argue that good aesthetic practice in film appreciation is analogous to good philosophical practice in the manner of Socrates, and I treat the elenchus as a method of self‐examination rather than of conceptual analysis and Socrates himself as an examiner of people rather than of abstract concepts. In the later sections I discuss three films directed by Christopher Nolan—Memento (2000), The Prestige (2006), and Inception (2010)—as paradigm cases of Socratic film. I argue that these films show us something about ourselves by prompting extemporaneous emotional responses and cognitive judgments that we come, reflectively, to reject.     

Gender differences in the pricing of professional services: Implications for income and customer relationships

This study extends our understanding of the effects of gender on both pricing behavior and owner income by examining both relationships in an experimental simulation involving owners of veterinary practices. Consistent with prior research, women owners are found to employ “compassionate pricing” more than men, even when the same services are offered. The process by which gender influences price, however is found to depend in part on one’s relationship orientation. Specifically, women are found to have a higher relationship orientation than men and relationship orientation is found to directly bias women’s transactional pricing towards more compassionate pricing. The relationship between role orientation, pricing, and income, however, is rather complex. While lower prices have a negative relationship with owner income, relationship orientation is found to have a positive direct influence on income. As a result, the influence of relationship orientation on income is found to be both negative, due to lower prices, and positive, due possibly to the resulting customer loyalty.     

Perceiving Stability in a Changing World: Combining Shots and Intergrating Views in Motion Pictures and the Real World

One of the central debates in the study of media concerns the relationship between our perception of real-world events and mediated events such as motion pictures. A number of authors have argued convincingly that both rely on similar natural perceptual processes. Here we extend this argument by reviewing research on scene perception showing that the similarity between film and natural perception includes a common tendency to perceive events as continuous in the face of large view-to-view inconsistencies. This research shows that observers are frequently unable to detect large unexpected changes that occur between views, even in objects within their focus of attention. This is true both in mediated stimuli such as motion pictures and during staged real-world interactions. Thus, perception of continuity may be an inference that proceeds in spite of impossible between-view changes, both in motion pictures and real-world scenes.     

Echoing the emotions of others: empathy is related to how adults and children map emotion onto the body

ABSTRACT

Empathy involves a mapping between the emotions observed in others and those experienced in one’s self. However, effective social functioning also requires an ability to differentiate one’s own emotional state from that of others. Here, we sought to examine the relationship between trait measures of empathy and the self-other distinction during emotional experience in both children and adults. We used a topographical self-report method (emBODY tool) in which participants drew on a silhouette of a human body where they felt an emotional response while watching film and music clips, as well as where they believed the character in the film or performer was feeling an emotion. We then assessed how the degree of overlap between the bodily representation of self versus other emotions related to trait empathy. In adults, the degree of overlap in the body maps was correlated with Perspective Taking. This relationship between cognitive empathy and degree of overlap between self and other was also found with children (8–11 years old), even though children performed worse on the task overall. The results suggest that mapping emotions observed or imagined in other’s bodies onto our own is related to the development of empathy.     

The effects of stressful arousal on conjugate lateral eye movement

This study investigated the relationship between stressful arousal and conjugate lateral eye movement tendencies in right-handed males. Sixty subjects were asked both neutral and mildly emotional questions after watching either a stressful industrial accident movie or a bland control film. Subjects had been previously classified as either right-movers, left-movers, or bidirectionals on the basis of their responses in a prefilm interview. A statistically significant interaction between dominant direction and film condition was found on right eye movement. Subjects classified as right-movers displayed increased right eye movement preferences under the stress film, compared to the neutral film condition. This effect was seen with neutral, but not mildly emotional, questions. Results were interpreted within an elaborated brain asymmetry model of conjugate lateral eye movement, in which stressful arousal is assumed to increase subjects' reliance on characteristic, neurologically based ways of dealing with stimuli. Implications for theory and research on brain-behavior relationships in ego-defensive styles are discussed.     

First‐time viewers' comprehension of films: Bridging shot transitions

Which perceptual and cognitive prerequisites must be met in order to be able to comprehend a film is still unresolved and a controversial issue. In order to gain some insights into this issue, our field experiment investigates how first‐time adult viewers extract and integrate meaningful information across film cuts. Three major types of commonalities between adjacent shots were differentiated, which may help first‐time viewers with bridging the shots: pictorial, causal, and conceptual. Twenty first‐time, 20 low‐experienced and 20 high‐experienced viewers from Turkey were shown a set of short film clips containing these three kinds of commonalities. Film clips conformed also to the principles of continuity editing. Analyses of viewers' spontaneous interpretations show that first‐time viewers indeed are able to notice basic pictorial (object identity), causal (chains of activity), as well as conceptual (links between gaze direction and object attention) commonalities between shots due to their close relationship with everyday perception and cognition. However, first‐time viewers' comprehension of the commonalities is to a large degree fragile, indicating the lack of a basic notion of what constitutes a film.     

On Noël Carroll on narrative closure

This paper examines various claims by Noël Carroll about narrative closure and its relationship to narrative connections, which are, roughly, causal connections generously conceived to include necessary conditions for sufficient conditions for an effect. I propose supplementing the expanded notion of a cause with Michael Bratman’s notion of a psychological connection to account for the particular role that human agents play in narratives. A novel and a film are used as examples to illustrate how the concept of a psychological connection eliminates the need for Carroll's condition that narratives must be globally forward-looking.     

Differentiation of existential guilt and compassion in relation to responsibility induction: a film experiment

Feelings of existential guilt are assumed to depend on the perception of a causal relationship between one's own behavior or (privileged) situation and the disadvantages of others. By contrast, pity should not depend on such perceptions. This hypothesis, which has been supported so far only by correlational studies, was tested experimentally. Eighty students were shown a film about a developing country. The film was provided with four different comments, each representing one experimental condition (between-subjects design). Experimental factors were "amount of misery of the people shown" and "subject's responsibility for these peoples' conditions of life". As expected, subjects in the condition "misery and responsibility" reported higher feelings of guilt, though no more pity than subjects in the remaining three treatment conditions (experiment 1, n = 40). This mean difference, however, was statistically significant for men only. Contrary to our theoretical expectations--and to finding from other experiments on vicarious reparation--the induction of guilt had no effect on willingness to help a third party (experiment 2, n = 40). Possible reasons for this unexpected finding are suggested.     

To Partition or Not to Partition: Role of Trade-in Price on Consumer Evaluations of Purchases Involving Trade-Ins

Many new purchases involve consumers trading in their old product at the same time, requiring them to assume the dual role of a buyer and a seller in the overall exchange. This research examines how framing the overall exchange as a partitioned transaction with separate prices for the new purchase and the trade-in, or a consolidated transaction with a single net price after accounting for the trade-in price, affects consumer preferences. We find that consumers prefer a partitioned (consolidated) transaction when the relative trade-in price is high (low). Unlike previous explanations based on heuristic processing and differential importance of the trade-in price, our reasoning is that partitioning (vs. consolidating) prices makes salient and enables evaluability of the trade-in price. In the absence of specific referents, consumers rely on the new purchase price to evaluate the merits of the trade-in price. Consistent with our reasoning, we identify boundary conditions for the findings. The presence of a favorable referent for the trade-in and whether the new purchase and the trade-in are (perceived to be) in the same product category attenuate the reliance on the new purchase price as a referent. Our findings have important theoretical and managerial implications.     

Technical filmmaking and scientific narratives: Has science overtaken fiction in recent science fiction? An analysis of Gravity,Interstellar, and The Martian

One can view the recent science fiction films Gravity, Interstellar, and The Martian as a three-part dialogue concerning the existential relationship between humanity, technology, and the science employed to create said technologies. Pitched into the deep of space, each film’s protagonist must seek to find technological answers to save their own existence. Each film’s exploration of these themes essentially questions the importance of technology as a product of scientific-calculative thinking and the validity of this thinking as the primary mode of understanding the world. In this article, I explore the existential dialogue crafted between these films through Walter Benjamin and Martin Heidegger. Through Benjamin, we will see how the medium of film is completely dependent upon technology to present its art and how this transforms the stories it tells, while also transforming the audience and the audience’s reality. Consequently, understanding the popular reception of these films becomes just as important as the films themselves for our present study. Through Heidegger, we will see how technology provides a space where we can find a truth about ourselves and our reality. However, modern technology’s increasing scientific complexity, created by scientists who in turn employ modern technology to further science, also conceals just as much as it reveals. These films provide us with an opportunity to explore a truth about our dependence upon technology even though, as technologically dependent works of art, they may also conceal how dependent upon science we have become when constructing our reality.     

Effects of Extreme‐Priced Products on Consumer Reservation Prices

We show that an extremely high‐priced product featured among more moderately priced products within a catalog can increase the reservation price for a moderately priced target product as well as the category as a whole. We investigate how this increase is influenced by the degree of relatedness between the extreme‐priced product and the target as well as the situational and temporal proximity (contiguity) in their presentation. Consistent with our conceptualization, we find that the presence of an extreme cue leads to greater changes in target reservation price when the extreme‐priced referent and target are more related and are contiguously presented. Furthermore, the impact of an extreme‐priced product's relatedness on reservation price appears to be greater when the contiguity between the extreme‐priced product and the target product is high versus when it is low.     

Perceptions of and Attitudes toward Plagiarism and Factors Contributing to Plagiarism: a Review of Studies

The abundance of information technology and electronic resources for academic materials has contributed to the attention given to research on plagiarism from various perspectives. Among the issues that have attracted researchers’ attention are perceptions of plagiarism and attitudes toward plagiarism. This article presents a critical review of studies that have been conducted to examine staff’s and students’ perceptions of and attitudes toward plagiarism. It also presents a review of studies that have focused on factors contributing to plagiarism. Our review of studies reveals that most of the studies on perceptions of plagiarism and attitudes toward plagiarism lack an in-depth analysis of the relationship between the perceptions of plagiarism and other contextual, sociocultural and institutional variables, or the relationship between attitudes toward plagiarism and students’ perceptions of various forms of plagiarism. Although our review shows that various factors can contribute to plagiarism, there is no taxonomy that can account for all these factors. Some suggestions for future research are provided in this review article.     

Indexing space and time in film understanding

We investigated the extent to which understanders monitor shifts in time and space during film comprehension. Participants viewed a feature‐length film and identified those points in the film in which they perceived a change in situation. We performed an a priori analysis of the films to identify the shifts in time, the movement of characters, and region. The relationship between the theoretical analysis of the films and the participants judgements of situational change was assessed. The results provide support for the Event Indexing Model and suggest that situation models for filmed events are indexed along multiple dimensions of situational continuity. Furthermore, the pattern of results was similar for narrative film as they are for narrative text. This finding suggest that there are general mechanisms for event understanding that operate independently of medium or mode of experience. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The effect of price discounts on green consumerism behavioral intentions

Green consumerism encourages consumers to demonstrate environmentally friendly behavior for protecting the environment and health of human beings. For example, if consumers wish to purchase take‐out beverages, they are encouraged to bring their own cups or water bottles rather than use disposable cups. This study, through 2 experiments, discussed the use of price discounts for encouraging green consumerism behavioral intentions. Experiment 1 examined the relationships among a green promotion setting, perceived nonmonetary and monetary sacrifice, and purchase intention toward the list price. The results of hierarchical regression models based on 120 valid questionnaires showed that perceived nonmonetary sacrifice fully mediated the relationship between a green promotion setting and the purchase intention toward the list price. Experiment 2 investigated the relationship between price discount levels and frames and a green or general promotion setting used by take‐out beverage shops. The results of the analysis of variance based on 900 valid questionnaires demonstrated that (i) the variation in consumer purchase intention in response to green consumerism promotion was lower than that in response to general promotion; (ii) the price discount threshold used in green consumerism promotion was 20%, which was higher than that in a general promotion setting; and (iii) consumers preferred a percentage discount offered during green consumerism promotion; however, they preferred a discount with a specific dollar amount in a general promotion setting. These results provide suggestions for improving green marketing and green consumerism. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

WAR FANTASIES: MEMORY,TRAUMA AND ETHICS IN ARI FOLMAN'S WALTZ WITH BASHIR

This paper explores the relationship between memory, trauma and ethics in the Israeli war film Waltz with Bashir (Ari Folman, 2008). I argue that Waltz with Bashir highlights a traumatic rupture between history and memory, and points to the decline of national collective memory in Israel. In the film, the war is represented as the private memory of a distinct social group—soldiers who fought in the First Lebanon War—and is no longer a collective memory, a lived and practised tradition that conditions Israeli society. The film is constructed as a kind of lieu de mémoire that houses repressed traumatic events that have been denied entry into the nation's historical narrative, and which the protagonists feel duty bound to remember. This detachment from the national collective memory draws the film into a timeless world of dreams, hallucinations and fantasies. The film does not aspire to reveal the true details of the war. Rather, it is concerned with memory and the very process of remembering, as well as with the ethical questions that they pose to both the film's protagonists and its viewers. These questions are reflected both in the film's narrative and in its unique aesthetics.     

The Relationship between Mindfulness and Subjective Well-Being: Examining the Indirect Effects of Self-Connection and Meaning in Life

Over the past decade, support for the relationship between mindfulness and happiness has increased dramatically. The consensus is that people who are mindful also experience greater happiness. However, little is still known about how and why greater mindfulness leads one to be happier. The current research calls on recent theorizing to help understand the process by which this occurs. In particular, we studied the indirect effects of both self-connection and meaning in life on the relationship between mindfulness and subjective well-being. To this end, we compiled data collected in our lab over the past 3 years. A total of 2,929 participants provided cross-sectional data while 465 participated in longitudinal studies. Across both samples, the data supported our proposed model. Self-connection and meaning in life combined to mediate the relationship between mindfulness and the various aspects of subjective well-being. In all, it is clear that, although mindfulness is important, self-connection and meaning in life play key roles in one’s subjective well-being. This suggests that more research and interventions should focus on ways to increase self-connection and meaning in life as ways to help people experience greater happiness.

     

The “enhanced” warrior: drone warfare and the problematics of separation

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, or drones, are increasingly employed for military purposes. They are extolled for improving operational endurance and targeting precision on the one hand and keeping drone crew from harm on the other. In the midst of such praise, what falls by the wayside is an entangled set of concerns about the ways in which the relationship between the pilots and their operational environment is being reconfigured. This paper traces the various manifestations of this reconfiguration and goes on to situate our being-with drones in a broader set of sociotechnical practices that shape our understanding of visual technologies. Our inquiry is grounded in technical reports of performance, media coverage of accidents, as well as a detailed first-person account of a former drone pilot. Our analysis suggests that being-with drones is disciplining our perception in subtle ways that remain underexplored. We conclude that when it comes to appraising technologies that interface with the human sensorium, functionalist claims of enhancement are inadequate to the task and propose that phenomenology’s commitment to the phenomena themselves can serve as a useful corrective.     

'Oh Rose, thou art sick!' Anti-individuation forces in the film American Beauty

The film American Beauty is used as a vehicle to explore difficulties in the individuation process, to look at a particular aspect of couple relationships in which mourning is avoided, and to make a general comment about the relationship between film and psychological experience. The thesis of the paper is that the individuation process is both an intra-psychic experience and an inter-psychic one which relies on relationships with external figures to enable development. The adult couple relationship is taken as one of the key areas of emotional life for the individuation process and as an area that can best show up false starts, successes, or even retreats in psychological development. Using the poetry of William Blake and the work of Michael Fordham, I show a process of anti-individuation going on in the relationship between the characters of Lester and Carolyn Burnham in the film.