Adolescents’ Motivations for Viewing Graphic Horror

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

6-1995

Publication Source

Human Communication Research

Volume Number

21

Issue Number

4

First Page

522

Last Page

552

Publisher

International Communication Association

E-ISSN

1468-2958

Abstract

This study identifies four motivations adolescents report for viewing graphic horror films: gore watching, thrill watching, independent watching, and problem watching. On the basis of a uses and gratifications model of media effects, it is argued that viewing motivations are predictors of responses to graphic horror. This study also seeks to extend Zillmann's excitation‐transfer model of media effects to predict under what conditions viewing‐generated arousal is transferred to positive or negative affect. The dispositional characteristics of fearfulness, empathy, and sensation seeking are found to be related to different viewing motivations, providing a viewing‐related personality profile for the four different types of adolescent viewers. The four viewing motivations are found to be related to viewers’cognitive and affective responses to horror films, as well as viewers’tendency to identify with either the killers or victims in these films. Directions for future research addressing the role of viewing motivations in the relationship between violent media, cognitive and affective responses, and subsequent behavioral aggression are discussed.

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