Eliciting positive, negative and mixed emotional states: A film library for affective scientists

Abstract

We describe the creation of a film library designed for researchers interested in positive (amusing), negative (repulsive), mixed (amusing and repulsive) and neutral emotional states. Three hundred 20- to 33-second film clips videotaped by amateurs were selected from video-hosting websites and screened in laboratory studies by 75 female participants on self-reported amusement and repulsion (Experiments 1 and 2). On the basis of pre-defined cut-off values, 51 positive, 39 negative, 59 mixed and 50 neutral film clips were selected. These film clips were then presented to 411 male and female participants in a large online study to identify film clips that reliably induced the target emotions (Experiment 3). Depending on the goal of the study, researchers may choose positive, negative, mixed or neutral emotional film clips on the basis of Experiments 1 and 2 or Experiment 3 ratings.

Keywords:

• Mixed emotions
• Film clips
• Film library
• Amusement
• Disgust

Acknowledgements

We thank Brittney Reyes, Christina Dorn, Derek Ho, Isabelle Chiu and Sabrina Bhangal for their help with editing the film clips and participating in data collection, and Michael Ennis for comments on the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary material

Supplementary content is available via the ‘Supplementary’ tab on the article's online page (http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2015.1031089).

Notes

¹ In Study 1A, two sets of film clips were presented to 16 female participants (5 Caucasian, 4 Asian-American and 2 Hispanic participants and 5 declined to answer; mean age: 25.33 years, SD = 4.22, ranging from 18 to 33). In Study 1B, film clips were presented to 17 female participants, 2 of whom were excluded due to technical difficulty and non-compliance (6 Caucasian, 8 Asian-American and 3 African-American participants; mean age: 19.52 years, SD = 1.46, ranging from 18 to 23). In Study 1C, film clips were presented to 19 female participants. Two were excluded due to non-compliance (9 were Caucasian, 5 Hispanic, 1 African-American, 1 Asian-American and 3 chose other; mean age: 19.86 years (SD = 2.00, ranging from 18 to 25).

² United States Copyright Law covers video footage posted on video hosting sites, from amateur to professional work. YouTube film clips can be utilized legally for the purposes of research, criticism or for other scholarly means through the doctrine of ‘fair use’ (US Copyright Law, title XVII, § 107).

³ From these 485 film clips, 193 were identified for Study 1A (of which 85 were presented to participants), 179 were identified for Study 1B (of which 86 were presented to participants) and 113 were identified for Study 1C (of which 73 were presented to participants).

⁴ In Study 1A, 85 films were examined (19 potentially positive, 19 potentially negative and 47 potentially mixed). To avoid fatigue, 50 clips were rated by 9 participants, and the other 35 clips were rated by 7 participants. Each group of films had the same portion of film clips from all three categories. In Study 1B, 86 film clips (13 potentially positive, 15 potentially negative, and 58 potentially mixed) were presented to the participants in two sets. While participants viewed both sets, the order of the sets was randomized to avoid a potential order effect. Set A comprised of 44 film clips (7 potentially positive, 7 potentially negative, and 30 potentially mixed) and set B comprised of 42 film clips (6 potentially positive, 8 potentially negative, and 28 potentially mixed). In Study 1C, 73 (15 potentially positive, 19 potentially negative, and 39 potentially mixed) were presented in one set.

⁵ Study 1A used a 5-point scale from 1 to 5, whereas all subsequent studies used a 6-point rating scale from 1 to 6. Ratings of Study 1A were transformed onto a 6-point scale. Transformation to map the 5-point scale (x) to a 6-point scale (x'): x' = ((x – x_min) / (x_max – x_min)) × (x'_max – x'_min) + x'_min.

⁶ For the final film selection, ratings of these non-neutral films in Experiment 2 were not taken into account because these films had already been validated in Experiment 1 in which they met the inclusion criteria.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) for A.S. [grant number PBFRP1- 127896], [grant number PA00P1_136380] and for S.K. [grant number PBGEP1-125914], [grant number PA00P1_139593].