Your Movie Preferences May Reveal How You Deal With Emotions, Study Finds

When picking what movie to watch, you might opt for something in the genre of your choice, whether it's comedy, drama, horror, or a documentary. It turns out our go-to film genre might tell us something about how our brains process emotions. 

A study published in the Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience journal explains how scientists were able to draw these connections. The team analyzed data from 257 participants, including information about their film preferences as well as brain activity tracked by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). While in the MRI machine, the subjects were shown scared or angry faces and geometric shapes, allowing the scientists to observe their neural reactions closely. "With this established test, we can measure how the brain processes emotional stimuli," study lead author Esther Zwiky said in a statement. 

The team in particular observed the response of the amygdala, the brain's emotional processing center, as well as the nucleus accumbens, known as the brain's reward center. "Films are so fascinating because they not only depict every human emotion, but they also evoke them. Negative emotions, such as anger or fear, play a central role in many films," Zwiky explained. "The amygdala can trigger a fight-or-flight reaction in response to threats."

In the end, the researchers found that lovers of action and comedy films have the strongest reactions to negative emotional stimuli. Those who prefer documentaries or crime films and thrillers had a notably weaker reaction. 

"We found that fans of action films showed the strongest reactions in both areas. We hadn’t expected this, as action films typically provide many stimuli. Thus, it would have made more sense if action fans had been less easy to stimulate," Zwiky said. “It appears that people choose the film genres that most optimally stimulate their brains."

The findings are supported by past studies that have floated just why, for example, thriller and mystery lovers gravitate to those genres, which is that they provide gratification to our brains in some way—in this case, uncovering facts and figuring out the mystery. 

Next time you watch movies in both your preferred and not your usual genres, pay close attention to how important scenes make you feel.