A study of viewer responses to film clips containing scenes of graphic horror was designed to evaluate the effect of empathy upon emotional reactions. Prior to viewing, subjects completed questionnaires measuring dimensions of empathy, including wandering imagination, fictional involvement, humanistic orientation, and emotional contagion. Several weeks later, subjects were exposed to movie clips containing graphic scenes of horror. During exposure, measures of skin temperature were obtained as an indicator of physiological response. Immediately following exposure, subjects filled out a questionnaire measuring emotional and behavioral responses. The data were subjected to path analysis in order to test a model relating dimensions of empathy to emotional and behavioral responses. The results indicate that empathy is a critical variable for consideration in research on emotional reactions to graphic horror.
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