Sadness Evoked by a Film on Grief: An Experimental Study

Abstract

“What Happened to Pity?,” a BBC documentary on the grief responses to the Aberfan disaster in 1966, powerfully affects viewers and is an effective tool for the study of sadness. Observations in the classroom and in the laboratory demonstrate that the great majority of viewers experienced some degree of sadness along with anger and sympathy. Subjects classified as high loss/grief experienced more intense and extended sadness than did those who had not had significant losses. They also displayed more apprehension, anger, shame-guilt, giving-up, anxiety, and irritation. Subjects experiencing the most sadness, compared with those less affected, were more initiating and talkative and their relationships in the laboratory were closer, more gratifying, task-oriented, therapeutic, and trusting. With the film they displayed more sympathy, role-identification, personalization, and like, but felt more drained. With respect to stable personality features they were warm, sharing, introspective, dependent, and more personally (than monetarily) motivated to volunteer for the study.

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