Bloody and disgusting scenes in a movie capture our attention and engage our faculties more deeply, no matter if we like such scenes or not, new research shows.
People exposed to core disgusts in the study showed higher levels of attention though they had negative reactions to the content.
Participants in the study watched clips of three distinct types of disgust — socio-moral, body product and death/gore.
Researchers measured participants’ heart rate, facial expressions and skin moisture. They also tested participants’ memory for scenes presented in the messages. The memory improved at and after disgust onset, and heart rate showed a deeper deceleration over time — showing more attention being paid to the content.
The findings were published in the Journal of Communication .
