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Author
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Topic: A new method of determining audience reaction to movies
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Harold Hallikainen
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 906
From: Denver, CO, USA
Registered: Aug 2009
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posted 05-13-2016 08:08 AM
http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/05/the-chemicals-we-off-gas-change-when-we-watch-something-funny-or-thrilling/
The chemicals we off-gas change when we watch something funny or thrilling
One day, air testing over a theater audience could be used to review new movies.
In cartoon worlds, squiggly lines over characters are reserved for the exceptionally smelly. But, in reality, everyone deserves those little squiggles: each of us is constantly emitting a steady stream of gases and microbes, as well as smells. And those gases may be able to reveal more about us than what we last ate (and whether it agreed with us). Our gases may also divulge what we think about movies.
In a study involving 9,500 moviegoers, researchers found that the chemicals that audience members off-gas while viewing a film reproducibly vary depending on the type of scene they’re watching. Specifically, the researchers noted synchronized changes in the amounts of specific gases during funny and thrilling bits of movies. The finding, published in the journal Scientific Reports, provides a whiff of evidence that humans may use volatile chemicals as signals. While much more data is needed to support that hypothesis, the authors speculate that audience emissions may be useful for evaluating whether movies are truly funny or thrilling.
For the study, researchers hooked up a proton transfer reaction mass spectrometer (PTR-MS) to the out-going air vents of a theater during 108 showings of 16 different films, including Buddy, The Hobbit, and Carrie. The PRT-MS measured 100 of the 872 volatile chemicals humans are known to emit, with a detection limit of sub-parts per billion.
Looking through the gas profiles of different audiences watching the same film, the researchers noted synchronized and reproduced spikes in certain chemicals. For instance, the authors noted two peaks of isoprene—an insoluble gas associated with cholesterol synthesis in humans—at specific times during The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. The peak times, the authors report, correspond to “key moments in the film when the heroine’s dress catches fire and when the final battle begins.”
The researchers next went through each movie and gave each movie scene a label. The labels included sex, comedy, suspense, and mystery. Next, the researchers analyzed the data with a supercomputer to look for more correlations between scene types and chemical emissions.
The researchers found the strongest chemical links to comedy and suspense/injury scenes. Injury scenes, a subset of suspense, were linked to spikes in methanol, acetaldehyde, 2-furanone, and butadiene. “These could be interpreted as an evolutionarily advantageous alert/stand-down signal, if perceivable by others,” the authors speculate. The emission patterns could also act as objective measures of film quality, they conclude.
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