Feeling transcendent? Measuring psychophysiological responses to self-transcendent media content

摘要: Self-transcendent media experiences are thought to involve cognitive engagement and mixed affect, leading to psychological well-being. The current study investigated whether these characteristics were reflected in viewers’ psychophysiological responses and sharing intentions. Multilevel model analyses revealed that viewers (n = 57) allocated more cognitive resources to encoding (heart rate), experienced greater physiological arousal (skin conductance level), and less positive but greater negative affect (facial electromyography), and were more motivated to share content (prosociality) when exposed to self-transcendent videos relative to humorous videos. Moreover, specific self-transcendent portrayals (appreciation of beauty and excellence, gratitude, and hope) elicited greater cognitive effort and mixed affect relative to the average response of these videos. In line with emotional flow, cognitive resources …