ABSTRACT
After clarifying several issues that have unnecessarily complicated and confused the analysis of emotion arising from fiction, this chapter integrates research-supported psychological and physiological paradigms of emotion to explain the diversity of affective reactions to dramatic fictional formats. Cinematic presentation is of focal interest, but alternative forms of presentation are given attention also. The three-factor theory of emotion and the excitation-transfer paradigm are employed to account for the elicitation of emotional reactions and for the intensity of these reactions. In an analysis of excitatory functions, the escalation of affect intensity by dramaturgic means is given special consideration. A theory of the formation of affective dispositions and their consequences for empathic responding is based on the analysis of cognitive functions. In this connection, a model of the dispositional override of empathy is featured to shed light on seemingly inappropriate, malicious, if not sadistic, joyous reactions to others’ demise. Cognitive functions are further explored in the emotional effect of moral sanction.
