ABSTRACT
Fright and violence have been featured in film and television since the early days of these media. For example, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919) is viewed as a classic of cinematic horror, and the television series Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955-1962) focused on "stories of terror, horror, suspense" (Brooks & Marsh, 1988, p. 24). Researchers have long been interested in why people apparently enjoy entertainment hat features the actual or threatened victimization of others. This meta-analysis examined some of the reasons people enjoy this type of media content. Specifically, any media offerings described as frightening, horrifying, or violent were considered. Violent media generally depict characters being attacked or physically injured by others. Scary media and horror often feature violence as well, but are designed to frighten or terrify audiences. Horror also typically involves supernatural or unnatural elements (Sapolsky & Molitor, 1996; Sparks & Sparks, 2000; Tamborini & Weaver, 1996). Although these types of content can be conceptually differentiated, they share key elements, most notably the depiction of actual or threatened physical harm to media characters, typically at the hand of external forces (e.g., other characters, natural disasters, or supernatural events). Throughout this paper these different types of content are treated similarly,
except when their unique characteristics become relevant to the discussion (cf. Sparks & Sparks, 2000).
