Emotion Elicitation Using Films

Abstract Research on emotion has undergone explosive growth during the past few decades, marked by new theories (e.g., evolutionary analyses; Tooby & Cosmides, 1990), methods (e.g., anatomically based systems for coding facial expressive behavior; see chapter 13, this volume), and findings (see Cacioppo & Gardner, 1999). Some of the research in this area has been correlational, focusing on factors that naturally covary with emotional processes, such as chronological age, physical health, or social status. However, experimental research also has flourished, focusing on emotional processes in the context of relatively well-controlled laboratory environments. Our chapter on the use of emotion-eliciting films, like many of the contributions to the Handbook of Emotion Elicitation and Assessment, lies squarely within this second, experimental tradition.