An actor on a screen throws a punch. We, watching, duck. What’s going on? This is a revelatory guide to the neuroscience of film
These days, human beings are nowhere more at home than in front of a screen. I refer you to Gogglebox, the Channel 4 series in which families and friends are filmed as they watch TV. Warm and secure, they exhibit all the behaviours you would expect of a species in its natural habitat: feeding, laughing, crying and fighting. It may be light entertainment, but I bet a lot of psychologists and anthropologists love it.
A few weeks ago we saw viewers’ reactions to a scene from Casino Royale. James Bond, played by Daniel Craig (pictured), has been poisoned and is desperately trying to administer an antidote before he passes out. His MI5 colleagues, patched in from London, huddle around a computer, intense concentration and alarm on their faces. The Goggleboxers in turn stare open-mouthed at the screen, their bodies rigid, necks craned towards the action. As Bond struggles with a syringe, Sandy in Brixton jabs her hand into her knee over and over, urging “inject yourself, inject yourself!”.
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