Empathy and Movies

Odyne said:
Some emotional drama might get to me and I end up feeling bad for the characters, especially things that I can relate to can imagine it in a past personal experience. If I haven't experienced the emotion before I wouldn't really understand or react.

As far as physical pain goes, it depends; the one that gets to me the most is what humans do to each other (like the vid that [MENTION=1519]The Jester[/MENTION] just showed. I stopped it at the first punch..I just can't). That I find very very real and I react with great disgust.

Same reason why I find some horror movies scarier than others, if there's that human element hurting another it will make my spine shiver. If it's monsters, etc. then it's like watching cartoons. :P
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+1.. couldn't watch even 30 seconds of Jester's post
 
It didn't even cross my mind to even consider looking at the content of the video. I glanced at the still frame and looked past it. Pretty much anything that I even remotely think will upset me, I will not look at it at all, nor consider it.
 
^ I used to be put off by violence in films too, but it's really not that bad after you've seen a few. Becomes easier to recognize emotionally that it's just a work of fiction, and not a depiction of an actual event.
 
April said:
^ I used to be put off by violence in films too, but it's really not that bad after you've seen a few. Becomes easier to recognize emotionally that it's just a work of fiction, and not a depiction of an actual event.
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I find that in the instances of violence like in the clip that was posted, even if it wasn't a real event that was depicted I get really upset by it. I can't help but imagine all of the atrocities that actually DO go on in the world, some of which are probably even more horrific, that no one ever hears of. And it makes a fictional scene very real to me. :\
 
April said:
^ I used to be put off by violence in films too, but it's really not that bad after you've seen a few. Becomes easier to recognize emotionally that it's just a work of fiction, and not a depiction of an actual event.
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To me I just consider it an inefficency within my mind/emotions, but knowing that does not really change much going on with it at all (and trust me I do not like this aspect about myself at all), I still respond to it the same. That said, If I know something is actually real then it makes it much much worse. Honestly as I have gotten older I have become more sensitive to this sort of stuff despite having seen many things throughout my life. It's not possible for me to willingly turn off my empathy to this sort of stuff. I have had moments where I have done so, but it was circumstantal and sort of just happened (and all it did was make it easier for me to not "pay attention").
 
April said:
^ I used to be put off by violence in films too, but it's really not that bad after you've seen a few. Becomes easier to recognize emotionally that it's just a work of fiction, and not a depiction of an actual event.
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This makes sense.
I just don't want to become desensitized to it.. fiction or not.
Though I will admit I do have a morbid fascination with violence, a curiosity--I'm more interested in trying to understand the motive for violence, like after that Alba clip I went on a bunch of sites to see what the guy's issues were.

Watching violence just for the sake of watching violence is not something I can enjoy. I am even bothered by some of my boyfriends videogames. Even pretending to kill people in gameplay, I don't understand what's enjoyable about it. But I'm often told I take things too seriously.
 
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Does anyone else relate to this?
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Yep, I relate to it. I avoid certain movies because of it. I am a huge movie buff, but have to be up for certain types of movies that I think will cause me a lot of empathic pain.
 
Does anyone else relate to this?
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Yep, I relate to it. I avoid certain movies because of it. I am a huge movie buff, but have to be up for certain types of movies that I think will cause me a lot of empathic pain.
 
Yeah, in the context it was in it was way worse to be honest.
He kind of loved her.

That was the only shocking thing for me.
Why would you do that to someone you love?
 
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