What’s the Big Deal about Horror Movies, and Who Watches Them, Anyway?

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Mathias Clasen
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Simulation Theory ◽  
Horror Films ◽  
Adaptive Function ◽  
Horror Genre ◽  
Vicarious Experiences ◽  
Main Attraction

The audience for horror films is more diverse than many people seem to assume. The genre appeals to women and men, young and old, thrill seekers and neurotics alike. The horror genre is also more popular than many might assume, with hundreds of horror movies being produced in the United States each year, and an increase in horror movie production in recent decades. When people seek out horror movies, they desire emotional stimulation, and the fear elicited by a horror movie is a main attraction, not an unfortunate byproduct. The threat simulation theory of horror argues that people have safe, vicarious experiences with dangerous scenarios through scary fiction. This adaptive function of horror explains the paradoxical appeal of the genre.

The Question of Détente

Worldview ◽  
1976 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 7-13
Author(s):  
Hans J. Morgenthau
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
The United States ◽  
Abstract Concept ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
General Abstract ◽  
Main Attraction

Détente is one of those concepts that perhaps only a theologian is qualified to discuss, because it is a general, abstract concept that can mean anything to anybody. Indeed, the main attraction of the concept lies in this generality and abstractness. Obviously, you cannot come out against detente and in favor of bigger and better tensions. No more than you can come out against peace and in favor of war. Or in favor of hatred and against the brotherhood of man. Thus we are dealing with a concept that in itself is perfectly meaningless. It means nothing to say that there is détente between the United States and the Soviet Union without going down the list of points of tension and asking yourself what has happened with those tensions because of a so-called détente.

Testing a Social Schematic Model of Police Procedural Justice

2018 ◽  
Vol 81 (2) ◽  
pp. 97-125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin T. Pickett ◽  
Justin Nix ◽  
Sean Patrick Roche
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Procedural Justice ◽  
The United States ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Schematic Model ◽  
Relational Justice ◽  
Social Schema ◽  
Perceptions Of Police ◽  
Police Procedural ◽  
Vicarious Experiences

Procedural justice theory increasingly guides policing reforms in the United States and abroad. Yet the primary sources of perceived police procedural justice are still unclear. Building on social schema research, we posit civilians’ perceptions of police procedural justice only partly reflect their personal and vicarious experiences with officers. We theorize perceptions of the police are anchored in a broader “relational justice schema,” composed of views about how respectful, fair, and unbiased most people are in their dealings with others. Individuals’ experiences with certain nonlegal actors and neighborhood environments should directly affect their relational justice schema and indirectly affect their evaluation of police. Nevertheless, experiences with police, especially mistreatment by officers, should also affect perceived police procedural justice and may moderate the effects of relational justice schema endorsement. We test our hypotheses in two studies with national samples. The findings strongly support a social schematic model of perceived police procedural justice.

A Report on the Available Recordings of Middle Eastern Music in the United States

1978 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Lorraine Sakata ◽  
Charlotte F. Albright ◽  
A. Jihad Racy ◽  
Philip Schuyler
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Popular Music ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
The United States ◽  
Dance Music ◽  
Belly Dance ◽  
Clear Cut ◽  
Eastern Music ◽  
Main Attraction

Recordings of Middle Eastern music are too numerous to list and discuss individually here, but certain exemplary recordings and labels will be noted in this report.Generally speaking, there are two types of recordings of Middle Eastern music available in the United States. One type is intended for general audiences and includes popular music sung by internationally known singers such as Um Kalthum and Fairuz, and orchestral ensembles playing what has become known as “Belly dance” or “Oriental dance” music. Intended for relatively easy listening, very little information is offered about the performances; the main attraction being the artists themselves or the accompaniment to dance. The second type of recording is generally more informative and concentrates on the music as well as the musicians. The division between the two types is certainly not clear cut and many recordings may be described as a little of each.

John Kramer for President: The rise of authoritarian horror

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 123-140
Author(s):  
Reece Goodall
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
United States Of America ◽  
The United States ◽  
Horror Films ◽  
Demographic Changes ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
Political Force ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World

In 2016, Donald Trump was elected President of the United States of America, to great surprise. His election has been connected to the emergence of authoritarianism as a political force in America, as political scholars have argued Trump’s campaign success lay in how his rhetoric is authoritarian in nature, and how it activates an authoritarian tendency in a sizeable portion of the voter base in response to social and demographic changes within the country. This article argues that contemporary horror cinema reflects and responds to the rise of American authoritarianism. Building on the work of scholars of authoritarianism, this article outlines a number of characteristics of authoritarian horror films. Specifically, it analyses the case study of Jigsaw to argue that two understandings are possible, linked to the coding of both the authoritarianism associated with the villain and the social threats they react to as troubling. It then draws on a number of further examples (Unfriended, Don’t Hang Up and the Purge films) to suggest that the emergence of this tendency within horror cinema is reflective of an increasingly polarized population and that, although the films explicitly condemn authoritarianism through their villain characters, they simultaneously cater to both halves of this divide by also depicting the world in which these authoritarians rise as horrific.

Cinema Part 1: Horror before Hammer

2015 ◽  
pp. 63-76
Author(s):  
Marcus K. Harmes
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Early Development ◽  
The United States ◽  
The State ◽  
Conventional Wisdom ◽  
Horror Films ◽  
The Uncanny ◽  
Viable Model ◽  
Made In

This chapter discusses the influences of earlier gothic works on the making of The Curse of Frankenstein. It describes the use of the uncanny, or the appearance of things, objects, situations or people that promote feelings of dread or uncertainty as characteristic of the gothic style. It discusses some of the earlier gothic works in literature and cinema, and the state of horror films in the 1950's as a low point in horror cinema. It discusses comedy horror and points out that in the early development of The Curse of Frankenstein, the film was originally going to at least be partly comedic, which is a reminder of the condition of the horror industry in both Britain and the United States prior to 1956. The chapter points out that while conventional wisdom insists that these horrors made in Hollywood eventually tailed off in quality, they did not lose popularity, giving Hammer a viable model for adaptation.

Correlative microscopy in distrubuted (client/server) computing environments: tools for catalyzing the rapid dissemination of information about the cell biology of the human prostate

1995 ◽  
Vol 53 ◽  
pp. 682-683
Author(s):  
A. Hakam ◽  
J.T. Gau ◽  
M.L. Grove ◽  
B.A. Evans ◽  
M. Shuman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cell Biology ◽  
Tissue Bank ◽  
The United States ◽  
Prostate Adenocarcinoma ◽  
Correlative Microscopy ◽  
Client Server ◽  
Critical Elements ◽  
Transplant Organ

Prostate adenocarcinoma is the most common malignant tumor of men in the United States and is the third leading cause of death in men. Despite attempts at early detection, there will be 244,000 new cases and 44,000 deaths from the disease in the United States in 1995. Therapeutic progress against this disease is hindered by an incomplete understanding of prostate epithelial cell biology, the availability of human tissues for in vitro experimentation, slow dissemination of information between prostate cancer research teams and the increasing pressure to “ stretch” research dollars at the same time staff reductions are occurring.To meet these challenges, we have used the correlative microscopy (CM) and client/server (C/S) computing to increase productivity while decreasing costs. Critical elements of our program are as follows:1) Establishing the Western Pennsylvania Genitourinary (GU) Tissue Bank which includes >100 prostates from patients with prostate adenocarcinoma as well as >20 normal prostates from transplant organ donors.

Digital image acquisition, processing, and analysis in a polymer microscopy laboratory

1994 ◽  
Vol 52 ◽  
pp. 454-455
Author(s):  
Vinod K. Berry ◽  
Xiao Zhang
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Image Analysis ◽  
Digital Image ◽  
Image Acquisition ◽  
Image Transmission ◽  
The United States ◽  
Quantitative Image Analysis ◽  
Quantitative Image

In recent years it became apparent that we needed to improve productivity and efficiency in the Microscopy Laboratories in GE Plastics. It was realized that digital image acquisition, archiving, processing, analysis, and transmission over a network would be the best way to achieve this goal. Also, the capabilities of quantitative image analysis, image transmission etc. available with this approach would help us to increase our efficiency. Although the advantages of digital image acquisition, processing, archiving, etc. have been described and are being practiced in many SEM, laboratories, they have not been generally applied in microscopy laboratories (TEM, Optical, SEM and others) and impact on increased productivity has not been yet exploited as well.In order to attain our objective we have acquired a SEMICAPS imaging workstation for each of the GE Plastic sites in the United States. We have integrated the workstation with the microscopes and their peripherals as shown in Figure 1.

Silence of the Land: On the Historical Irrelevance of Territory to Congressional Districting and Political Representation in the United States

2001 ◽  
Vol 15 (01) ◽  
pp. 53-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Rehfeld
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
House Of Representatives ◽  
Political Representation ◽  
The United States ◽  
Representative Government ◽  
Congressional District ◽  
Congressional Districts ◽  
Communities Of Interest

Every ten years, the United States “constructs” itself politically. On a decennial basis, U.S. Congressional districts are quite literally drawn, physically constructing political representation in the House of Representatives on the basis of where one lives. Why does the United States do it this way? What justifies domicile as the sole criteria of constituency construction? These are the questions raised in this article. Contrary to many contemporary understandings of representation at the founding, I argue that there were no principled reasons for using domicile as the method of organizing for political representation. Even in 1787, the Congressional district was expected to be far too large to map onto existing communities of interest. Instead, territory should be understood as forming a habit of mind for the founders, even while it was necessary to achieve other democratic aims of representative government.

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