Actually in the cinema: A field study comparing real 3D and 2D movie patrons' attention, emotion and film satisfaction

While 3D movies and fantasy film genre
rise in popularity, the empirical exploration of viewers' cognitive and
emotional engagement with film is currently limited and entirely derived from
laboratory based studies of small samples. This study investigated the effect
of stereoscopic realism (3D effect) on viewers' attention, emotion and satisfaction
by collecting data from 225 cinema patrons who were leaving the movie theatre
having just viewed Thor. The viewers
from the 3D condition rated their experience as more perceptually realistic and
reported being less distracted during the film than their 2D counterparts. Yet
no significant group differences were observed in self-reported emotional
arousal or satisfaction with the whole experience. Further analysis revealed
that perceptual realism was a better predictor of viewer satisfaction than
emotional arousal. We consider the idea that these findings may be a function
of the fantasy genre and call for researchers to extend this line of study.