An action assembly approach to predicting emotional responses to frightening mass media

Abstract

The action assembly framework is applied to frightening mass media. The theory implies that procedural records stored in long term memory should be key factors in the production of a fear response. The study assesses the validity of a 20‐item scale that purportedly measures these long term memory records. Evidence for validity of this scale emerged in that subjects’ scale scores were related to negative emotion, negative cognitions, and skin conductance responses during film clips of scary movies.