How much do movies influence what we believe? It’s a simple question, but one with several possible answers.
On one side of that debate are many moviemakers (as well as those who craft TV shows, music and video games) who argue vociferously that their creative endeavors have zero influence whatsoever on an audience’s beliefs, attitudes or actions. They argue that entertainment merely reflects culture’s values without reinforcing or reshaping them.
That’s exactly the argument made by horror movie director Eli Roth back in 2007 when he rejected the possibility that violent films might plant similarly violent ideas in viewers’ heads:
I’d love to see us get to a point where you can go to theaters and see movies unrated and that people know it’s not real violence. It’s all pretend. It’s all fake. It’s just acting. It’s just magic tricks. Hopefully we’ll get to a point where people realize movies don’t cause violence.
On the other side, social scientists regularly ponder and parse the ways popular entertainment impacts those who consume it. And Plugged In dutifully reports the correlations they discover—correlations that sometimes imply that movies (as well as other forms of entertainment) influence viewers in significant, measurable ways.
The latest study to zero in on how movies might mold viewers’ attitudes comes courtesy of political scientists at the University of Notre Dame. In a nutshell, they’ve found that watching sentimental, left-leaning films can push uncritical viewers in a more liberal direction.
The researchers, led by Dr. Todd Adkins, surveyed 268 students about their political views. Then they showed them one of several films with what researchers described as leftward political leanings, then surveyed the students again. They found that “[movies] possess the ability to change attitudes on issues that are unframed by the media.”
Adkins added specifically that viewers who weren’t thinking critically about film seemed most likely to be influenced. “Viewers come expecting to be entertained and are not prepared to encounter and evaluate political messages as they would during campaign advertisements or network news.”
Personally, I found that observation pretty interesting. Adkins suggests that there are contexts in which our critical defenses are more likely to be up when it comes to evaluating rhetorical or persuasive ideas—namely, political ads and broadcast news. But because we don’t necessarily expect political ideas it get smuggled into movies, it’s easier to let our guard down. The result? Films that pair a compelling story with subtle political ideas may have more power to shape an uncritical viewer’s views than ads or news explicitly attempting to achieve the same end.
I think there are a couple of significant takeaways from this study. First, it reminds us that moviemakers have a worldview—a certain perspective on reality—that influences the stories they tell and the values they emphasize. Second, we would do well to remember that reality every time we sit down to watch a movie, keeping our critical faculties engaged enough to evaluate a given film’s ideas, arguments and perspective on what is true, what is good and what matters most in life. Finally, critiquing a film’s worldview—whether we agree with it, disagree, or find ourselves somewhere in between—is an activity that’s best conducted in a group afterward.
So the next time you watch a movie, whether at home or in a theater, make sure you leave some time afterward to kick around its ideas among your friends and/or family. Because there just might be more going on in a given story than you immediately realize, ideas that could come to light as you and your fellow moviegoers take time to parse a film’s ideas and ideology together.
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