Research in the International Journal of Arts and Technology monitored electrical brain activity and heart rate in people watching patriotically themed Chinese films. They found that the main incidental music in such films can increase the positive emotional response and patriotic sentiment in the audience and at the same time reduce negative emotional responses.
The findings could be used by film-makers offering content in the context of tourism, specifically cultural tourism. Such insights have potential in boosting the impact of film-themed attractions, reconstructed locations, tourism and educational programmes. The researchers add that their approach essentially uses the “internet of bodies”, a human analogue of the “internet of things”, in which technologies collect and analyse data about human behaviour and physiological states. In the cultural tourism setting, this technology would combine information gathered while people watch films with data on their behaviour and interactions at related physical sites.
The extension into social media interactions might also be used to amplify emotional responses through discussion and engagement beyond the film itself.
The approach does raise ethical questions about how physiological and behavioural data should be collected and used when technologies designed to measure audience responses become part of cultural experiences. It might be that prior consent of audience members should be necessary before anyone is subsumed into an internet of bodies system, and individuals should have the ability to opt out.
Wen, L., Sun, W. and Ding, R. (2026) ‘Neuroscientific effects of main melody films on audience patriotic sentiment in the context of culture tourism integration: an IoB perspective’, Int. J. Arts and Technology, Vol. 16, No. 9, pp.45–64.
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