Watching movies can change your perception on reality

Question

I chose to fact check the claim: "Watching movies can change your perception on reality" Over time I have realized that many movies whether they are fictional or non fictional give different perceptions on reality whether real or fake. But does that take a toll on us as a society? If a fictional movie portrays an image of a made up reality and someone likes it would that make an impact on their reality? I feel like to an extent it would take a toll on someones reality, if they see something they like. Different kinds of movies take different kinds of tolls on peoples minds. Studies say that when it comes to watching a fictional movie that we thoroughly enjoy we tend to begin to imagine that as our reality to experience what we want, even if its not true. Studies also show that it has to do with signals that get sent to our brain through sensory lights, physical objects and sounds that trigger memories, further creating a new image. So by watching different kinds of movies, does that trigger a change in your perception in reality within our society?

Comments

I actually really agree with this point and I think it's definitely something worth looking into. My only advice would be to maybe look for something that's more recent (the article linked here is more than ten years old). Plus, even thought it is technically a site that is focused on psychology questions and the person who wrote the response cited sources, it is worth noting that really anyone can write anything they want. A better source might be from a news site or a scientific journal.

Answer 1

As interesting as this point is, there is insufficient information from a verified source to prove this claim. The cite provided is not from a verified source, but instead from a site focused on psychology questions with anonymous answers. The answer provided that the claim is based on is also from an answer posted ten years ago. Also, the one source provided by the anonymous user is no longer an accessible site, so the information can't be properly fact-checked. I couldn't find anything when looking this claim up for any other sources that could back this point. I found one article from nine years ago, but it only mentioned how movies can change our moods and opinions, rather than the claim of perception of reality. I did also find an article from a year ago mentioning how movies can affect behavior and focusing more on behavioral psychology, not mentioning anything about the perception of reality being altered/changed. It's also important to mention that even though this article was from a year ago some of the studies cited from the article are from 2011 and 2012, making it seem like the information isn't quite up to date. Overall the information from the original provided source can't be properly fact-checked, and any other information about this claim from other articles doesn't have enough information about the claim.

All articles I mentioned are linked below.

https://www.psychetal.com/post/the-influence-movies-have-on-us#:~:text=We%20often%20look%20at%20movies,our%20perception%20of%20the%20world.

https://archive.nytimes.com/op-talk.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/02/04/how-movies-can-change-our-minds/