The claim that watching movies can change your perception of reality is true. A good example of this is film propaganda. In a peer reviewed article titled “Fears as a Socio-Psychological Phenomenon in Cold War Film Propaganda”, the author Ekaterina V Prosolova discusses how Soviet and American film propaganda during the Cold War shaped public fears about the enemy. By analyzing over 150 films made between 1946 and 1991, Prosolova identifies common narrative patterns used to simplify and stereotype opposing sides. The overall findings of her work determine that film propaganda reinforced these fears in mass consciousness, helping them persist well into the late 20th century and remain relevant in modern Russian-American relations. This is obviously a specific case, but it already shows the impact film propaganda can have on not just individual perception of reality, but a collective perception. In another peer reviewed source, members of the Department of Psychology at Stony Brook University; Matthew A. Bezdek, Jeffrey E. Foy, and Richard J. Gerrig wrote an article arguing that when people watch narratives, such as films, they mentally respond as if they were involved in real events. Through two experiments using a think-aloud method, the authors examined these “participatory responses” and concluded that these responses are central to how audiences will experience and understand narratives (like films) and should be included in theories of narrative comprehension. I think one of the most valuable sources I looked at was one on film and empathy. In her peer reviewed article, author Graça P. Corrêa (a faculty member in the Philosophy of Sciences at University of Lisboa, Campo Grande) says “Empathy is a major aspect of the interplay between filmmaking and reception. Philosophers and neuroscientists have asserted how film’s technical and conceptual devices seemingly simulate the streamings of consciousness by rendering through images the very processes of thought.” With the assertion that creating and watching movies can create empathy, the claim that movies can change your perception of reality is also being asserted. (This article from the National Library of Medicine goes much deeper into why empathy changes our perceptions) Movies can make you feel along with another person; you can literally walk through another person’s lived experience. Film critic Roger Ebert famously said “For me, the movies are like a machine that generates empathy. If it’s a great movie, it lets you understand a little bit more about what it’s like to be a different gender, a different race, a different age, a different economic class, a different nationality, a different profession, different hopes, aspirations, dreams and fears. It helps us to identify with the people who are sharing this journey with us. And that, to me, is the most noble thing that good movies can do and it’s a reason to encourage them and to support them and to go to them.” Overall, this claim is true, it's backed by historical examples of propaganda films, the psychology of how we watch movies, and the impact of empathy building that is essential to filmmaking.
