The emotional divide: Alpha wave asymmetry of the frontal lobes during mild, moderate and high fear commercials.

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2009-01-01
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Nacin, Corinne
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Joel C. Geske
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Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication
The Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication offers two majors: Advertising (instructing students in applied communication for work in business or industry), and Journalism and Mass Communication (instructing students in various aspects of news and information organizing, writing, editing, and presentation on various topics and in various platforms). The Department of Agricultural Journalism was formed in 1905 in the Division of Agriculture. In 1925 its name was changed to the Department of Technical Journalism. In 1969 its name changed to the Department of Journalism and Mass Communications; from 1969 to 1989 the department was directed by all four colleges, and in 1989 was placed under the direction of the College of Sciences and Humanities (later College of Liberal Arts and Sciences). In 1998 its name was changed to the Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication.
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Abstract

Advertising is embedded into everyday American life. Many television commercials aim to connect with the audience on an emotional level. Amongst these emotions, fear is often used to gain consumer attention. Theorists believe that moderate fear is the most effective level of fear to gain consumer attention, and cause behavioral changes. The emotion of fear also has effects on human physiology. Two different theories describe that the emotion of fear is linked to frontal lobe asymmetry, claiming that the emotion of fear will activate the right side of the frontal lobes. This study examined the modulated levels of fear (low, moderate and high) to determine if fear does activate the right hemisphere of the frontal lobes. Specifically, this study predicted that moderate fear would activate the right hemisphere of the frontal lobes by decreasing amplitude and frequency of alpha EEG waves, more than low and high fear. Significant results were not found when comparing moderate fear to low and high fear in the right frontal lobe. However, mean scores for moderate fear compared to low and high fear scores reveal a trend of activation indicating moderate fear to activate the right hemisphere more than the other two levels of fear. Also, results show significant differences in alpha activation when moderate fear was compared to happy and neutral advertisements.

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Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 UTC 2009