Emotional Responses to Aesthetically Integrated and Standard Subtitles in a Fantasy-Thriller Audiovisual Context

Authors: Leveridge, F., Mével, P.A., Tsikandilakis, M.

Journal: Journal of Audiovisual Translation

Publication Date: 26/04/2024

Volume: 7

Issue: 1

eISSN: 2617-9148

DOI: 10.47476/jat.v7i1.2024.266

Abstract:

Situated at the intersection of Psychology, Film Studies, Accessibility Studies and Translation Studies, this article investigates the emotional correlates of two types of subtitles (standard and aesthetically integrated) on audiences in the context of fear-eliciting clips with Russian fantasy thriller Night Watch (Bekmambetov, 2004). Our experiment employed a methodology combining skin conductance (SCR), heart-rate responses (HR) and self-reports (questionnaires) to account for the complex interplay between experiential, cognitive, behavioural and physiological elements that make up emotional responses. We examined the psychophysiological and self-report responses to two subtitling delivery effects – standard subtitles and aesthetically integrated subtitles – focussing specifically on fear. We used significance-testing and Bayesian analyses to compare the two subtitling deliveries. For both analyses, we found that the presentation of aesthetically integrated subtitles led to higher positively rated psychophysiological arousal and quality of viewing experience ratings compared to standard subtitles. This novel finding suggests that aesthetically integrated subtitles could play an important role in the development of new ways to provide audiovisual translation.

Source: Scopus