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Using pulse rates to determine the scariest of scary movies

 The Science of Scare project, conducted by MoneySuperMarket.com, recorded heart rates in participants watching fifty horror movies to determine the scariest of scary movies.

Below is a screenshot of the original variables and data for 12 of the 50 movies provided by MoneySuperMarket.com:

https://www.moneysupermarket.com/broadband/features/science-of-scare/

https://www.moneysupermarket.com/broadband/features/science-of-scare/



It includes the original data plus four additional columns (so you can run more analyses on the data):
-Year of Release
-Rotten Tomato rating
-Does this movie have a sequel (yes or no)?
-Is this movie a sequel (yes or no)?

Here are some ways you could use this in class:

1. Correlation: Rotten Tomato rating does not correlate with the overall scare score (r = 0.13, p = 0.36).  

2. Within-subject research design: Baseline, average, and maximum heart rates are reported for each film.  

3. T-tests: The is a sequel/has a sequel data can be used to perform a t-test, using any of the heartbeat data as the DV.
--Scare Scores are significantly higher for films without sequels than those with sequels. Also, this analysis requires a Welch correction.
--Average film heart rate does NOT differ based on whether or not a film has a sequel. Nor does the HRV difference percentage.

4. Data Visualization: You can easily graph how many movies were created each year, but you can also make plenty of scatterplots with the ratio data.

5. I swear, this is still a psychology example: How do perception and emotion affect our physiology?

6. Scales of Measurement: The rank ordering is straightforward, but the heartbeats per minute are ratio data.

7. Operationalize the movie scale: How can we decide which movie is the scariest? Is that the same thing as the best movie, per Rotten Tomato scores?

Or, since we are discussing a specific genre, maybe pulse is a better measure of fright, if not overall movie quality.

How do we break down a researcher's use of a pulse? Maximum pulse? Average pulse? How do we ensure the pulse rate doesn't favor jump-scare movies? The researchers changed how they calculated the overall "Scare Score" based on feedback. Instead of Reviewer 2, they had horror movie fans question their original calculations (see below):



8. Methods Section: This is a lot easier for junior statisticians to follow than a v. formal, well-written methods section from a published article. 


If you like this blog post, imagine an entire Introduction to Psychological Statistics textbook filled with examples like this one. For more information, get on the mailing list for my new textbook: https://seagull.wwnorton.com/statistics

Original Source: https://www.moneysupermarket.com/broadband/features/science-of-scare/
I want to give special thanks to my RA, Caesar, for handling some of the data entry for the extra columns of data.
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