Building blocks of suspense: subjective and physiological effects of narrative content and film music

The current study explores the role of narrative content and non-diegetic music, as well as their interplay in the creation of film suspense. In a between-subjects design, three audience groups watched either the full version (audio–video) of a suspenseful short movie (Love Field) or a video-only version or listened to the audio track only. Audience responses were assessed with a combination of continuous response measurement (CRM) and psychophysiological measures, comprising heart rate (i.e., inter-beat interval, IBI), pulse volume amplitude (PVA), and skin conductance level (SCL). Frame-by-frame content coding was performed to identify distinct plot segments and musical moods (tense vs. relaxing) and mark the critical visual and auditory events that directed the audience’s inferences about the nature of the plot and elicited specific outcome expectations. Results showed that continuous self-report data and objective physiological measures were largely dissociated, suggesting different processing modalities. Tense music alone induced feelings of suspense (CRM) even in the absence of any clues about the story content. Overall, the audio-only version led to the highest arousal levels, as indicated by SCL and PVA, while the video-only version led to the lowest arousal levels. IBI data revealed short-term heart rate deceleration responses to salient narrative clues that could be interpreted in terms of heightened attention and cognitive resource allocation. Results are discussed in light of a multidimensional framework of tension and suspense and a terminological differentiation of both concepts.