Unconscious Emotions in Media Content

Stories and human society are inseparable. Before human history, our ancestors created myths as the oldest form of narratives. Due to the advances of digital media, stories are nowadays communicated in various ways. Yet the structure and the key elements of modern stories still remain the same. This chapter starts with a discussion about the relationship between stories and human society. It is curious that human beings keep being intrigued by stories of similar structures and scenes. A reasonable speculation is that these identical components of stories might induce emotional experiences at an unconscious level. Can emotions be unconscious? While the answer to this question is still open to debate, more and more empirical evidence suggests that humans might have unconscious emotions in certain conditions. In order to provide a holistic theoretical overview focusing on unconscious emotions, a review of contemporary theories, models, and measures of emotion is provided. This review illustrates an integrated overview of research into unconscious emotions and also points out potential challenges and promising approaches that could inform future research on unconscious emotions in media content.