Trait Anxiety and Fictional Exposure: How Movie Preferences Shape Psychological Resilience and Pandemic Preparedness

Authors

  • Kaneez Fatima Dar Department of Humanities & Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Roorkee, India
  • Manish Kumar Asthana Department of Humanities & Social Sciences, Department of Design, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Roorkee, India

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.47679/jopp.7412602025

Keywords:

Pandemic, Resilience, Preparedness, Trait anxiety, Movies

Abstract

People differ in their ability to cope with stressful situations. The pandemic outbreak put the world under a lot of stress and challenges in the form of its prevention and its repercussions. People with different levels of trait anxiety cope differently with stressful situations. This study examines the association of trait anxiety with pandemic psychological resilience and pandemic preparedness. People around the world enjoy engaging with fictional experiences. One reason why people enjoy such experiences is that they provide people with simulations of real events that can act as a source of information. The current study investigated the relationship between movie genres and psychological resilience and preparedness towards the pandemic. We conducted an online study with 120 participants, mean age (SD) =18.36 (.73) years. The data was collected through convenience and snowball sampling methods. The participants filled out demographic questionnaires, State-Trait Anxiety questionnaire, Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, movie genre preference questionnaire, pandemic psychological resilience scale, and pandemic preparedness scale. The results indicated a negative interaction between trait anxiety and cognitive reappraisal, a positive interaction between trait anxiety and positive resilience, and a positive interaction between trait anxiety and psychological distress towards the pandemic. Our results showed that certain movie genre preferences are significantly correlated with positive resilience and psychological distress towards the pandemic.

Author Biographies

Kaneez Fatima Dar, Department of Humanities & Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Roorkee

Kaneez Fatima Dar is a doctoral student at the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee. Her PhD research focuses on higher cognitive processes involved in emotion regulation, particularly the role of cognitive reappraisal and inhibitory control in enhancing the extinction of conditioned fear responses. She employs a range of physiological, cognitive, and affective measures in her investigations.

Manish Kumar Asthana, Department of Humanities & Social Sciences, Department of Design, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Roorkee

Dr. Manish Kumar Asthana obtained his doctoral degree in 2013 at the University of Wuerzburg, Germany. He is an associate professor at the Department of Humanities & Social Sciences, IIT-Roorkee. He has conducted research mainly on associative fear learning and its modulation. The development and introduction of novel methods such as behavioural, transcranial direct current stimulation, and genetic is a particular focus of his work. Other exciting research fields are investigations of early biomarkers for anxiety and related disorders, e.g., startle, skin conductance response (SCR), heart-rate variability, blood pressure, etc., for assessing early detection of anxiety or related disorders.

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Published

2025-11-14

How to Cite

Dar, K. F., & Asthana, M. K. (2025). Trait Anxiety and Fictional Exposure: How Movie Preferences Shape Psychological Resilience and Pandemic Preparedness. Journal of Psychological Perspective, 7(4), 325–334. https://doi.org/10.47679/jopp.7412602025

Issue

Vol. 7 No. 4 (2025)

Section

Empirical Research

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