ALEXITHYMIA AND MOVIE PREFERENCES

The goal of this study was to further our understanding of the relatio nship between the ability to identify one's emotions and the kinds of emotion arousing experiences that people prefer. One hundred and eight y-six undergraduate students completed the Toronto Alexithymia Scale, the Beck Depression Inventory, and a questionnaire inquiring about sub jects' movie preferences. Individuals who reported having difficulty i dentifying their emotions were more likely than those without such dif ficulty to prefer negatively valenced movies relative to happy movies. Individuals who had both high levels of depression and alexithymia we re more likely to prefer fear-arousing rather than anger-arousing movi es.