This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Research in the International Journal of Arts and Technology monitored electrical brain activity and heart rates in people watching patriotically themed Chinese films. The researchers found that the main incidental music in such films can increase positive emotional responses and patriotic sentiment among audiences while reducing negative emotional responses.
The findings could be used by filmmakers offering content in the context of tourism, specifically cultural tourism. Such insights could boost the impact of film-themed attractions, reconstructed locations, tourism and educational programs. The researchers add that their approach essentially uses the "internet of bodies," a human analog of the "internet of things," in which technologies collect and analyze data about human behavior and physiological states.
In cultural tourism settings, this technology would combine information gathered while people watch films with data on their behavior and interactions at related physical sites. The extension into social media interactions might also amplify emotional responses through discussion and engagement beyond the film itself. The approach does raise ethical questions about how physiological and behavioral data should be collected and used when technologies designed to measure audience responses become part of cultural experiences.
Prior consent from audience members might be necessary before anyone is subsumed into an internet of bodies system, and individuals should be able to opt out. Lihong Wen et al, Neuroscientific effects of main melody films on audience patriotic sentiment in the context of culture tourism integration: an IoB perspective, International Journal of Arts and Technology (2026). DOI: 10.1504/ijart.2026.155620 MA in English, copy editor since 2021 with experience in higher education and health content.
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