University College London Study Shows Listening to Books is More Emotionally Engaging Than Viewing Films or TV - Seite 2

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE STUDY

• The statistical evidence was very strong (over 99% certainty) that audiobooks produced a stronger emotional and physiological response than visual storytelling mediums. This finding is consistent across different stories, and different participant ages and demographics. These fluctuations in heart rate, body temperature and skin conductance – measured using Empatica E4 biometric sensors fitted at the wrist - suggest increased emotional engagement with auditory stories on a physiological level.
• Participants’ average heart rate was higher when they were listening to audiobooks by about two beats a minute (mean difference = 1.7bpm).
• Participants listening to audiobooks also had a higher peak heart rate during the story, by about 3.5 beats per minute (mean=3.52 bpm).
• They were roughly 2 degrees warmer in their body temperature (1.66°C), and their skin conductance (EDA) was higher by 0.02 microsiemens when listening to audiobooks.
• UCL’s research team cross-referenced accelerometer data with participants’ heart-rate data to rule out increased movement/fidgeting as a possible explanation for higher heart-rates whilst listening to audiobooks.
• UCL’s research showed that audiobooks produced more consistent patterns of physiological change than films or TV clips, suggesting that the format may give authors better control of the emotional responses of their listeners.

Findings from the study have been published on the bioRxiv preprint server and are available for review by the scientific community here. Numerous organizations, scientific research groups and academic journals – including the Medical Research Council, Wellcome Trust and Nature – support the use of preprints as part of the peer review process. The research will be submitted to a peer reviewed journal in the coming months.

For a detailed report, including visualisations of the survey, heart rate and electro-dermal data, please visit: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/06/20/351148

About UCL
Founded in 1826, UCL was the first English university established after Oxford and Cambridge, the first to admit students regardless of race, class, religion or gender and the first to provide systematic teaching of law, architecture and medicine. We are among the world's top universities, as reflected by our performance in a range of international rankings and tables. According to the Thomson Scientific Citation Index, UCL is the second most highly cited European university and the 15th most highly cited in the world. UCL has nearly 27,000 students from 150 countries and more than 9,000 employees, of whom one third are from outside the UK. The university is based in Bloomsbury in the heart of London, but also has two international campuses – UCL Australia and UCL Qatar.