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MOVIES AND CONDUCT
portant type of influence than that which has a profound or disturbing effect on the emotions of the individual concerned. In the one case the observation of film behaviour leads to extrovert activity which may or may not be harmful: in the other the deeper layers of personality are affected, and the emotional life of the individual is involved to a much greater extent. This aspect of the subject will be dealt with more fully later on.
Day Dreaming and Fantasy
Up till now we have been considering the influence of the cinema on the external life of children and adolescents, and it is clear that this form of influence is of frequent occurrence. There are, however, other ways in which the individual may be affected by films, and one of the most important of these is in the provision of material for day-dreams and fantasies. It is, of course, true that the inclination to build imaginary worlds is inherent in the psychological make-up of certain types of people, and also that a stimulus for such activity is to be found in books, music, etc., as well as in the cinema. It is nevertheless a fact that the very nature of the film medium, with its power to facilitate the identification of spectator with actor by technical devices such as the close-up, its freedom from the limitations of time and space, and above all its extremely vivid presentation of life, can be a more potent inspirer of fantasy than any other variety of art or entertainment yet created. Moreover, we suspect that the visual experience of film arouses more violent reactions within our instinct world than, for instance, the experience of reading. We say we 'suspect', because we do not know enough about this phenomenon — yet.
The adolescent is particularly prone to indulgence in daydreaming and, out of Professor Blumer's 458 motion picture autobiographies from high school students, 66 per cent on a conservative estimate acknowledged this experience as a result of seeing films. Among children, too, there was similar evidence, and in studying the influence of films on impersonation it is often difficult to say where overt play ends and fantasy begins. As Professor Blumer points out, day-dreaming is in a sense an internal playing of roles. Thus the child who plays at being an airman or a gangster may at the same time picture himself as actually performing the deeds of such characters. One boy for instance saw a Tarzan film, after having read the Tarzan books, and he relates how be would lie awake at night thinking of the heroine of the picture, and
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