For our student project, we chose to answer the question, "Are males less emotionally responsive to perceived danger than women due to societal pressures?"

We tested the effects of scary movies on males and females and whether one gender was more affected than the other. Males have been typecast by society to fill roles of protection and exhibit stereotypical machismo. Due to this preconception, we hypothesize that they will experience lower % changes in blood pressure and heart rate relative to females while viewing scary movies.

Subjects for the study included 5 males and 5 females between the ages of 18-24. Each was tested individually in a controlled environment for each trial. They were allowed to relax for 15 minutes prior to the initial BP and HR reading, then another 10 minutes before the movie clip showing. The second reading was taken ~1 minute later, immediately following a frightening scene. From this, we predicted that males would have a lower % change in HR and BP (mean arterial pressure) than females would when watching the scary clips.

Our results indicated that the BP and HR of females and males were not significantly different from one another while screening the scary movie; however a general increase for both were reported. The % change in HR for males was 3.647% and females, 3.762%, whereas the % change in mean arterial pressure was 1.139% for males and 3.684% for females. Despite our observations, statistical analysis revealed that there was no significant difference between the changes seen in males and females. This correlation was due to our p values being more than 0.05. Our p values for the averages for BP or mean arterial pressure was 0.532, and our p value for the averages for HR was 0.849.

Our statistical results were inconsistent with our predictions based on our hypothesis. However, our raw data supported our hypothesis that males would experience lower % changes in HR and BP. Perhaps a larger size would yield more trends and would provide more accurate data. Also, different BP cuff sizes would better accommodate our subjects and yield better readings. The diets and activities of our subjects throughout the day could have also been controlled. This would put everyone at a more equal level. Lastly, the level of "scary" may have been different for everyone affecting their reactions.

In our study, we compared males and females and their differing reactions. However, if we eliminated the gender aspect of our experiment and focused primarily on whether or not scary movies have an affect on BP and HR, our results may have yielded different results. We would compare scary-movie effects and non-scary-movie effects, which would give us better grounds for comparisons and would allow us to identify whether or not scary movies have an effect on HR and BP relative to other kinds of films.