When Imagination Defies Television: The Day After Effect.

Contrary to public expectations, this study hypothesized that viewers of the television film, "The Day After," would have less intention to stop nuclear warfare after they watched it because the film would generate fear without providing a clear way for viewers to eliminate the threat of nuclear war. Questionnaires assessed whether viewers and nonviewers of the film would differ in their attitudes about nuclear war and how to deal with the possibility of nuclear war. Sixty-three undergraduates were given pretests and posttests of questionnaires, using semantic differential, Likert, and Rotter's locus of control items. In addition, questionnaires were given to 316 students who had not seen the film. Results indicated that viewers generally felt more negative about nuclear weapons after the movie than before. While viewers of the film did not become more pro-nuclear warfare over time, non-viewers did become more favorable toward nuclear warfare. A possible explanation is that programming and discussion associated with the movie led nonviewers to increase their thinking about nuclear war, even without seeing the movie, and that this thinking was less negative than thoughts generated by those who had seen the movie. While most data from other quasi-experimental studies of this film's effect do not show similar results, data from studies by Schofield and Pavelchek (1984) and Mayton (1984) seem to lend support to the results of this study. (IS)