Study Says If You’re A Fan Of ‘Trashy’ Movies, Then It’s A Sign Of Intelligence

Film, like any other form of art, is subjective in nature. What can be somebody’s meat, can be someone else’s poison. However, instead of respecting everyone’s opinion, the film community usually tends to use them to delegitimise people.

So, in case you’ve rated a ton of widely unpopular movies 10 out of 10, then you might be criticised for having no taste. Or you might be accused of not having watched enough movies. But, thanks to science, those days are over.

Scientists Kevyan Sarkosh and Winfried Menninghaus, of Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, recently published a study to show that enjoying ‘trashy’ films is a sign of intelligence.

The study was done with the help of an online survey that collected data from regular consumers of ‘trash films’ and how they analysed the characteristics of those movies. And in doing so, the scientists tried to showcase the positive turnaround of the label ‘trash’.

The data showed that the movies that were being considered ‘trash’, were in general low-budget films. But at the same time, a deeper look showed that the consumers’ attitude towards those movies mirrored that of art cinema lovers.

According to the study, people who love ‘trash’ movies embrace the cheapness of the filmmaking and laud the “positive, transgressive deviance from the cinematic mainstream”. And the scientists deemed them intelligent because they were aware about their ironic viewing stance.

So, the next time anybody criticises you for enjoying ‘Deshdrohi’, ‘Ram Gopal Varma ki Aag’ or some of the recent examples of technically poor film-making like ‘Simmba’ or ‘Baaghi 2’, just tell them to keep their superiority complex in check.

H/t Indy100; Cover Image Source