It is hardly controversial to say that the book is always better than the movie. With the exception of “The Godfather” and maybe a few others, that much is universally acknowledged. It’s elementary.
But just how much better? Thanks to science, the narrative superiority of words over motion picture can now be quantified.
Psychologists at University College in London found that Jane Austen, George R. R. Martin, and Arthur Conan Doyle exerted a greater tug on people’s heart strings in book form than in the television of movie adaptations of the works. Specifically, audiobook form, and it should be noted the research was funded by Audible, as part of the Amazon
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subsidiary’s ongoing efforts to find the secret sauce of what most engages listeners.
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In an experiment that hardly seems a trial, subjects listened to powerful audiobook clips such as the proposal of Mr. Darcy to Elizabeth Bennett in “Pride and Prejudice,” or the beheading of Ned Stark in “Game of Thrones” and also watched the very same scenes in the film and television adaptations.
Sensor readings showed the audiobook raised subjects’ heart rates two beats-per-minute faster, and body temperatures two degrees higher on average than the video versions did. Their skin’s electrical conductance also increased slightly.
The three measures, taken together, suggest a greater emotional response to the audiobooks than the video clips, Dr. Joseph Devlin, who conducted the experiment, said.
“We were very surprised by the strength of the results,” said Devlin, who speculates that the way readers (and audiobook listeners) “recreate” the scene in their minds heightens the experience. Interestingly, participants themselves rated the videos as more engaging than the audio overall, but their hearts seem to suggest otherwise, Devlin said.
“The next question we plan to explore is the why,” he said, suggesting future experiments might make use of fMRI scanners and have participants listen to books in their entirety.
Though the range of human emotions, and the quality of art, is far more nuanced than can be measured by heart rate and skin conductivity, the research validates just how powerful the performance of the works by audiobook narrators can be, Audible CEO Don Katz said.
Funding scientific research on the experience of audiobook listening makes for more than just good marketing, Katz said. By combining this science with the customer analytics the service has built up after millions of hours of listening, the company can make smarter decisions about what audiobooks to produce, and one day use it to inform how books should be written in the first place.
“Understanding these emotional triggers will help not just with the kind of audiobooks we invest in, but knowing which narrative designs are most effective,” Katz said. “Should there be more omniscient narrators versus first-person works? We expect this will point us in the direction of what styles work best for what genres.”
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