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Differences Between Acting as if One Is Experiencing Pain and Acting as if One Is Pretending to Have Pain Among Actors at Three Expertise Levels

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Abstract

This study aims to examine how acting skills develop by comparing actors at three expertise levels. Actors played four scenes: “not having any pain.” “suffering pain,” “pretending to feel pain,” and “pretending not to feel pain.” Their performances were videotaped, and then rated by 46 (Study 1) and another 40 (Study 2) university students. Study 1 revealed that the less experience actors have, the easier it was for the participants to identify the specific scene they were playing. Study 2 indicated that less experienced actors might be so conscious of the audience that their performances are exaggerated, whereas the subtleties involved in the high-quality acting of experienced actors may make their intentions less clear to the audience. The findings suggest that it is important to act in accordance with what is needed in the scene, taking not only the audience but also the setting as a whole into account.

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Ando, H., Koyasu, M. (2008). Differences Between Acting as if One Is Experiencing Pain and Acting as if One Is Pretending to Have Pain Among Actors at Three Expertise Levels. In: Itakura, S., Fujita, K. (eds) Origins of the Social Mind. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-75179-3_6

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