Effects of different character notations on conversational text in horror works

This study aimed to represent sections of conversational text in horror works in normal (including kanji and hiragana), hiragana, and katakana notations, and then investigate differences in the sense of fear and impressions created by each. The experiment participants were 22 male and female university students, who viewed video recordings of chat-format conversational text and responded on a five-point scale with their impressions in seven aspects, including fear. The presented conversational text included two types: ‘fear text’ that originally contained a sense of fear and ‘non-fear text’ that did not. The results showed that katakana notation produced the greatest fear and negative impressions, an effect that was observed in both fear and non-fear texts. No clear difference in impression was observed overall between normal and hiragana notations.