Most people can’t stand seeing this type of violence on the big screen — with 51% turning away: survey

“Not the dog!” Americans believe that it’s harder to watch animals being killed on-screen than humans, according to new research.

A poll of 1,512 US adults sought to uncover their “gore line,” or just how much blood and violence Americans can tolerate when it comes to TV and movies.

If “I Am Legend” keeps your attention until “the dog scene” or you shy away from the first few minutes of the original “John Wick” movie, you may be part of the 51% who are more likely to turn away when something bad happens to an animal. Just 32% do the same with people. 

Animal abuse/killing even ranked as the No. 1 hardest scenes to watch (57%), followed closely by child abuse (56%) and domestic violence (43%).

Dr. Chad Walding, Chief Culture Officer and Co-Founder of NativePath, weighs in on how psychological and cultural elements factor into these tendencies.

“The emotional reaction of watching cruelty or abuse to an animal or living being in the media is interesting to explore from a psychological perspective and not so different from how we view the abuse of a human,” said Walding. “Every weekend, the news reels share a shocking story of animal abuse or animal cruelty; however, our strong emotional response occurs specifically from watching something that is innocent being victimized. Viewers naturally see animals as innocent and/or weak, leading to some serious emotional engagement with the source of the abuse.”

Though both have tear-jerking sentiment, funerals or memorial services ranked below death beds and final “goodbyes” ranked above funerals and memorial services (27% vs 15%).

And despite every early 2000s TV drama depicting at least one, only 14% believe that car accidents are the most gut-wrenching.

Conducted by Talker Research, results found that Americans have strong stomachs and have a high tolerance for gore. 

Slaps, punches and KOs are fair game for the majority of the panel, though 12% start to draw the line at someone being stabbed repeatedly, and 14% of baby boomers agree. 

One in 10 Americans call it quits if someone’s head is being chopped off, whereas many (21%) will take it all the way to the end with someone being chopped into pieces. 

A little more than two in five (22%) can’t even identify their gore line.

In fact, 53% of respondents haven’t encountered a movie or TV show in the last 12 months that they needed to turn off because it was too gory.

“Media violence is growing and desensitization to violence is becoming more and more obvious,” continued Walding. “Our cognitive tolerance for gore has begun to influence the media we use and the content of these media. A major factor is simply, the more violent media that is being consumed, and therefore normalized, it reduces the emotional impact of the consumer and becomes more normalized and it works for the media input.”