In yesterday’s new-knowledge lesson, Nature’s Healing 1, we introduced a concept invented by American environmental psychologist Rachel Kaplan—Soft Fascination. It refers to the appeal that emerges when the stimuli in an environment hit just the right balance: interesting, but not too interesting. Stimuli with Soft Fascination gently draw our attention, quickly sending the brain into a daydreaming state in which the default mode network is activated and the executive network gets to rest.
According to Rachel Kaplan, once the novelty wears off, many natural landscapes can settle into this balance point and continue radiating Soft Fascination. That’s why, after spending some time deep in nature, the brain—especially the executive network—gets a proper rest.
Kaplan goes on to say that in artificial environments, it’s hard to find anything that radiates this kind of Soft Fascination.
When I read this passage in the book, a thought suddenly occurred to me:
Kaplan might be wrong. In artificial environments, there’s at least one thing that, for me personally, fits the definition of Soft Fascination perfectly. That thing is—
movies I’ve already seen.
Whenever I feel mentally exhausted, I love watching movies I’ve seen many times before. For a while, whenever I got tired, I’d curl up on the sofa and watch the last 30 minutes of Mamoru Oshii’s Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence. It was incredibly therapeutic.
I understand now why this helps me relax.
Because when I watch a new movie I haven’t seen before, it’s either:
not interesting enough—which means I have to work hard to concentrate,
or too interesting—which means my attention gets hijacked.
Either way, it just keeps draining the executive network and attentional resources that are already exhausted. The brain gets no chance to rest at all.
But the movies I’ve already seen have a level of stimulation that lands right at that balance point: interesting, but not too interesting. They’re ‘interesting,’ of course, because if I’m willing to watch them again, they must be movies I genuinely like. And they’re ‘not too interesting’ because I already know the plot by heart.
So these good movies I’ve already seen possess Soft Fascination.
Rewatching movies I’ve already seen becomes a relaxing massage for the brain.
All right, next time you feel mentally exhausted, if you can’t go take a forest bath, why not try some ‘old-movie massage’ instead?
Note
- This article in the ‘Psychology New Knowledge Mini-Lessons’ series was a short popular-science essay/meditation written back then to accompany related content from Zhichao Wei: Psychology New Knowledge Course. It was published on the now-shuttered platform Fatuan, and the original link no longer exists.
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