Work

Listening, Watching, and Reading: The Structure and Correlates of Entertainment Preferences

Year: 2010

Type: article

Abstract: People spend considerable amounts of time and money listening to music, watching TV and movies, and reading books and magazines, yet almost no attention in psychology has been devoted to understanding individual differences in preferences for such entertainment. The present research was designed to examine the structure and correlates of entertainment genre preferences. Analyses of the genre preferences of more than 3,000 individuals revealed a remarkably clear factor structure. Using multiple samples, methods, and geographic regions, data converged to reveal five entertainment-preference dimensions: Communal, Aesthetic, Dark, Thrilling, and Cerebral. Preferences for these entertainment dimensions were uniquely related to demographics and personality traits. Results also indicated that personality accounted for significant proportions of variance in entertainment preferences over and above demographics. The results provide a foundation for developing and testing hypotheses about the psychology of entertainment preferences.

Source: Journal of Personality

DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-6494.2010.00662.x

Authors: Peter J. Rentfrow, Lewis R. Goldberg, Ran Zilca

Institutions: University of Cambridge, Oregon Research Institute

Language: English

Topic: Personality Traits and Psychology

Subfield: Clinical Psychology

Field: Psychology

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funders: National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Aging

Awards: G1378748243, G2332790991, Personality and Health: A Longitudinal Study