How Does One’s Season of Birth Influence Television- and Music-Genre Preferences? And Why?

Abstract

This study investigates the influence of season of birth on preferences for music-and television genres later in life. As early as in 1994, Wolfram Peiser and I had published survey data showing that people with fewer summer months during their first half year after birth in Germany tend to be less cheerful. In the meantime, an impressive body of research has accumulated similar evidence also for other countries in the north of the northern hemisphere. In a recently published study, I had applied mood-management theory to show that media content may be used to alleviate less cheerfulness due to one's birth climate in the Middle East and in North Africa as well. This article further explores such a benefit of media use with a secondary analysis of a large and representative survey in Germany. The study reveals that people with more winter months soon af ter birth tend to prefer "mainstream" entertainment offerings a little more -even after age, education and gender are controlled for. In addition, age shows significant moderating effects.