Psychological Escapism: Predicting the Amount of Television Viewing by Need for Cognition

Abstract

Germans spend an average of more than 3 hours watching television each day. Among them, there are many who turn on their TV sets for less than 1.5 hours a day, and others who do this for more than 8 hours a day. What accounts for these differences? The central thesis in this paper is that individuals may be distinguished by their attitude toward thinking and that differences in their need for cognition explain the differences in their time spent with TV. The lower viewers' need for cognition is, the less pleasant they feel when they have nothing to do because there is nothing left to do but think. The easiest way for individuals to escape this pressure to think is by watching TV. Thus, individuals will watch more TV when they have a lower need for cognition. Results of a survey study show that the concept of escapism proves to be useful in explaining TV use when it takes over a psychological perspective as well as a sociological one.In 1998, Germans over the age of 13 spent an average of 3 hours and 20 minutes watching television each day (Darschin, 1999, p. 154). This average represents a distribution of individual values with considerable variation: For example, there are approximately 27 million nonviewers and light viewers in Germany who watch television less than 1.5 hours each day, and there are also approximately 15 million heavy viewers who watch television more than 6 hours each day, including 3 million Germans who watch TV more than 8 hours daily (Fischer, 1997, p. 41). The causes of such individual differences in amount of television viewing remain largely unexplained, although researchers have attempted to attribute them to sociodemographic variables. As Schulz (1987) has noted: [S]ociodemographic variables can only explain 13 percent of the variance within the viewing amount. The large unexplained percentage of variance is a challenge for the media-science. The important question, which social and psychological characteristics distinguish light viewers from heavy viewers, has up to now been answered only to a small degree.

Television’s Cultivation of Material Values

“…Because television is often considered a nonveridical source of information (Shrum 2001), television messages may be viewed as weak arguments and thus counterargued rather than endorsed by those high in NFC. Moreover, research has found that NFC tends to be negatively correlated with television viewing (Henning and Vorderer 2001), and study 1 found a similar relation ( , ). Consequently, it is not comr p Ϫ.15 p !…”

Enjoyment: At the Heart of Media Entertainment

“…Another example is the notion of escapism that attempts to explicate how media, particularly narratives presented through media, may provide some sort of transient mental retreat for users who feel uncomfortable in their actual lives and social worlds (Henning & Vorderer, 2001;Katz & Foulkes, 1962). Likewise, this research does not explain what those users who escape through exposure to a narrative get in exchange for this.…”

Satisfaction with virtual worlds: An integrated model of experiential value

“…Escapism is the extent to which the user becomes so absorbed in using an IS that it fulfills his or her desire to 'leave' reality in a cognitive and emotional way [3]. Following Mathwick et al, escapism is an intrinsic value, as it reflects elements of social play; it is an active source of intrinsic value because the user needs to be actively involved with the system to escape from reality.…”