Why Do We Watch? The Role of Emotion Gratifications and Individual Differences in Predicting Rewatchability and Movie Recommendation

Abstract

Background: The present study’s main aim was to determine the predictors of movie rewatchability and recommendations. Methods: Using a sample of 318 participants, we first tested the structure of a gratification scale from watching a movie. Then, we examined the role of age, need for cognition, need for affect, extraversion, and emotional gratifications, in predicting individuals’ interest in rewatching the movie and in making recommendations. Results: As in the original proposal of the emotional gratification scale, the following dimensions were identified: fun, thrill, empathic sadness, release of emotions, social sharing, contemplative experiences, and character engagement, with acceptable model fit and reliability, convergent and divergent validity. Social sharing, contemplate experiences, need for affect and age were significant predictors of movie recommendation; whereas social sharing, thrill, extraversion, and age contributed most to explaining rewatching interest. Conclusion: This study highlights the importance of considering distinct gratifications and individual differences in predicting rewatching and movie recommendation.

Identifying Chinese social media users' need for affect from their online behaviors

“…NFA prediction has comprehensive applications. As individuals with different NFA prefer different types of services and products, e.g., movies (23) and product brands (19), understanding consumers' NFA is helpful for businesses to recommend and provide more user-friendly products. Based on the conclusion that NFA has a significant relationship with some mental health symptoms and suicidal tendencies (3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8), NFA prediction could help mental health workers provide more efficient and effective mental health services, including large-scale mental health monitoring and novel suicide interventions.…”

“…NFA could help to explain individuals' differences in many critical mental aspects such as mental health (3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9), information preferences and decision making (10)(11)(12)(13)(14), social attitude [e.g., evaluation of self and others (15)(16)(17)(18), attitudes toward brands (19), attitudes toward job (20), attitudes toward the country (21), drugs (22)] and so on. It has also been found that NFA influences individual reactions to media and entertainment (23,24), political beliefs and ideology (16,25), legal decisions (26) and risk taking capacity (27).…”

Searching, Navigating, and Recommending Movies through Emotions: A Scoping Review

“…Applying this idea to movies, Bartsch [24] extended previous mood management theories, arguing that the emotional gratification, extracted from watching a movie, comes from both enjoyment and the satisfaction of social and cognitive needs. Using Bartsch model, recent studies have shown the importance of the type of gratification that usually motivates a person to watch a movie in predicting her/his own interest in watching and recommending a particular movie to another person [25,26]. For example, in the study of Piçarra et al [26], participants with higher hedonic motives reported more interest for a movie that was previously evaluated as displaying hedonic content, whereas those reporting eudaimonic motives were more interested in a movie evaluated as having eudaimonic content.…”

Behavioral Intention of Repeated Watching and Personality Traits: Testing Mediation Model of Nostalgia Arousal and Social Connectedness

“…1 Repeated watching becomes easy to achieve, given the advances in digital technologies and networking, allowing individuals to access movies or TV series in a more affordable way. 2 There are some professional video applications, such as Tencent Video, iQIYI Video, and Youku Video, in China. In particular, Youku Video has bought the copyrights of COMTS, making these people more easily recall and relive specific moments in media episodes.…”