Effects of "Meaningful" Entertainment on Altruistic Behavior: Investigating Potential Mediators

Recent research has shown that exposure to entertainment media depicting moral beauty may not only influence viewers' affective responses, but also lead to altruistic behavior. Although the process has been tied to a set of feelings commonly referred to as elevation, the mechanisms by which the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of broadcasting & electronic media 2015-10, Vol.59 (4), p.603-619
Main Authors: Bailey, Erica, Wojdynski, Bartosz W.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Audiences
Behavior
Broadcasting
Colleges & universities
Effects
Elevation
Entertainment
Helping behavior
Mass media images
Media
Morality
Predictive control
Race
Viewers
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Summary:Recent research has shown that exposure to entertainment media depicting moral beauty may not only influence viewers' affective responses, but also lead to altruistic behavior. Although the process has been tied to a set of feelings commonly referred to as elevation, the mechanisms by which the effects take place have not been examined. This experiment (N = 107) showed that participants who watched a clip portraying moral beauty were more likely to help with an unrelated volunteer task after viewing than those who watched a non-meaningful clip. The effect of the clip was mediated by the degree to which the clip produced mixed affective response in participants. Although the clip portraying moral beauty led to increased empathy with the character and increased feelings of elevation, neither of these predicted helping behavior after controlling for clip content. Helping behavior also increased when the help recipient was less similar to the participants (age, race, and university affiliation).
ISSN:0883-8151
1550-6878
DOI:10.1080/08838151.2015.1093484