Curving Entertainment: The Curvilinear Relationship Between Hedonic and Eudaimonic Entertainment Experiences While Watching a Political Talk Show and Its Implications for Information Processing

• Published in: Psychology of popular media culture 2018-10, Vol.7 (4), p.499-517
• Main Authors: Roth, Franziska S., Weinmann, Carina, Schneider, Frank M., Hopp, Frederic R., Bindl, Melanie J., Vorderer, Peter
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Cognitive Processes; Education; Female; Hedonism; Human; Information; Male; Mass Media; Meaningfulness; Politics; Positive Psychology; Surveys; Television Viewing; Test Construction
• ISSN: 2160-4134; 2160-4142
• DOI: 10.1037/ppm0000147

Two studies were conducted to test the relation between hedonic and eudaimonic entertainment experiences as well as their respective influence on information processing while watching a political talk show on TV. Assumptions from entertainment theory and positive psychology served as theoretical basis. A curvilinear relationship between hedonic and eudaimonic entertainment experiences was found through an online survey (N = 675). The second study (N = 132) was an experiment in which hedonic entertainment experiences were manipulated. Again, a curvilinear relationship between both entertainment experiences was detected. Furthermore, entertainment experiences were associated with information processing in a meaningful pattern. These results point to the distinct relationships and effects of different forms of entertainment experiences. Implications for political media and entertainment education are discussed. Public Policy Relevance Statement There sometimes seem to be two conflicting views when it comes to how political media are supposed to look like. Some argue they should be very entertaining, to motivate people with low political interest to get involved and learn something on the side. Others argue they should not be entertaining but rather serious, so that real learning is possible at all. Our data cannot support either notion. From our results we would argue that some fun in political content is not necessarily a bad thing. The "correct" mixture is the relevant point; in our studies we see a threshold, a cutoff point, at which fun is too much of a good thing. However, until that point it should be a goal to provide hedonic entertainment experiences, i.e., fun, joy, wittiness, humor.