The inner muses: How affective temperament traits, gender and age predict film genre preference

Highlights

• The individual factors that might influence film preference have still to be characterized.

• Gender, age and individual affective temperaments play important roles in film taste.

• Genetically conditioned styles of emotional reaction can predict film preference.

Abstract

The aim of this study is to assess whether different affective temperaments, age and gender are associated with specific film genre preference.

An online survey was administered to 689 adult subjects. We assessed the film genre preference on a Likert scale and affective temperament traits using the self-report questionnaire Temperament Evaluation of Memphis, Pisa, Paris and San Diego (TEMPS-A) short-version scale.

The scale showed acceptable psychometric properties. Results showed that cyclothymic temperament correlated positively with horror movie, depressive temperament correlated negatively with animation and positively with horror film, irritable temperament correlated negatively with animation and romance and positively with horror genre, hyperthymic trait correlated positively with comedy and musical genre, and anxious trait correlated negatively with documentary, thriller, action, and adult genres. Based on the population sampled, we concluded that stable, genetically conditioned styles of emotional reaction (temperaments) can predict film preference.

Introduction

Film and media have been an important and characteristic aspect of popular culture and a favorite and accessible form of entertainment for decades. The widespread availability of technology and easily purchasability of digital material have furthered the possibility of choosing favorite movies, but why people prefer specific film genres is still a matter of discussion.

Different film genres (comedy, musical, drama, action, animation, horror, thriller, adult, science-fiction, fantasy, and documentary) are characterized by diverse themes, styles, sets and soundtracks that define the film and differentiate it. Despite the cultural and economic importance of media and film, little work has been done on the characterization of user psychological characteristics and the degree to which may guide the preference of a specific genre preferences.

Previous studies have focused on characterizing neural networks activated by the exposure to specific films or the association of personality and psychological characteristics with preference for a specific film genre (Jansen & Frijda, 1994; Koukounas & McCabe, 2001). Studies such as these showed a link between personality trait preference (North, 2010). All of these studies were based on the Big Five model (Goldberg, Sweeney, Merenda, et al., 1996) where five entertainment-preference dimensions (Communal, Aesthetic, Dark, Thrilling, and Cerebral) were uniquely related to personality traits (Rentfrow, Goldberg, & Zilca, 2011). Another line of research investigated demographic differences in movie preferences. These studies indicate that women prefer romantic and comedy movies (Oliver & Weaver, 1998) while males show a preference for action/adventure and horror genres (Krcmar, 2005a, Krcmar, 2005b). In addition, the preference for horror genre is more among younger individuals while the drama genre is more common in an older audience (Krcmar, 2005a, Krcmar, 2005b).

Temperamental traits, as assessed by the Temperament Evaluation of Memphis, Pisa, Paris and San Diego Auto-Questionnaire (TEMPS-A), have been extensively evaluated in the fields of psychopathology, neurobiology, and developmental psychology (Akiskal, Brieger, Mundt, et al., 2002). Temperaments are stable during the lifespan (Cloninger, 1994) even though they may be shaped by experiences and learning (Preti, Vellante, Gabbrielli, et al., 2013). To date, no studies have attempted to investigate the association between specific affective temperament traits and film genre preference.

Based on this background, the current study aims to investigate the following research questions: 1) does gender affect film genre preference? 2) Does age affect film genre preference? 3) Is there and association between affective temperament traits and film genre preference? We hypothesized a possible pivotal role for both temperament traits and socio-demographic variables in shaping film preference.