The Role of Cliffhangers in Serial Entertainment : An Experiment on Cliffhangers’ Effects on Enjoyment, Arousal, and Intention to Continue Watching
BP2-STS
- Wirz, Dominique Stefanie ORCID Universität Fribourg
- Ort, Alexander ORCID Universität Luzern
- Rasch, Björn ORCID Universität Fribourg
- Fahr, Andreas ORCID Universität Fribourg
- 2022
Published in:
- Psychology of Popular Media. - 2023, vol. 12, no. 2, p. 186-196
English
Cliffhangers are a common style element in serial entertainment. This study investigates their role in today’s high-choice media environment. It is assumed that cliffhangers lead to higher arousal, increase the enjoyment of a series, and foster the intention to continue watching. This may foster binge-watching or, more generally, high-intensity viewing of TV shows. In a laboratory experiment, individuals (N = 133) were exposed to 3 to 4 episodes of a drama series, eventually finishing either with or without a cliffhanger. Participants’ arousal, enjoyment of the show, and intention to continue watching the series were measured via self-report and psychophysiological measures (electrodermal activity and cortisol levels). The results suggest that cliffhangers lead to higher arousal but do not increase enjoyment or the intention to continue watching.
- Faculty
- Faculté des sciences économiques et sociales et du management, Faculté des lettres et des sciences humaines
- Department
- Département des sciences de la communication et des médias, Département de Psychologie
- Language
-
- English
- Classification
- Information, communication and media sciences
- Other electronic version
- License
- License undefined
- Identifiers
- Persistent URL
- https://folia.unifr.ch/unifr/documents/319990
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