The COVID-19 pandemic created a historic opportunity to study the link between identity threat and individuals’ temporary expansion of the boundaries of the self (TEBOTS) through stories. Concurrently, the relationship between eudaimonic entertainment processes and self-expansion, particularly feeling moved and self-awareness, was examined. A quasi-experiment was conducted with an online sample (N = 172) that was randomly assigned to watch either a tragic drama or comedy. Results showed that key TEBOTS predictions were largely confirmed for boundary expansion and the outcomes of narrative engagement and entertainment gratifications. Although identity threat was negatively associated with positive coping with the pandemic, this relationship turned positive when mediated by boundary expansion. Further, exposure to tragedy raised feelings of “being moved,” which, in turn, was linked to self-perceptual depth and expanded boundaries of the self downstream. The present findings suggest that self-expansion through story consumption could benefit viewers’ positive reframing of challenging life experiences.

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Although Western philosophers and psychologists have long been fascinated by the idea of catharsis, empirical evidence for its healing effects are inconsistent at best. Common definitions tend to describe the relief of strong or pent‐up emotions as central to catharsis. However, previous work in anger studies have shown that emotional arousal alone does not “vent” feelings of anger; instead, provoking angry feelings led to greater anger rather than relief. In media psychology, similar findings have been reported regarding the ineffective “purging” of sadness after such feelings were induced. In fact, since the latter half of the twentieth century, psychologists have largely rejected the idea that catharsis is a “medicinal” form of emotional venting because of the scant and often contradictory evidence. Looking back, the venting perspective appears to lack a key component: the cognitive processing of aroused emotions. The present entry reviews theories of catharsis and extant research and proposes an alternative conception of catharsis as a set of processes involving affective upheavals and emotion processing, which, in turn, could promote a sense of personal understanding and growth.