Down a Rabbit Hole: How Prior Media Consumption Shapes Subsequent Media Consumption

Abstract

Consumers often become “stuck in a rabbit hole” when consuming media. They may watch several YouTube videos in the same category or view several artistic images on Instagram on the same theme, finding it difficult to stop. What contributes to this behavior, causing consumers to choose to consume additional media on a similar (vs. different) topic to what they just experienced? The authors examine a novel antecedent: the consecutive consumption of multiple similar media. After viewing multiple similar media consecutively, more consumers choose to view additional similar media over dissimilar media or complete a dissimilar activity entirely, even when the prior consumption pattern is externally induced. The rabbit hole effect occurs due to increased accessibility of the shared category—when a category is more accessible, people feel immersed in that category and anticipate that future options within that category will be more enjoyable. The authors identify three characteristics of media consumption that contribute to the rabbit hole effect by increasing category accessibility: similarity, repetition, and consecutiveness of prior media consumption. This research contributes to literature on technology, choice, and variety-seeking and offers implications for increasing (vs. slowing) similar consumption.

The impact of barrage system fluctuation on user interaction in digital video platforms: a perspective from signaling theory and social impact theory

“…Repeated consumption of products and experiences reduces enjoyment over time, a phenomenon commonly referred to as satiation (Chugani et al , 2015). This study extends the satiation effect (Buechel and Townsend, 2018; Woolley and Sharif, 2022), which was proposed for the process of product consumption and experience, to the process of social interaction. Specifically, the barrage fluctuation frequency weakens the positive effect of barrage fluctuation amplitude on real-time interaction and the negative effect of barrage fluctuation amplitude on asynchronous interaction, and vice versa.…”

Planning-to-binge: Time allocation for future media consumption.

“…"If it has a complicated story that's easier to follow by binge-watching" "If the story is coherent and connected in every episode" "Events are unfolding in a sequential and interesting manner" PLANNING-TO-BINGE binge-watching that can vary across the population, including social, entertainment/pleasure, relaxation, and immersion-related reasons (e.g., Flayelle et al, 2017Flayelle et al, , 2019Green et al, 2004;Woolley & Sharif, 2022). This experiment provides additional novel insight by allowing participants to self-generate reasons rather than focusing on relatively negative traits such as low selfregulation and anticipated regret (e.g., Merrill & Rubenking, 2019;Walton-Pattison, Dombrowski, & Presseau) and demonstrates consumers' ability to identify the benefits of multiple-episode viewing in their plans.…”

“…Its scope ranges from watching more than one episode of a program at a time (e.g., Deloitte, 2016;Pittman & Sheehan, 2015) to finishing all available episodes in a single viewing session (Jurgensen, 2013;Rubenking & Bracken, 2018). In a similar vein, Woolley & Sharif, (2022) document a "rabbit hole" effect where people are likely to continue to consume media on topics that are similar to what they had recently experienced. While these descriptions vary, they all involve the idea that more than one episode is consumed in a single sitting (Flayelle et al, 2020).…”

When and How Slow Motion Makes Products More Luxurious

“…Immersion refers to feelings of being fully absorbed, engrossed, or engaged in an experience (Garbinsky and Klesse 2021; Higgins and Scholer 2009; Tonietto and Barasch 2021). It is closely related to engagement (Diehl, Zauberman, and Barasch 2016; Woolley and Sharif 2022), although the term “engagement” can also refer to the interaction between a consumer and a firm (such as when consumers share firm-generated videos; Kumar and Pansari 2016; Valsesia, Proserpio, and Nunes 2020). When immersed, people exhibit sustained attention (Higgins and Scholer 2009), lose the sense that time is passing, and thus feel that time is passing more quickly (Tonietto and Barasch 2021).…”