Motives for viewing animated sitcoms and their associations with humor styles, positivity, and self-criticism in a sample of Hungarian viewers

Abstract

In recent years, animated situation comedies (generally known as animated sitcoms) have gained widespread popularity among young adults. Animated sitcoms often dissect sensitive social and political concerns using negative humor, exaggeration, and stereotyping. The present study aimed to explore the motives for viewing animated sitcoms using qualitative and quantitative research methods and investigate their associations with humor styles, positivity, and self-criticism in a sample of Hungarian viewers. A total of 816 Hungarian adults (54.5% female; M age = 23.9 years, SD = 5.6) completed an online questionnaire focusing on animated sitcom viewing habits and other relevant psychological constructs. As a result, three major motive dimensions were identified: (1) social criticism, (2) fun and entertainment, and (3) relaxation. These motives were assessed by the Motives for Animated Sitcom Viewing Questionnaire (MASVQ), which demonstrated strong psychometric properties. Using a MIMIC model, multiple associations were described across motives and other psychological constructs, indicating that individuals with different levels of humor, positivity, and self-criticism are motivated to view animated sitcoms for different reasons in this sample of Hungarian viewers.

Bridging the Features and Effects Divide in Satirical News Research

“…Viewers of satirical news shows are for example, on average, younger, more liberal, more often male, more highly educated, and more politically interested than the general population (Banerjee et al, 2009;. They tune in to these shows because they meet a variety of their media needs: from the desire to be entertained to the desire to learn about current events (Menéndez-Otero, 2014;Zsila et al, 2020). However, because various satirical news shows differ in their (combinations of) satirical features, it could be expected that people who differ from each other in their motivations to watch these satirical news shows, might also consume different types of satirical news shows more often.…”