Exploring the effects of positive emotions and attribution on helping behaviors after exposure to meaningful and pleasurable movies

ABSTRACT

This study examined whether elevation elicited by meaningful movie clips led to helping regardless of whether a stranger’s need for help is attributed to a controllable or an uncontrollable cause. It also compared elevation against positive-valenced affective state in facilitating prosocial behavior. A randomized, between-subject laboratory experiment was conducted with 208 undergraduate participants in the United States approximately one week after they completed a pretest survey. Although participants experienced the induced emotional state, neither of these two types of positive emotions explained their helping behavior. This points to the nuanced nature of the relationships between positive emotions and helping. The role of media content types, attribution, and prosocial personality are also discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Meaningful media
• elevation
• positive emotions
• helping
• attribution

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. The research project was approved by the Human Subject Committee of the university before the recruitment of participants (Assurance Number: IRB00000446).

2. See CFA results in Appendix A on the Open Science Foundation site.

3. See EFA results on the Open Science Foundation site.

4. See CFA and EFA results on the Open Science Foundation site.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Danyang Zhao

Danyang Zhao (Ph.D.) is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication at Western Illinois University. Her research focuses on understanding media uses and effects from a psychological perspective. Her work has examined the influence of media messages on behaviors, and the relationships between media consumption, positive emotions, and prosociality.

Arthur A. Raney

Arthur A. Raney (Ph.D.) is a professor in the Department of Communication at the University at Buffalo. His research primarily focuses on how and why we enjoy and appreciate entertainment content, with specific interest in the roles that morality and moral emotions play in those processes.