The soaps: Their sex, gratifications, and outcomes

Abstract

This review identifies soap viewers, explains their primary motives for viewing, describes the sexual content of soaps, and reviews studies of viewer responses to soaps. Soap viewers are disproportionately female, ethnic minority, less educated, and lower income. Primary motives for adolescent viewers are escapism, habit, social learning, and social excitement, matching those found in studies of adults. Soap content focuses heavily on sexual intercourse among unmarrieds, and sexual content increased 35% between 1985 and 1994 studies (Greenberg & D'Alessio, 1985; Greenberg & Busselle, 1996). A 1996 study (Heintz‐Knowles, 1996) found a large increase in visual sexual activity, although two thirds of the sex on soaps is talked about rather than demonstrated. Social effects of soaps have been examined primarily within a cultivation paradigm, with viewers expected to make larger estimates of frequent story behaviors, such as adultery, than nonviewers. Studies have yielded a moderate level of support for this proposition.