Sensation seeking and the use of television for arousal

Abstract

This study focused on how the personality trait of sensation seeking influences television viewers to be selective. Specifically, hypotheses predicted that high sensation seekers (HSS) would use television as a source of environmental arousal. Questionnaires were completed by 342 adult cable subscribers who also owned a remote control device. Results revealed that although there were no differences in the amount of television watched by HSS or low sensation seekers (LSS), HSS preferred only two arousing program types: music formats and action‐adventure programs. High sensation seekers did use television to increase the complexity and arousal in their environment. Compared to LSS, HSS were more likely to watch television for ritualistic reasons, watch television accompanied by distracting activities, change channels more, and change channels out of boredom or to seek arousing content. The discussion points out implications of these results for using sensation seeking to create specific television messages for HSS.