Enjoyment of Unoriginal Characters: Individual Differences in Nostalgia-Proneness and Parasocial Relationships

Abstract

The current study examined how parasocial relationships with both original (i.e., newly created and unfamiliar) and unoriginal (i.e., previously existing and familiar) characters and nostalgia-proneness can influence audience selection and enjoyment of movie adaptations. In an experiment, participants were exposed to storyboards previewing movies that could potentially be adapted from cartoon television shows to become future movies. The storyboards were manipulated to have either original or unoriginal characters. Afterward, participants reported how much they enjoyed and felt nostalgic about the stimuli, their future viewing intentions, and their parasocial interactions with the characters. Results showed that participants with stronger parasocial relationships with both original and unoriginal characters predicted greater parasocial interactions, enjoyment, and viewing intentions. Additional results partially demonstrated that those with stronger nostalgia-proneness expressed greater enjoyment and future viewing intentions for storyboards with unoriginal characters.

Data deposition

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, Joshua A. Baldwin, upon reasonable request.

Notes

¹ To see if participants in the treatment and control conditions similarly interpreted the PSR scale, a series of measurement invariance tests were conducted. Results demonstrated measurement invariance for the measure of PSR between five out of the six unoriginal-original character pairs suggesting similar scale interpretation between conditions. Details of the analysis and results can be found in the OSF repository.

² Different results were observed between participants response for the Teenage Spy and Greek Out control stimuli. For responses toward Teenage Spy, the relationship between PSR and PSI was not significant, F _{1, 95} = .61, p = .35, β = .10, p = .35, R² = .01. In contrast, for responses toward Greek Out, there was a significant relationship between PSR and PSI, F _{1, 95} = 5.95, p = .006, β = .28, p = .006, R² = .08.

³ For the post-hoc manipulation check, participants randomly watched the Teenage Spy and The Fairly OddParents stimuli (randomly order) or the Greek Out and the Kim Possible stimuli (randomly order). This was done to prevent the matching stimulus from priming participants when they watched the control video.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Joshua A. Baldwin

Joshua A. Baldwin (M.S., Florida State University, 2017) is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Communication at Michigan State University. His research focuses on positive media psychology and the emotional response to narrative media.

Arthur A. Raney

Arthur A. Raney (Ph.D., University of Alabama, 1998) is the James E. Kirk Professor of Communication in the College of Communication & Information at Florida State University. His research interests include how and why we enjoy and appreciate media entertainment, with specific attention to the role of morality and moral emotions in those processes.