Portrayals of threatened needs and human virtue: a review of the content of eudaimonic entertainment

ABSTRACT

The present review examines whether commonalities and differences can be detected in the content of eudaimonic entertainment. We focused on two features: the fundamental human needs that were threatened, and the specific virtues that were portrayed. The results showed that the examined materials often included a combination of portrayals of threats to the fundamental human needs for safety, health and relatedness, and portrayals of the virtue of humanity, like love and kindness. Two subcategories could be distinguished in the materials, one in which the focus is on the portrayal of virtue as an answer to threatened needs, and one in which the focus is on the portrayal of threatened needs in which characters struggle even though they also have virtue.

KEYWORDS:

• Eudaimonic entertainment
• narrative content
• fundamental needs
• human virtue

Over the last decade, the research area of eudaimonic entertainment has grown rapidly. More and more research is being done on the nature and effects of eudaimonic entertainment (e.g. Janicke & Oliver, 2017; Krämer et al., 2019; Slater et al., 2018). In this research area, a wide variety of entertainment content is used, ranging from YouTube videos about acts of human kindness, such as paying it forward (Neubaum et al., 2020), a shortened version of the film Hotel Rwanda in which a hotel manager deals with the consequences of civil war in Rwanda (Wirth et al., 2012) to a clip from the animated film Up that shows a long and loving marriage that ends in loss (Slater et al., 2018). This wide variety in materials used raises the question what they have in common, i.e. whether systematic commonalities and potential differences can be detected across eudaimonic content.

To answer this question, we set out to do a review of the materials that are used in eudaimonic entertainment research. By analyzing the similarities and differences between the materials in these studies, we aim to uncover features that are common in eudaimonic entertainment according to the researchers in this field and features that distinguish between different subcategories of eudaimonic entertainment. Specifically, we focus on two central features on the basis of previous theorizing in the literature. One aspect is that eudaimonic entertainment is expected to show fundamental human needs that are threatened (Slater et al., 2018). Another key aspect assumed of eudaimonic entertainment is the specific virtues that are portrayed (Oliver & Bartsch, 2011). By reviewing the materials used in eudaimonic entertainment research on these features, we synthesize the extant research with a focus on content which can, in turn, further inform theory on eudaimonic entertainment and the design of empirical studies in this field.

Eudaimonic entertainment

The concept of eudaimonic entertainment is based on notions of eudaimonic happiness, which can be traced back as far as Aristotle (1931; Oliver et al., 2018; Janicke-Bowles et al., 2021). It refers to individuals living a life in which their personal potentials are fulfilled, i.e. to self-realization (Waterman, 2008). Eudaimonic happiness involves positive psychological functioning such as having a purpose in life, being able to grow personally, accepting oneself, and having positive relations with others (Hofer & Rieger, 2019). It is also called psychological well-being and it is often contrasted to hedonic happiness or subjective well-being, which is derived from maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain. Instead of short-term, pleasure-oriented hedonic happiness, eudaimonic happiness is related to long-term fulfillment of human potential (Ryff & Singer, 2008). As such, eudaimonic happiness can be described as flourishing as a human being and living a fulfilled life (Oliver & Bartsch, 2011).

Eudaimonic entertainment can contribute to eudaimonic happiness (Hofer & Rieger, 2019; Janicke-Bowles et al., 2021). Foundations for this conception of entertainment were laid when it became clear that traditional ideas of entertainment as optimizing pleasure and amusement do not apply to all cases of entertainment, such as sad films (Oliver, 2008; Schramm & Wirth, 2008). Instead, such entertainment that makes us reflect on the meaning of life, gives us greater understanding of the human condition or lets us emotionally connect to others may increase our flourishing in life. Another term that is often used for this type of entertainment is meaningful entertainment (Hofer, 2013; Oliver & Bartsch, 2011).

Eudaimonic or meaningful entertainment is generally conceptualized based on responses to entertainment. Oliver et al. (2018, p. 381) for instance note that audience reactions are central to defining meaningful media; it refers to content that elicits responses that recipients identify as meaningful. Three dimensions of such eudaimonic responses are identified: mixed affect in which the viewer feels both joy and sadness at the same time, cognitive effort in which the viewer engages in reflection prompted by the entertainment, and fulfillment of intrinsic needs in which viewers’ human needs like autonomy and relatedness are satisfied (Oliver et al., 2018). By and large, empirical research supports these three dimensions in receiver responses, although operationalizations across studies differ (Janicke-Bowles et al., 2021; Raney et al., 2020).

However, this user-based conceptualization of eudaimonic entertainment does not mean that no further insight can be gained into the content of entertainment that is eudaimonic for most viewers. In fact, although individual responses may vary, it is possible to find tendencies in which content is generally regarded as meaningful (Oliver et al., 2012; Oliver & Hartmann, 2010). This means that because of its basis in responses, all kind of content may be meaningful for some viewers, but specific content is found meaningful by most viewers. For example, scholars have noted that films that were identified as meaningful by viewers often included similar portrayals, such as portrayals of altruistic values (Oliver et al., 2012). Likewise, others have remarked that some content is more likely to call up meaningfulness (Oliver & Hartmann, 2010; see also Bartsch et al., 2016). Building on this reasoning, this review focuses on entertainment content that is eudaimonic in this sense, i.e. it is expected to elicit meaningful responses in most viewers. By focusing on features that are likely eudaimonic for most viewers, we aim to detect general patterns, which can inform future research about this type of entertainment.

Eudaimonic entertainment content

A few researchers describe content that they consider typical for eudaimonic entertainment. Oliver and Bartsch (2011, p. 31) for instance identify entertainment that focuses on human moral virtue as eudaimonic. In addition, Slater et al. (2018, p. 82) describe eudaimonic narrative as showing crucial life events, such as loss and other life transitions, highlighting human vulnerability and the temporary quality of one’s stay on earth. Thus, while acknowledging that eudaimonic entertainment is based on meaningful responses, researchers also have a notion of content that is generally eudaimonic. In addition to explicit descriptions of this content which only a few researchers give, these notions are also implicit in the materials that researchers use to examine eudaiomonic entertainment, because they select content that they consider eudaimonic. This review gives an overview of what is considered eudaimonic entertainment in this field by analyzing the materials that are used in eudaimonic entertainment research.

Starting from the descriptions of eudaimonic entertainment in the literature, we specifically focus on two features in our review. First, as eudaimonic stories are described as including human vulnerability, transience and loss (Cohen et al., 2020; Slater et al., 2018), we expect that they often involve threats to fundamental needs of characters, like the need for safety and the need for relatedness (Maslow, 1943, 1968). For example, when a protagonist loses a loved one, this is a threat to their basic need for relatedness. Such portrayals of threatened needs show that things of value are transient and lost in the course of time (Cohen et al., 2020). In the present study, we review which specific needs are threatened in the materials of previous eudaimonic entertainment research and identify general patterns.

Second, we look at virtues that are portrayed in eudaimonic content, as virtue is also considered central to eudaimonic entertainment (Oliver & Bartsch, 2011). Several virtues are mentioned by researchers such as persistence, care and generosity (Bartsch & Oliver, 2016; Oliver et al., 2017). These can be categorized as the main human virtues of courage and humanity (Peterson & Seligman, 2004). For example, a protagonist helping someone or sharing with others portrays the virtue of humanity. Other virtues are justice, temperance, wisdom and transcendence. This review examines which specific virtues are portrayed in the content used in eudaimonic entertainment research and analyze general patterns.

To summarize, the focus of this review is on the content of eudaimonic entertainment. It is a descriptive review of the materials that have been used in eudaimonic entertainment research. We create an overview of the content of this entertainment to gain more insight into the features of eudaimonic entertainment. By analyzing the similarities in the content, we can find common features in eudaimonic entertainment as it is used in this research area. By inspecting the differences in the content, we can uncover different subcategories of eudaimonic entertainment. An important contribution of this review is to reveal shared notions of typical content of eudaimonic entertainment. By showing whether, and if so which threatened needs and human virtue are portrayed in most materials, it becomes clear what is regarded as eudaimonic entertainment content by the experts in this research field and whether these accord with the descriptions given in the literature.

The research questions that guide this review are:

RQ1: Which common features can be distinguished in the content of the materials of eudaimonic entertainment research?

RQ2: Which subcategories can be identified in the content of the materials of eudaimonic entertainment research?

Method

Search strategy

We conducted an extensive literature search of empirical studies on the topic of eudaimonic entertainment. The databases Communication Abstracts and PsycInfo were searched because communication and psychology are the disciplines in which most research on eudaimonic entertainment is being done. In addition, Google Scholar was used because it yielded multiple relevant studies that were not present in the searches in Communication Abstracts and PsycInfo. We used the following combinations of keywords to search the full text in all databases: eudaimonic and entertainment, eudaimonic and narrative, eudaimonic and media, meaningful and entertainment, and meaningful and media (the combination meaningful and narrative yielded no relevant records). We used these keywords to ensure that papers were found in which entertainment is studied that researchers identify as eudaimonic, of which meaningful is used as a synonym on the basis of the conceptualization of eudaimonic entertainment by Oliver et al. (2018).

The combined searches in Communication Abstracts and PsycInfo resulted in a total of 114 non-duplicate documents, which were perused on whether they fit the selection criteria. Google Scholar provided too many hits to look at each document individually (more than 2 million documents for meaningful media). As Google Scholar sorts documents by relevance, we checked the first pages of search results, until 3 pages did not yield any more documents that fit the selection criteria. In addition, we checked reference lists of central theoretical and empirical papers on eudaimonic entertainment for relevant references. Also, we searched for articles that referred to these papers with the function ‘cited by.’ Finally, we checked whether authors of which multiple papers had appeared in the search had other papers on this topic.

Selection criteria

We used several criteria to decide whether or not to include a document in the review. First, to ensure that the paper addressed eudaimonic entertainment, it needed to report on a study about media entertainment in which the term ‘eudaimonic’ or ‘meaningful’ was used to refer to the entertainment that was studied. This term could be used to refer to the content of the entertainment and/or to the recipients’ responses to the entertainment. Some studies referred to eudaimonic motivations, which are strictly speaking not responses to entertainment as they precede exposure, but these were also taken to indicate that the study was about eudaimonic entertainment and thus included. Second, it was an empirical study in which data was collected about recipients’ responses to entertainment and/or about features of the entertainment. All types of measurement were allowed, such as self-report and physiological measures, as well as qualitative studies. Third, it was a study about non-interactive audiovisual entertainment. Thus, studies about other media like written narratives were excluded. In addition, we excluded papers that were exclusively about interactive media, like games, because these are not the focus of this review. This left many types of audiovisual entertainment to be included, such as (clips of) films, television shows and YouTube videos. Finally, only papers published in peer-reviewed journals and dissertations were included in this review to ensure the quality of the studies and only papers published in English were included based on limitations in the languages spoken by the researchers.

A total of 80 papers was selected based on these criteria (see flowchart of selection process in Figure 1), which were published between 2008 and 2020. These papers reported on 102 (non-duplicate) empirical studies on eudaimonic entertainment. Many of the studies were experiments (n = 57). In 48 experiments, participants were exposed to videos in different conditions, such as a eudaimonic vs. a non-eudaimonic condition (e.g. Slater et al., 2019) or a eudaimonic video with a happy ending vs. a sad ending (e.g. Wirth et al., 2012, study 1). In 9 experiments, participants were randomly assigned to report on different types of audiovisual entertainment they had watched before, such as a particularly meaningful film vs. a particularly pleasurable film (e.g. Oliver et al., 2012). In addition, many studies were surveys (n = 40). In 11 surveys, all participants were exposed to the same entertainment stimulus, like a shortened version of a film, and then answered questions about this stimulus (e.g. Wirth et al., 2012, study 2). In 29 surveys, all participants were asked to report on entertainment they had watched before, such as their favorite movie (e.g. Janicke & Ramasubramanian, 2017). Finally, 2 studies were content analyses and 3 studies used a qualitative method.

Figure 1. Flow chart of selection process.

Analysis

In the present paper, all selected studies were reviewed for information regarding the content of eudaimonic entertainment. Not all studies used the terms ‘eudaimonic’ or ‘meaningful’ to refer to the content of entertainment, because these terms may also refer to entertainment responses or motivations. Nonetheless, we assumed that also in these studies, the researchers used audiovisual materials or asked questions about content that they consider eudaimonic. That is, the researchers probably selected content that they expected to call up in most viewers the eudaimonic responses they were interested in. Thus, a starting point of this review is that the materials that were used in the selected studies (unless they belong to a control condition that was explicitly stated to be non-eudaimonic) are eudaimonic according to the researchers. The results of this review can therefore be said to reflect the collective intuitions about eudaimonic content of the experts in the field of eudaimonic entertainment research.

The selected studies varied in the extent to which they provided information relevant for our research questions. Many of the studies included audiovisual materials to which the participants were exposed. We collected the descriptions that were given of these materials. As these descriptions are selections of what is shown in the video, especially when it is a longer video, it is possible that not all instances of threatened needs or virtue that were present in the materials (but not in the descriptions) were analyzed. However, we assumed that the researchers selected the elements that they judged to be most relevant in their description and thus our analysis gives an account of the ideas of researchers of what is important in eudaimonic entertainment. For some studies, links were provided to YouTube or the Open Science framework on which the videos could be viewed. In some other studies, descriptions were not sufficient to analyze whether threatened needs or virtue were portrayed. In those cases, we used descriptions on the internet movie database (imdb.com) to get an idea of the main content, but only in so far as it was plausible that this content was present in the video that was shown (e.g. trailer, scene). In experiments that explicitly stated to compare a eudaimonic condition to another (e.g. hedonic) condition, only the materials for the eudaimonic condition were included in the analysis. In addition, studies that did not expose participants to entertainment, often did include questions about specific entertainment and can in this way also provide information about the content of eudaimonic entertainment. For instance, by descriptions given by participants of meaningful films they recollected or by film titles given by researchers as eudaimonic. This information was analyzed separately.

Of the descriptions of study materials, we did a qualitative content analysis, based on the principles of thematic analysis (TA). TA is a method for identifying patterns of what is common across a dataset (Braun & Clarke, 2012). Although multiple patterns can be discerned in any dataset, TA is guided by what is relevant to the specific topic(s) under investigation (Braun & Clarke, 2006). In the present analysis, these topics were the portrayals of threatened needs and human virtue in the materials, based on the descriptions of eudaimonic content in the literature (Oliver & Bartsch, 2011; Slater et al., 2019). The threat to human needs was analyzed based on Maslow’s (1943, 1968) basic needs hierarchy, as this provided the most fitting and encompassing classification of human needs in the present dataset. The 5 fundamental needs in this hierarchy are: Physiological needs, which refer to conditions necessary for the body to survive such as food and drink, but also sufficient sleep and general health (Taormina & Gao, 2013). Safety needs, which refer to being protected from things that could harm us such as crime, war, natural catastrophes, and disease, but also to the need for financial security such as insurance (Maslow, 1943). Belongingness or relatedness needs, which refer to the longing for love and affectionate relations to others such as a partner, friends or family members (Maslow, 1968). Esteem needs, which refer both to self-esteem or seeing yourself as a competent and worthy person and to esteem from others or being respected and having prestige (Maslow, 1943, 1968). Self-actualization needs, which refer to the desire for self-fulfillment or to become what one truly is (Taormina & Gao, 2013). Because health concerns are present in both physiological (the need for a healthy body) and safety needs (the need to be safe from disease), the need for health was categorized separately.

The portrayal of human virtue was categorized on the basis of the core human virtues identified by Peterson and Seligman (2004). They distinguish 6 human virtues that comprise different character strengths, which are the following: Wisdom, which refers to cognitive strengths that entail the acquisition and use of knowledge, such as curiosity and creativity. Courage, which refers to emotional strengths that involve the exercise of will to accomplish goals in the face of external or internal opposition, like bravery and persistence. Humanity, which refers to interpersonal strengths that involve tending and befriending others, like love and kindness. Justice, which refers to civic strengths that underlie healthy community life, like fairness. Temperance, which refers to strengths that protect against excess, like modesty. Transcendence, which refers to strengths that forge connections to the larger universe and provide meaning, like appreciation of beauty (Peterson & Seligman, 2004, pp. 29–30). In accordance with principles of thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006), categories were discussed with two independent researchers, which then informed the refinement of themes, their definition and naming. This refinement led to the inclusion of the category non-virtuous behavior or behavior that goes against one or more of the virtues, like harming or killing others. On the basis of this analysis, we uncovered similarities in the content indicating common features, and identified differences indicating subcategories.

Results

In Table 1, an overview is given of the materials that participants watched in the selected studies that exposed participants to entertainment. The descriptions of the materials and the categorizations on the two features, fundamental human needs that are threatened and virtues that are portrayed, are presented in the table.

Table 1. Descriptions of materials used in studies that exposed participants to entertainment.

	Method	Description of the materials in the articles	Fundamental need that is threatened	Virtue that is portrayed
Angulo-Brunet and Soto-Sanfiel (2020)	Survey. All participants watched the same film.	The film Illégal, which explores the difficulties of immigration and the issues faced by undocumented people in their desire to have a better life. It tells the story of Tania, a Russian woman who lives with her son, Ivan, illegally in Belgium. The day her son turns thirteen, Tania is arrested and taken to a detention center, where she lives with other women of different nationalities suffering similar conditions. Following the advice of some of them, Tania reveals neither her identity nor the existence of Ivan. During the detention, her greatest fear is the well-being of her son.	Being an illegal immigrant held in a detention center, being separated from son; need for safety, need for relatedness	Care for well-being of son; virtue of humanity
Appel et al. (2019)	Experiment. Between-subjects factor: Type of videos (Eudaimonic vs. control). Each participant watched 4 video’s in the same condition.	The eudaimonic narrative in the news category was about a middle-school football team that let a disabled classmate score a touchdown.	Disability; need for health	Kindness; virtue of humanity
		In the ad category, the video’s were for Google. The eudaimonic advertisement focused on a father’s record of his daughter’s childhood.	Loss of childhood; need for relatedness	Love for daughter; virtue of humanity
		The eudaimonic short narrative was an Asian-produced commercial message about a man who helps an impoverished little boy. Thirty years later, the boy has become a surgeon; remembering his benefactor the surgeon saves the man who is in a health crisis.	Poverty, disease; need for (financial) safety, need for health	Helping each other; virtue of humanity
		The eudaimonic movie trailer was about the documentary Life in Day that employed user-generated home videos to show the common connections of love, hope, and fear among people throughout the world.	Fear (of?); unclear which need is threatened	Love, connectedness; virtue of humanity
Bailey and Ivory (2018)	Experiment. Between-subjects factor: Type of clip (Eudaimonic vs. hedonic). Each participant watched 1 clip.	Freaks and Geeks is a comedy/drama about high school life in the 1980s. The eudaimonic clip was about Sam being bullied at school and Sam’s sister Lindsey struggling to fit in at school and cope with the loss of their grandmother.	Loss of grandmother, being bullied; need for relatedness, need for esteem	? nothing mentioned about virtue
		Rescue Me is a comedy/drama that follows a veteran New York City firefighter. The eudaimonic clip was about Tommy struggling through a divorce and being haunted by the memory of a cousin who died in the September 11, 2001 attacks.	Divorce, loss of cousin in 9/11; need for relatedness, need for safety	Being firefighter, virtue of humanity
		The Wire is a drama that focuses on various areas of life in Baltimore including the police department and local gangs. The eudaimonic clip was about Namond, a troubled Baltimore teen, being pressured by his mother and his imprisoned father to ‘step up’ and sell drugs to contribute to the family income. A former police officer asks Namond’s father for permission to adopt him in order to save him from gang life.	Setting of gangs, imprisoned father; need for safety, need for relatedness	Selling drugs, man offering to adopt him to get him out; non-virtuous behavior and virtuous behavior; virtue of humanity
Bailey and Wojdynski (2015)	Experiment. Between-subjects factor: Type of clip (Elevating vs. control)	The eudaimonic clip from Rescue me as in Bailey & Ivory, 2018. A clip in which the main character and New York City firefighter, Tommy, struggles through a divorce and flashbacks of 9/11 where he lost his cousin at the Twin Towers. He is seen reflecting on his own heroic efforts with sadness.	See Bailey and Ivory (2018)	See Bailey and Ivory (2018)
Barriga (2011)	Experiment. Between-subjects factor: Depicted morality in clip (Ambiguous vs. unambiguously bad). Each participant watched 1 clip.	Clips that summarize the movies: House of Sand and Fog, 21 grams, 25th Hour and We don’t live here anymore. In the ambiguous version, the target character is portrayed doing bad things but he is also shown engaging in morally desirable behaviors. Each film addressed different kinds of immoral behaviors, including violence towards women, emotional abuse, greed, violent behavior, drug dealing, encouragement of sex with minors, racism, homicide, breaking of medical privacy laws, infidelity. Positive moral behaviors included caring for family members, forgiveness, restraint in the use of violence, charity towards strangers, helping adversaries, recognizing flaws, sincere apologizing, and good parenting.	Settings of violence, abuse, racism etc.; need for safety	Violence, abuse, greed etc., forgiveness, charity, helping etc.; in the ambiguous clip both non-virtuous behavior and virtuous behavior: virtue of humanity
Bartsch (2012b)	Quasi-experiment. Between-subjects factor: Age (18–25, 50+) Within-subjects factor: Genre of scene (Comedy, Psycho-Thriller, Drama, Documentary)	Scene 3 is from the drama North Country (USA, 2005). Josey Aimes sues her employer, a mining company, because the company refuses to act against sexual harassment of the female workers. During the lawsuit she is forced by the counter-party’s attorney to reveal a painful secret: As a teenager she has been raped by her high-school teacher. Her son with whom she has a difficult relationship runs away from home after he learns the truth. At the end of the scene mother and son reconcile	Sexual harassment, difficult relation with son; need for safety, need for relatedness	Mother and son reconcile; virtue of humanity
Bartsch et al. (2014)	Experiment. Between-subjects factor: Presence of moving music (Film fragment with or without music)	Part of short film The Red Jacket, which traces the travel of a boy’s beloved soccer jacket. The boy is killed in a traffic accident, and the jacket is collected by the police and brought home to the boy’s father, who is a single dad. The father first puts the jacket over the boy’s empty chair; but soon he becomes unable to bear the sight of it. During a walk on the waterfront he throws the jacket away. The jacket is found, cleaned, and shipped with a Red Cross transport to Sarajevo. In Sarajevo, a gang of children break into the Red Cross van, and the jacket is stolen by a boy who seems to like it at lot, and who defends his haul against an older boy and a Red Cross employee who arrives at the scene. The boy pushes the Red Cross employee over and runs away with the jacket, across the war-damaged city, and into the woods. He comes to a halt in a grove with mine signs all over to have a delighted look at the jacket.	Loss of son, war in Sarajevo; need for relatedness, need for safety	Stealing jacket, pushing Red Cross employee; non-virtuous behavior
Bartsch and Mares (2014)	Experiment. Between subjects factors: –Depiction of gore (high vs. low) –Meaning-fulness of movie trailers (high vs. low)	Movie trailers of film type 1 (gore high, meaning high): Saving Private Ryan, Hotel Rwanda Movie trailers of film Type 3 (gore low, meaning high): A Beautiful Mind, The Green Mile No further description of the movie trailers that were used. The descriptions of the films on imdb show settings of war and death row for 3 of the films.	Settings of war, death row; need for safety	? unclear whether virtue was shown in the trailers
Bartsch et al. (2018)	Experiment (3 studies with same design). Between- subjects factor: Type of music accompanying spots about the paralympics (Moving music vs. neutral music)	Two of the spots presented a collage of moving images that portrayed the athletes and the atmosphere of the games. The third spot showed a sprinter with a prosthetic leg running through a reenactment of biographic scenes representing his accident, surgery, and rehabilitation. In all spots, the images were combined with parsimonious text elements, highlighting the virtues exemplified by the athletes, including willpower, determination, and optimism facing obstacles and challenges.	Disability; need for health	Willpower, determination, optimism facing obstacles and challenges; virtue of courage
Bartsch and Schneider (2014)	Experiment. Study 1: Between-subjects factor: Presence of moving music (Fragment with or without music)	Excerpts of two fictional films. One film scene (4.30 min) was from The Kite Runner (USA, 2007) and dealt with war crimes of the Taliban, and the other scene (4.09 min) was from Sin Nobre (USA, Mexico, 2009) and dealt with the crime of a gang leader of Mara Salvatrucha (a criminal youth gang) against the girlfriend of a gang member.	War, gangs; need for safety	Crime; non-virtuous behavior
	Study 2: Presence of moving examplar (Fragment with or without exemplar)	A television magazine report about problematic developments in the microcredit business in India. Specifically, the report focuses on a wave of suicides among debtors and aggressive debt collection practices. The exemplar was about a young widow whose husband had committed suicide.	Debt, loss of husband; need for (financial) safety, need for relatedness	Aggressive debt collection practices; non-virtuous behavior
Clayton et al. (2019)	Experiment. Within-subjects factor: Type of video (Self-transcendent vs. humorous)	The stimuli are on the Open Science Framework. tdoctor: Boy is helped by man in buying medicine for his sick mother and helps him in return when he has become a doctor (see Appel et al., 2019).	See Appel et al. (2019)	See Appel et al. (2019)
		tgraffiti: Boy sprays graffiti for sister who is ill to see from her bedroom window.	Disease; need for health	Kindness; virtue of humanity
		trefugee: Child soldier is rescued by UN and perseveres to become a lawyer.	War; need for safety	Perseverance; virtue of courage
Cohen (2016)	Experiment. Between- subjects factor: Presence of conclusion scene (Episode with conclusion scene, Episode without conclusion scene, Control episode)	The episode focuses on an FBI investigation of a black market organ harvesting operation that results in the disappearance of two girls. The episode concludes when investigators learn that hospital employees were involved with the illegal operation and they acquire information needed to locate a missing girl before her organs are harvested. During the investigation, a main character shares a story about a friend who had a disease that made him ineligible for the transplant list and explains that the shortage of organ donors fuels the organ donor black market.	Girls disappearing, being in danger of harvesting organs; need for safety	Illegal organ harvesting; non-virtuous behavior
Dale et al. (2017)	Study 2: Real-time response analysis; Participants provided real-time responses of how inspiring they found 3 videos	Video 1 (157 s) contained nine depictions of gratitude; Video 2 (81 s) contained 10 depictions associated with appreciation of beauty and excellence, three associated with gratitude, and six associated with hope; and Video 3 (87 s) contained three depictions of gratitude and one of hope. In Clayton et al. (2019) it is stated these are the same videos as they used.	See Clayton et al. (2019)	See Clayton et al. (2019)
Das et al. (2017)	Experiment. Between- subjects factors: –Type of fragment (moving vs. control) –Cognitive load (during watching, after watching, no load)	Cool Runnings tells the story of the first Jamaican bobsled team to try for the Olympic Games; Both fragments showed the bobsled team practicing their skills, and both fragments showed the athletes working toward success in the Olympic Games. The moving fragment included a deeper conversation between the coach and a team member about the value of winning and the price of cheating; the coach was once a professional bobsled athlete who was disqualified after he was found cheating, and tells the team member at the end of the conversation, ‘A gold medal is a wonderful thing, but if you’re not enough without it, you’ll never be enough with it.’	Team from warm country competing in winter Olympics; need for esteem?	Cheating coach who encourages winning fairly; non-virtuous behavior and virtuous message: virtue of justice
Ellithorpe et al. (2015)	Experiment. Between-subjects factors: Type of clip (High vs. low elevation) Perceived choice in selecting clip (High vs. low) Each participant watched 1 clip.	Approximately last 20 min of Ghost; Planes, Trains and Automobiles; Uncle Buck; and Sixteen Candles, accompanied by synopsis from the back of the DVD case. No description of these clips is given. The descriptions on imdb show endings in which people unite (e.g. invite to Thanksgiving dinner) for 3 of the films.	? unclear which needs were threathened	People unite; virtue of humanity
Ellithorpe et al. (2019)	Experiment. Between-subjects factor: Type of clip (Elevating political speech vs. control) Each participant watched 1 clip.	State of the State speeches are given by state governors in the United States on a yearly basis, and are generally structured around what the governor has achieved recently and what they hope to achieve in the near future. The sections of speeches featuring portrayals of actions indicating moral beauty (acts of goodness) were selected for the elevating clips.	? nothing mentioned about struggling	Acts of goodness; virtue of humanity
Hall and Zwarun (2012)	Survey. Participants watched 1 of the short films.	Smart Card is a live-action science fiction story about a future where the desire for convenience has led to a society of individuals at the mercy of a megacorporation that knows everything about them. Viewers are introduced to a main character who can conduct daily transactions only with a ‘smart’ credit card that provides anyone who swipes it unfettered access to his personal data. When the man’s smart card is stolen, he is rendered helpless, and is ultimately arrested for being a ‘nobody’ without it. The only resolution he is offered is the opportunity to have an identity chip implanted in his hand.	Being at the mercy of mega-corporation; need for safety	Unjustly arrested; non-virtuous behavior
		Delivery tells a fantastical story through computer-generated animation. It features an old man whose apartment lies on a barren landscape punctuated by a huge, smoke-belching factory. The man lovingly tends a small flower, the only nature visible in the film, when a flying craft delivers a box to him. The man is puzzled by the seemingly empty box, but he eventually realizes that it is a microcosm of the world he lives in and that by placing his flower into the box, he is able to replace the factory with plants. The film has no dialogue but demonstrates the tension between nature and a manmade world.	Living in barren world; need for safety	Care for flower; virtue of humanity?
Hofer (2013)	Experiment. Between-subjects factors: Mortality salience (Mortality salience vs. control)	The stimulus was a shortened version of the film My Life Without Me. The film tells the story of a 23-year-old mother who lives with her husband and her two small daughters in a trailer in her own mother’s garden. Her life takes a dramatic turn when, during a medical check after a collapse, she learns that she has incurable metastatic ovarian cancer and that she is going to die within the next 2 months. She decides not to tell anyone about her imminent death. Instead, she begins to arrange for the life of her husband and her two daughters after she has died. She tries to find a new wife for her husband and a new mother for her children. At the end of the film, she records tapes for her husband and her mother telling them that she loves them. She also records tapes for her daughters, for each of their birthdays until they reach the age of 18	Incurable metastatic ovarian cancer; need for health	Arrange for the life of husband and daughters; virtue of humanity
Hofer et al. (2014)	Experiment. Between subjects factor: Valence of ending of film (Sad vs. happy)	A shortened version of the film Dancer in the Dark. Selma has moved to the United States with her son Gene. She works in a local factory and lives a life in poverty in a mobile trailer on the property of town policeman Bill Houston and his wife Linda. She suffers from a hereditary degenerative disease diminishing her eyesight gradually and inexorably. Gene also suffers from this disease. In order to pay an operation that will prevent her son from suffering the same fate, she saves up every penny she earns in a tin cup in her kitchen. One day, Bill reveals to Selma that he is financially broke and cannot bear to tell his wife. Furthermore, Bill steals Selma’s life savings that were meant for Gene’s operation. When Selma finds out about the theft, she confronts Bill. The situation gets out of hand and Selma shoots him. Therefore, Selma is put on trial. She is sentenced to death by hanging. Yet, Selma refuses help as this would lead her life savings to be spent on her lawyer and not on Gene’s operation.	Poor immigrant, degenerative eye disease; need for safety, need for health	Stealing, shooting & self-sacrifice for son; non-virtuous behavior & virtue of humanity
Hofer et al. (2015)	Quasi-experiment. Between-subjects factor: Age (Younger, 18–28 vs. Older 62–87)	We used a highly distressing scene (5 min) of the movie Dancer in the Dark. Selma has moved to the United States with her son Gene and lives a life in poverty in a mobile trailer on the property of town policeman Bill Houston. She suffers from a hereditary degenerative disease diminishing her eyesight gradually and inexorably. Gene also suffers from this disease. To pay for an operation that will prevent her son from suffering the same fate, she saves up every penny she earns. One day, Bill steals Selma’s life savings. When Selma finds out about the theft, she confronts Bill. The situation gets out of hand. Finally, Bill begs Selma to kill him, because he cannot stand his life anymore. Therefore Selma shoots him. The scene ends with a focus on Selma sitting next to her dead neighbor and crying.	See Hofer et al. (2014)	See Hofer et al. (2014)
Igartua and Barrios (2013)	Survey. Study 1: All participants watched the same film.	The film used as experimental stimulus, titled Camino, is a sad movie inspired by real events that took place in Spain: After a long-suffering illness, a 14-year-old girl, daughter of an Opus Dei family, died in 1984. The girl was in the process of beatification. The feature describes the dramatic situation of the filmic 11-year-old Camino, who is suddenly presented with two new events in her life: falling in love and dying.	Long-suffering illness; need for health	? nothing mentioned about virtue in this description
Jang et al. (2019)	Experiment. Between-subjects factor: Type of video (Meaningful vs. Hedonic)	Experiment 1 & 3: A video depicting a meaningful story about a college football player (CFP) and a boy named Bo Paske (BP) who has autism. In this video, the CFP visited a local high school with other football players. While eating lunch with students, the CFP found that BP was having lunch by himself. Thus, the CFP sat with BP and they had lunch together.	Autism; need for health	Have lunch together; virtue of humanity
		Experiment 2: A story involving a celebrity athlete, Dwyane Wade (DW), a professional basketball player, and a fan, Michael. The first part of the video described how Michael lost his hand and feet and the ways in which he suffered from his disability early in his life. The video then showed how Michael fought through his difficulties and finally met his favorite basketball player, DW. In the video, DW continously demonstrated acts of moral-excellence by help Michael and offering personal encouragement.	Losing hand and feet; need for health	Helping; virtue of humanity
Janicke et al. (2018)	Experiment. Between-subjects factor: Type of video (Meaningful video, Funny video, Control) Each participant saw 1 video.	Links to the videos on YouTube are given. The video is a commercial for an insurance company in Thailand, showing a child stealing medicine for his sick mother and being met with kindness by the store vendor who gave him the medicine for free and let him go. 30 years later the child, then adult, pays the favor forward.	See Appel et al. (2019)	See Appel et al. (2019)
		This video is a news report about a boy finding $20 bill in a parking lot and instead of spending it on himself he gave it to a soldier he met at a grocery store with a note thanking him for his service. In the YouTube video, it becomes clear that the boy has lost his dad who was a soldier as well.	Loss of father; need for realatedness	Giving money away; virtue of humanity
Khoo (2016)	Experiment. Each participant saw 1 video.	Shortened versions of In the Bedroom and Mystic River as in Khoo and Oliver (2013). Both stimuli share the theme of loss from death of a teenage child and the parents’ despair. Thus, familial loss was the main theme of the tragedy.	See Khoo and Oliver (2013)	See Khoo and Oliver (2013)
Khoo and Oliver (2013)	Experiment. Each participant saw 1 video. Between-subjects factor: Instructed reflection (Watch movie + reflection task, Read script + reflection task, Watch movie without task)	The edited movie scenes of In the Bedroom tell the story of a 3-person family broken apart by loss. Frank is dating a divorced woman who has an unstable ex-husband. One day, in a heated scuffle, Frank is killed by the ex-husband. The parents, Matt and Ruth, grieve helplessly. After a futile attempt to obtain justice from the court system, Matt, a war veteran, kidnaps the ex-husband and kills him. The narrative ends with Matt in a daze after taking revenge; the final scene shows him inspecting his finger as he removes a small bandage.	Loss of son; need for relatedness	Killing in revenge; non-virtuous behavior
		The edited movie scenes of Mystic River tell the story of a now-respectable ex-con who suddenly finds his beloved daughter murdered. Grief-stricken, he eventually suspects an old neighborhood friend. Jimmy takes revenge and kills the wrong man before the actual killers were apprehended. The story ends with Jimmy acknowledging his grave error; the final scene shows him standing in a remorseful pose while displaying a tattoo of a large cross on his back.	Loss of daughter; need for relatedness	Killing the wrong man; non-virtuous behavior
Knobloch-Westerwick et al. (2013)	Survey. All participants watched the same film.	A teenaged girl, Briony, accuses her sister’s lover of a rape that he did not commit, which permanently changes the lives of all involved. Briony has a secret crush on the housekeeper’s son, Robbie, but finds out that he is actually in love with her older sister Cecilia. Several scenes depict the developing romance and passion between Robbie and Cecilia. A rape occurs at the family’s estate, and Briony accuses Robbie of the crime. Despite the scant evidence, based on Briony’s testimony, Robbie is found guilty of the crime and sent off to war. Cecelia and Robbie are thus separated for good and both die as casualties of the war. Briony, who becomes a novelist, is haunted by guilt for the rest of her life.	Unrequited love, death of sister and her lover; need for relatedness	Jealousy, false accusation; non-virtuous behavior
Krämer et al. (2017)	Experiment. Between-subjects factors: –Video content (beauty of the earth, unity of humankind, acts of kindness, funny control) –Platform (YouTube many views, YouTube with few views, unknown platform) Each participant watched 1 video.	The videos showing the beauty of the world included one 55-second video depicting beautiful landscapes and another 53-second video depicting wonders of the world (from the movie Planet Earth).	No struggling	Beauty; virtue of transcendence
		The videos suggesting the similarities of humankind included a 1-minute 43-second video of a man dancing in various places and with locals throughout the world (‘Where the hell is Matt?’) and a 1-minute 45-second movie trailer of everyday life among people throughout world (Life in a Day).	No struggling, see Appel et al., 2019 for second video	Connectedness; virtue of transcendence
		The videos depicting portrayals of human kindness included a 45-second video of a young girl who cuts her hair for her brother going through chemotherapy and a 2-minute 2-second video about a doctor who provides free medical service to a man who had helped him during childhood.	Disease; need for health see Appel et al., 2019 for second video	Kindness; virtue of humanity
Krämer et al. (2019)	Experiment. Between-subjects factors: –Video content (unity of humankind, acts of kindness, funny control)	The same videos as Krämer et al., 2017, except no beauty of the earth.	See Krämer et al. (2017)	See Krämer et al. (2017)
Möller and Kühne (2019)	Experiment. Between-subjects factor: Type of comments shown with YouTube video (High hedonic, low hedonic, high eudaimonic, low eudaimonic, no comments)	Link to video on YouTube is given. The animated short film Life is Beautiful depicts a main character who is physically very different from others because he is extraordinarily short. Due to his appearance, he leads an isolated and unhappy life. The main character decides to commit suicide to solve his problems. However, at the end of the story, a change of fortune occurs. After he dies, his spirit floats to heaven where it competes with other spirits for a new life. He wins and the final scene indicates that the character is reborn.	Extraordinary shortness, isolated unhappy life; need for relatedness, need for esteem	Others ignore him; non-virtuous behavior
Myrick and Oliver (2015)	Experiment. Between-subjects factor: Type of emotions shown in the video (Mixed, Sad-only, Non-Sad, Control)	The video consists of a variety of testimonials from melanoma survivors, relatives of nonsurvivors, and members of the medical community sharing their stories discussing the seriousness of this form of skin cancer, and urging the viewer to take precautions that will allow for the prevention and early detection of the disease. The mixed-video condition consisted of the original, unedited version that included humor, intimate disclosures, and displays of sadness regarding the devastation the disease can cause.	Skin cancer, need for health	? nothing mentioned about virtue
Neubaum et al. (2020)	Experiment. Between-subjects factor: Type of video’s viewed over the course of 6 weeks (Acts of human kindness, Violent content, Funny content)	18 videos that showed acts of human kindness. Not all can be included in this table, but the authors describe typical examples: Videos of this category displayed stories of, for instance, a police man in Manhattan who gave his shoes to a homeless man or a social worker in India who helps homeless people.	Homeless people; need for safety	Kindness, helping; virtue of humanity
Oliver (2008)	Study 1: Survey. All participants watched the same 6 movie trailers (2 sad films, 2 comedies and 2 suspenseful films)	Trailers of Prince of Tides and Winter People. No description of the movie trailers is given. Descriptions on imdb indicate family problems.	Family problems; need for relatedness	? unclear whether virtue was portrayed in the trailers
Oliver and Bartsch (2010)	Study 3: Survey. All participants rated the same movies.	Full length film The Graduate. No descriptions given of movies. The description on imdb indicate a focus on relationships: estrangement of the protagonist from his parents, an affair with a married woman and a relationship with the married woman’s daughter.	Relationships: need for relatedness	Lying about the affair; non-virtuous behavior
Prestin and Nabi (2020)	Experiment. Between-subjects factor: Type of video (Underdog, Comedy, Nature, No media Control)	5 YouTube videos on 5 consecutive days. The Underdog treatment, designed to elicit hope, featured stories of disadvantaged characters facing challenges who, through hard work and determination, overcame unfavorable odds to reach their goals (e.g. a dog born with no front legs walking upright).	Dog without front legs; need for health	Determination; virtue of courage
Rieger and Bente (2018)	Experiment. Between-subjects factor: Type of video (Eudaimonic, hedonic, neutral)	Part of film The Pursuit of Happiness. No description of the content given.	? unclear whether needs were threatened in the part of the film that was shown	? unclear whether virtue was portrayed in the part of the film that was shown
Rieger et al. (2015)	Experiment. Between-subjects factors: –Mortality salience (Mortality salience, control) –Type of video (Eudaimonic, hedonic, neutral)	A scene from Amélie was chosen to represent the meaningful movie. No description of the content given.	? unclear whether needs were threatened in the scene that was shown	? unclear whether virtue was portrayed in the scene that was shown
Rieger and Hofer (2017)	Experiment. Between-subjects factors: –Mortality salience (Mortality salience, control) –Film ending (Protagonist dies vs. survives)	A shortened version of the film One Week. The film features Ben, a young Canadian elementary school teacher who has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer in its final stage. Although he requires immediate treatment, Ben instead decides to take a motorcycle trip across Canada. During the trip, he reflects on the meaning of his own life and life in general, and reconsiders getting married to his longtime girlfriend.	Aggressive form of cancer; need for health	Love for girlfriend; virtue of humanity
Rieger et al. (2017)	Experiment. Between-subjects factor: Valence of movie clip (Postive, nega-tive, control)	Scene from Schindler’s List. This scene takes place in a concentration camp in Germany during the Second World War. In this scene, dead bodies of prisoners in a concentration camp are burnt by German soldiers. Other prisoners are depicted who take off the belongings of the dead and carry their corpses away.	Concentration camp in WW2; need for safety	Burning dead bodies; non-virtuous behavior
Rieger et al. (2014)	Experiment. Between-subjects factor: Type of clip (Positive, Negative, Meaningful, No media control)	Clip from Big Fish. No description of the content given.	? unclear whether needs were threatened in the scene that was shown	? unclear whether virtue was portrayed in the scene that was shown
Roth et al. (2018)	Study 2: Experiment. Between- subjects factor: Type of clip (Low hedonic, Medium hedonic, High hedonic)	The medium hedonic clip evoked the highest eudaimonic entertainment experience. Clip from the political talkshow Hart aber fair, about the dark sides of factory farming.	? unclear whether needs were threatened in the clip.	dark sides; non-virtuous behavior?
Schneider et al. (2016)	Experiment. Between-subjects factors: –enjoyment aspects (present vs. absent) –appreciation aspects (present vs. absent)	The four clips all followed a basic narrative: Sebastian, the protagonist, refuels his car at a gas station where he finds out about natural gas by watching another driver who refuels his car for less money. Sebastian then seeks information about natural gas. This is how the recipient learns about what natural gas is, what is different in comparison to biogas and Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), how it is used, and where it comes from. The viewer learns about its eco-friendliness and a detailed sample calculation demonstrates its cost-efficiency. The clip also gives information about the distribution of natural gas stations. In the end, Sebastian buys a natural gas car and makes other people jealous by refueling for much less money.	No struggling	No virtue
Schramm and Wirth (2010)	Experiment. Between-subjects factor: Ending (final scene with upbeat music, final scene with downbeat music no final scene)	The film Pay it Forward is based around Trevor, an 11-year old boy, living alone with his dysfunctional, recovering alcoholic mother. One day, Trevor is given a homework assignment by his social studies teacher. The assignment asks the pupils to think of an idea that will change the world and then to put this idea into action. Trevor’s solution is to perform a big, selfless and sacrificial favor. Instead of paying it back, the beneficiary is to pay it forward to three other people in a similarly selfless way. Trevor himself successfully starts to implement his idea by reconciling his mother and his grandmother. Trevor unselfishly comes to the rescue of an assaulted classmate and receives a deadly injury as he tragically runs into the open knife of the aggressor. The film stimulus begins with Trevor’s birthday party, where a journalist from a local TV station calls and asks for an interview with Trevor. Some days later, Trevor is interviewed at his school regarding the principle of paying it forward. His teacher and his mother, who had a romance some time ago, are also present. After the interview, Trevor’s teacher and his mother talk with each other about their past romance. At the same time, Trevor becomes involved in the deadly fight. The final scene shows hundreds of mourning admirers visit the home to silently honor Trevor. The visitors are shown at sundown, all holding candles.	Living with dysfunctional, recovering alcoholic mother, knife fight; need for safety, need for relatedness	Paying it forward, come to rescue of assaulted classmate; virtue of humanity
Shafer et al. (2016)	Experiment. Between-subjects factor: Interactivity (two moments of choice in the story vs. no choice director’s cut)	The film opens on two young women who are struggling to survive in a wasteland inhabited by savage enemies. When her friend Sarah is taken hostage by the cannibalistic Ravagers, Morgan must choose whether to negotiate for her release, or shoot at the Ravager in an attempt to free her. In the process, Harper, acting as savior, rescues Morgan and another Ravager captive, Thomas. Leaving Sarah’s body lifeless after a Ravager bullet finds her heart; the three survivors flee to Harper’s nearby safe house. Outside, Harper tells them of a stash of ammunition that they will need to survive as they make a run from the Ravagers, who are advancing. They must choose who should leave the house to retrieve the box of ammo. After a final confrontation with the Ravagers, the survivors escape toward the next safe house, with at least some shred of hope left for humanity	Wasteland with cannibalistic enemies; need for safety	Rescuing captive; virtue of humanity
Slater et al. (2018)	Experiment. Between-subjects factors: –Type of clip (Eudaimonic vs. Non-eudaimonic). Each participant saw one scene. –Reflection instruction (about clip vs. about the weather)	The eudaimonic clip from Up was a montage showing the main character falling in love with his wife, marrying her, and eventually losing her to illness.	Loss of wife; need for relatedness	Love for wife; virtue of humanity
		The eudaimonic scene from The Shawshank Redemption depicted the main character risking a beating from prison guards by broadcasting an opera over the prison radio in order to share something beautiful with his fellow inmates.	Being in prison, risk of beating; need for safety	Share something beautiful; virtue of humanity
		Last, from Stand By Me, the eudaimonic clip showed the protagonist struggling with the death of his older brother and the icy detachment of his grieving parents, but receiving support from his friends.	Loss of brother; need for relatedness	Support from friends; virtue of humanity
Slater et al. (2019)	Experiment. Between-subjects factor: Type of clip (Eudaimonic vs. Non-eudaimonic)	The same 4 videos were used as in Appel et al. (2019)	See Appel et al. (2019)	See Appel et al. (2019)
Tsay-Vogel and Krakowiak (2016)	Experiment. Between subjects factor: Type of reality tv (Lifestyle transforming vs. Game). Each participant wathced 1 clip	Supernanny portrays a professional nanny devoted to helping families in which the parents are struggling with their child rearing. Through instruction and observation, she shows the parents alternative ways to discipline their children and regain order in the household. The particular segment introduced a mother struggling to connect with her teenage daughters. The clip then showed an intervention by the supernanny, in which she asks the daughters to write down what they are feeling. The mother apologizes for not speaking more to her daughters, and they all write down some future goals. The segment ends with the family getting along and making a family crest.	Difficulties with child rearing; need for relatedness	Family uniting; virtue of humanity
		Undercover Boss introduces a high-positioned executive of a corporation going undercover as an entry-level employee. The boss invariably spends time getting to know selected company employees, and at the end of the undercover week, the boss returns to his or her true identity and rewards hardworking employees through campaign, promotion, or financial rewards. The selected segment shows the undercover CEO of KOA arriving at a campground and watching a store manager handle a difficult customer. The segment then shows the CEO talking to the manager in a different setting. He tells her that he will pay for her and her family to go on vacation and for her to go to school to continue her education.	? paying for education implies struggling with the need for (financial) safety	Give vacation and education; virtue of humanity
Waddell et al. (2019)	Experiment. Between-subjects factor: Type of film (Eudaimonic vs. Non-eudaimonic control)	For the eudaimonic condition, participants viewed the concluding scene of the film Blood Diamond. In this scene, the main protagonist sacrifices his life to save a supporting character and the supporting character’s child.	Situation in which lives are endangered; need for safety	Sacrifice life to save others; virtue of humanity
Weinmann (2017)	Experiment. Between-subjects factor: Novelty-complexity of clip (high vs. low)	Clips from the German political satire program heuteshow, which covered the political issue of statutory quota of women in economic committees and positions.	? unclear whether needs were threathened	? unclear whether virtue was shown
Wirth et al. (2012)	Study 1: Experiment. Between-subjects factor: Ending of film (Happy ending, Sad ending)	Shortened version of the film Hotel Rwanda. The film features hotel manager Paul Rusesabagina and his family, in a setting of civil war and genocide in Rwanda in 1994.	Civil war; need for safety	? nothing mentioned about virtue in this description
	Study 2: Survey. All participants watched the same film.	Shortened version of the film Life is Beautiful. The film depicts a father’s attempts to save his son’s life in a concentration camp during World War II. It ends with the father’s death and an uncertain future of his son.	Concentration camp in WWII; need for safety	Trying to save son; virtue of humanity
Wulf et al. (2019)	Study 2: Experiment. Between-subjects factor: Type of entertainment (Nostalgic, Meaningful, Control)	Meaningful: movie trailers were selected that have been used as examples of meaningful movies in previous studies (Amelie, Big Fish, and The Intouchables)	? unclear what was in the trailers	? unclear what was in the trailers
Zhao (2018)	Experiment. Between subjects factor: Type of video for mood induction (Meaningful vs. funny)	An excerpt taken from a touching YouTube video of a Thai life insurance commercial titled You Can Be a Hero Too was used to induce elevation. The video depicted a working-class adult Thai man who helps others, gives to others, and feels happy when he sees the positive changes in the lives of those people he has helped.	? positive changes implies some kind of struggling beforehand, unclear which need was threatened	Helping, giving; virtue of humanity

Portrayals of threatened needs: characters struggling

Almost all of the materials contained portrayals of threats to fundamental needs of characters. For instance, Wirth et al. (2012) used a shortened version of the film Hotel Rwanda, in which a hotel manager deals with the consequences of civil war and genocide in Rwanda in 1994, which is a threat to the human need for safety. Additionally, one of the clips used by Slater et al. (2019) from the film Stand by Me showed the protagonist struggling with the death of his older brother, which presents a threat to the need for relatedness shared by all humans. These portrayals of threatened needs show characters dealing with negative events and circumstances, or in other words they show characters struggling. In these portrayals, it is shown what it is like for the character(s) to experience adversity and misfortune.

As can be seen in Table 1, needs that were threatened most often in the materials were safety needs. Typical examples of this kind of struggling were being in a war like the civil war in Rwanda in Hotel Rwanda (Wirth et al., 2012), or living in other negative settings like a gang environment in The Wire (Bailey & Ivory, 2018) and an immigrant detention center in Illégal (Angulo-Brunet & Soto-Sanfiel, 2020). In addition, the fundamental need for relatedness was threatened in approximately a quarter of the categorized descriptions of struggling. This was often the loss of a loved one, such as a spouse in the animation film Up (Slater et al., 2019) or a child in the film Mystic River (Khoo & Oliver, 2013). Other threats to relatedness needs include problematic relations between family members, such as between parents and children in the television show Supernanny (Tsay-Vogel & Krakowiak, 2016). In a similar number of portrayals, the need for health was threatened. In many of these portrayals, characters suffered from a potentially fatal disease, like an aggressive form of cancer in the film One Week (Rieger & Hofer, 2017) or characters struggled with a disability, like an athlete with a prosthetic leg in a television spot about the Paralympics (Bartsch et al., 2018). Finally, a threat to the human need for esteem was identified in a few portrayals, such as a character who was bullied in the tv show Freaks and Geeks (Bailey & Ivory, 2018). In sum, in portrayals of struggling, needs that were threatened most often were the needs for safety, relatedness and health. Other needs like the needs for esteem and self-actualization were not threatened often in the descriptions of eudaimonic entertainment.

Portrayals of virtue: characters acting in a morally good way

The analysis revealed that many of the materials used in eudaimonic entertainment research contained portrayals of virtue, showing characters who behave in a morally good way. In these portrayals, characters do good deeds and act in a ‘just’ way. For instance, Neubaum et al. (2020) used a series of videos showing human kindness, such as a chain reaction of people observing prosocial acts and afterwards doing good deeds themselves. In addition, several studies (e.g. Janicke et al., 2018; Slater et al., 2019) used a video in which a boy who needs medicine for his mother is helped by a man who pays it for him. Then 30 years later, when the boy has become a doctor, he repays the favor by covering the man’s medical expenses.

As becomes clear in Table 1, the virtue that was by far most often portrayed in the materials of the studies was the virtue of humanity, which includes love and kindness. A lot of these portrayals showed love for family members, such as the self-sacrifice of a mother for her son in Dancer in the Dark (Hofer et al., 2014) and a brother spraying a graffiti for his sister to see from her bedroom (Clayton et al., 2019), and other acts of kindness, such as helping each other pay medical expenses in the video used by multiple researchers (e.g. Janicke et al., 2018; Slater et al., 2019), and including isolated others in social activities like having lunch (Jang et al., 2019). Thus, the virtue that is shown most often is humanity, like helping and giving to others. Other virtues that were portrayed in only a few of the materials were courage, like athletes showing persistence and willpower in the spots for the Paralympics (Bartsch et al., 2018), and justice, like a coach’s speech about the value of winning fairly in Cool Runnings (Das et al., 2017).

Next to portrayals of virtue, approximately a quarter of the categorized descriptions included portrayals of non-virtuous behavior as well. This ranged from minor offenses like stealing a jacket in the film Red Jacket (Bartsch et al., 2014), through larger transgressions like falsely accusing someone of rape in the film Atonement (Knobloch-Westerwick et al., 2013) to major crimes like killing an innocent man in the film Mystic River (Khoo & Oliver, 2013). This means that portrayals of virtue are not the only characteristic of eudaimonic entertainment that is used in research, as non-virtuous portrayals are also regularly present.

Juxtaposition of threatened needs and virtue

Portrayals of virtue often occur together with portrayals of threatened needs. For instance, a story used by Slater et al. (2019) features a disabled middle school student, which presents a threat to his need for health, and he is helped to score a touchdown by his school’s football team, which shows kindness as an act of the virtue of humanity. Similarly, Neubaum et al. (2020) included a video of a police man in Manhattan who gave his shoes to a homeless man, which combines kindness and a threat to the need for safety. These examples show that being kind and loving towards people who are struggling as their needs are threatened is a recurring theme in entertainment content seen as eudaimonic. Also, the character who is struggling may show kindness towards others. Hofer (2013) used a story of a woman with incurable cancer who starts to arrange for the lives of her husband and two daughters after she will die and records tapes telling them she loves them. Other virtues may also be combined with portrayals of struggling, like in the video used by Clayton et al. (2019) of a former child soldier who was taken from his mother to fight in the war, but when he was freed he showed perseverance in getting an education and eventually became a lawyer, thus portraying the virtue of courage. In sum, portrayals of virtue often go together with portrayals of threatened needs. As humanity is the virtue shown in most of the portrayals, the threats to different needs mostly go together with portrayals of humanity.

Focus on virtue over threatened needs

Even though the materials often combine portrayals of virtue and threatened needs, differences can be discerned in the degree to which they focus on one or the other, suggesting different subcategories of eudaimonic entertainment. For instance, the video that was used in several studies (e.g. Janicke et al., 2018) about the boy who becomes a doctor and repays the man who helped him, includes both virtue – the boy is helped and later helps the man – and threatened needs – the boy is poor and his mother is ill and the man also becomes ill and can’t pay the hospital bills. However, the focus of the story is on the good deeds done by both the man for the boy and the grown-up boy for the older man. These good deeds alleviate the struggling both go through and thus positive effects of virtue are focused on in this story. This is similar for many other materials in which kindness is central, such as a sister cutting her hair to support her brother going through chemotherapy (Krämer et al., 2017) and a football player having lunch with an autistic student who sits alone (Jang et al., 2019). In these cases, the struggling with threatened needs – often portrayed first – serves as a contrast by which the good deeds stand out, emphasizing the goodness of the virtue. This can be seen as a subcategory of eudaimonic entertainment in which virtue is portrayed in the presence of struggling.

Focus on threatened needs over virtue

In other materials, the focus is on threatened needs. For instance, the shortened version of Dancer in the Dark used by Hofer et al. (2014) in which an immigrant woman struggles a lot, losing her eyesight, the money she saved up and her freedom, also includes portrayals of virtue as she saves up the money for the love of her son. However, the focus of the story is on the threats to her fundamental needs for safety and health. In this case, the love and sacrifice for her son emphasizes the difficulty of her struggles with these threats. Similarly, Khoo and Oliver (2013) used a shortened version of the film Mystic River, in which an ex-con loves his daughter a lot. When she is murdered, he is grief-stricken. He starts to suspect an old friend of the murder and kills him in revenge. However, it turns out that this is the wrong man and, in the end, the man is also stricken with guilt. Although the love for his daughter could be seen as a portrayal of virtue, the focus of this story clearly is on struggling with the threat to his need for relatedness that is presented by the loss of his daughter. In these cases, characters’ struggling with threatened needs is central. This can be seen as a subcategory of eudaimonic entertainment in which struggling is portrayed in the presence of (some) virtue.

Juxtaposition of virtue and non-virtuous behavior

In most of the materials that included non-virtuous behavior, the characters also show at least some virtue. For instance, the immigrant woman in Dancer in the Dark who sacrifices herself for the love of her son, shoots and kills the man who stole her money. In a different example, the coach of a bobsled team in Cool Runnings tells his team about his own cheating in the past and turns this into a lesson about the value of winning in a fair way (Das et al., 2017). The combination of non-virtuous portrayals with portrayals of virtue results in the presence of morally ambiguous characters in the materials of the studies on eudaimonic entertainment. These characters are not only good or bad, but show both morally good and bad behavior (see Krakowiak & Oliver, 2012). Typically, morally ambiguous characters occur in the subcategory where the focus is on threatened needs.

Rare portrayals

Some of the studies on eudaimonic entertainment contained content that was only present in a few of the materials. For instance, Krämer et al. (2019) included videos portraying the beauty of the earth, such as beautiful landscapes, and the unity of human kind, such as a video of a man dancing with locals at various places in the world (Krämer et al., 2019). These portrayals can be linked to the virtue of transcendence (see Janicke-Bowles et al., 2021), because they imply that we are connected to a larger whole (Peterson & Seligman, 2004). In the studies that exposed people to eudaimonic entertainment, these portrayals were used by one group of researchers (Krämer et al., 2017, 2019). These portrayals were the only ones in the materials of eudaimonic entertainment research that did not include threatened needs.

 Another portrayal that was rare in the materials can be described as intellectually difficult narratives. For instance, Hall and Zwarun (2012) used a story in which an empty box represents a microcosm of the barren world he lives in and he can replenish this world by placing a flower in it. This story is atypical of the materials examined in this review in that it employs metaphor that viewers need to decode. Thus, it is possible that this is part of eudaimonic entertainment, but it is not a common feature in the materials.

Corroboration from other studies

So far, the analysis has used the materials of studies about eudaimonic entertainment that exposed participants to certain content. However, other studies used questionnaires about specific entertainment, e.g. lists of meaningful films, which show similarities to the materials analyzed above, like the film Schindler’s List (e.g. Bartsch & Hartmann, 2017; Hofer, 2016; Oliver & Bartsch, 2010). This film is set in the second world war that presents threats to the need for safety, and shows the main character saving many Jewish people, which clearly portrays virtue. Other studies had participants name meaningful films, which also resulted in films with similar features, such as The Pursuit of Happyness, in which a father struggles with threats to relatedness and financial safety by a divorce and job problems, but perseveres to ensure a good life for his son (Janicke & Ramasubramanian, 2017). In addition, qualitative research that asked participants themes of meaningful films confirmed that the portrayal of virtue was important in meaningful films, such as love, caring, and enduring interpersonal ties (Oliver & Hartmann, 2010). Similarly, meaningful films were judged to contain more portrayals of connectedness, love and kindness than pleasurable films (Janicke & Oliver, 2017). Also, values found to be important in films participants found meaningful were altruistic values which are related to the virtue of humanity, such as caring for the weak (Oliver et al., 2012).

Discussion

The aim of this review was to identify common features and subcategories in the content of eudaimonic entertainment by examining the materials used in previous eudaimonic entertainment research. With regard to RQ1 about common features, the results revealed that the materials often portrayed threats to the fundamental human needs for safety, health and relatedness. Characters struggle with negative circumstances and events, like war, poverty, disease and the loss of loved ones. Virtues that were portrayed in eudaimonic entertainment center around humanity. Characters love and care for each other and they show kindness, like helping and generosity. Some materials contained other threatened needs and other virtues as well, but researchers mainly selected materials with these features as indicative of eudaimonic entertainment. Thus, this review indicates that portrayals of threatened needs for safety, health and relatedness and portrayals of the virtue of humanity are the most common features in eudaimonic entertainment research.

With regard to RQ2 about subcategories, the analysis suggested two main subcategories of eudaimonic entertainment on the basis of the materials used in the studies. One subcategory focuses on portrayals of virtue over threatened needs. These portrayals show good deeds in a context of struggling with threatened needs and present these acts of kindness or love as an answer to struggling, which emphasizes the goodness of the virtue. For instance, a typical portrayal in this subcategory shows kind acts towards people who are ill. The other subcategory focuses on portrayals of threatened needs over virtue. These portrayals show difficult situations for (partially) good people, which emphasizes the difficulty of the situation and events. For instance, a typical portrayal shows characters who commit crimes out of love for others. Both these subcategories are seen as eudaimonic entertainment by researchers in this field.

These findings contribute to the research field in multiple ways. First, it is shown that shared notions of eudaimonic entertainment include both portrayals of threatened needs and portrayals of virtue, thus indicating that the description of eudaimonic entertainment content should combine earlier notions that eudaimonic entertainment deals with human vulnerability, transience and loss (Slater et al., 2018) and portrays virtue (Oliver & Bartsch, 2011). Our findings further extend previous research by showing that, out of 6 different virtues, the virtue of humanity, i.e. love and kindness, is omnipresent in materials from eudaimonic entertainment research. Although other virtues that are also mentioned in the literature like courage and justice could be discerned in a few of the materials, the virtuous acts that were by far most often shown were love and kindness for others. The finding that researchers (implicitly) regard this the virtue portrayal most typical for eudaimonic entertainment raises the question if the portrayal of other virtues has similar, or lesser potential to evoke eudaimonic experiences. If the virtue of humanity exerts stronger effects, this might point to a link to research on kama muta, the power of love (Janicke-Bowles et al., 2021; Zickfeld et al., 2019), and thus a narrower conceptualization of eudaimonic media. If the virtue of humanity exerts similar effects to other virtues, this would further strengthen theoretical considerations of eudaimonic experiences. Future research should therefore take the presently observed pattern as a starting point for empirical tests of eudaimonic responses to portrayals of different virtues.

Second, our findings add to the literature by showing that often-threatened needs in previous eudaimonic media research were the basic needs for safety and health. These are lower order needs of which satisfaction is required before further needs come into play (Maslow, 1968). The finding that lower order needs played such a pivotal role is striking in the light of previous theorizing about the important role of higher order needs in eudaimonic entertainment (Oliver et al., 2018; Wirth et al., 2012), like the needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness from Self-Determination Theory (SDT, Ryan et al., 2008). Our findings therefore suggest that the relationship between portrayals of threatened needs and fulfillment of viewers’ personal needs is not one-on-one, but rather indirectly triggered by the combination of a basic need with a human virtue. Seeing how characters deal with their needs being threatened plausibly promotes insight into coping with similar situations, and as a result may increase efficacy in viewers, which is a part of the need for competence (Ryan et al., 2008). Even portrayals of relatedness, which is also part of SDT may not translate directly to impact on the need for relatedness in the viewer, but rather teach viewers through mechanisms like empathy (Coplan, 2004; Tal-Or & Cohen, 2015). More generally, portrayals of how characters react to threats to needs in a morally sound way may give viewers who do not face such threats themselves insight into how to live life well, contributing to their needs for growth and self-actualization. As such, the imaginary experience of struggling with threatened needs through watching eudaimonic entertainment may provide an opportunity to vicariously practice with such situations from which viewers can learn and gain insight into life (see Gottschall, 2012).

Third, the results of this study add to previous research by providing evidence for a distinction between the subcategory of eudaimonic entertainment that focuses on virtue over struggling and the subcategory that focuses on struggling over virtue. In research on eudaimonic entertainment, this distinction has not been taken into account yet. Nevertheless, findings from studies using materials that focus on virtue may not be comparable to findings from studies with materials that focus on struggling. Thus, this distinction is important in organizing previous as well as future studies. Although the present study did not assess viewer responses, it is plausible that the subcategories identified in this review may trigger different eudaimonic media responses. For example, the subcategory of portrayals that focus on virtue in the presence of struggling may mainly trigger meaningful affective responses (i.e. mixed affect, Oliver et al., 2018), because in those cases, the struggling emphasizes the goodness of the virtue and watching others behave in a morally good way elicits such emotions as gratitude and elevation (Haidt, 2003). The subcategory of portrayals that focus on struggling in the presence of (some) virtue may be more likely to elicit cognitive responses. These portrayals are typically more complex by showing both morally good and bad behavior, thus showing that even though portrayals of the virtue of humanity are central in notions of eudaimonic entertainment, non-virtuous behavior is also present in a part of the content. This results in the presence of ambiguous characters which behave in both morally good and bad ways (Eden et al., 2017; Krakowiak & Oliver, 2012). These complex portrayals may be more likely to trigger reflection on the themes in the narrative (see Bartsch et al., 2016; Khoo & Oliver, 2013). Our findings thus provide a solid basis for future research and empirical tests of the hypothesis that subcategories of eudaimonic content evoke different responses.

The present research focused on needs and virtues, but other features of eudaimonic entertainment may also be influential in eliciting eudaimonic responses in most viewers. For example, the composition of features may be important, e.g. first a portrayal of struggling and then of virtue may be more ‘heart-warming’ than first a portrayal of virtue and then of struggling, but also other elements like the presence of music or an open ending may be influential in the elicitation of eudaimonic responses. Moreover, characteristics of the viewers and their situation are likely to affect eudaimonic responses. For instance, viewers’ personal experience with themes in the movie may increase their perceptions of meaningfulness (see Khoo, 2016; Klimmt & Rieger, 2021) and limited resources in the real world may motivate viewers to engage with the story world (TEBOTS, Slater et al., 2014). Future research should explore how such features interact to produce eudaimonic entertainment experiences.

Limitations and future directions

Limitations of this review include the selection of studies. Even though we attempted to obtain a wide sample by including studies that used the term eudaimonic for entertainment content (e.g. ‘eudaimonic narrative’) as well as studies that used this term for responses to entertainment (e.g. ‘eudaimonic experience’), there were also studies that used other terms which are related to eudaimonic entertainment (e.g. ‘elevating media’) but that did not use the term eudaimonic (e.g. Oliver et al., 2015). Future research should specify the distinctions and overlap between these concepts. Furthermore, the description of materials was not always optimal. Sometimes we could not determine which needs were threatened or whether virtue was portrayed. In order to facilitate research into the content of eudaimonic entertainment, researchers should always clearly describe the materials they use.

Additionally, this review addressed non-interactive audiovisual entertainment and thus results of this review cannot be generalized to other media like interactive games or written narratives. Other studies should address eudaimonic entertainment in these media to examine whether content is similar to our findings or not. Also, the review mainly focused on portrayals of threatened needs and human virtue based on descriptions of eudaimonic entertainment. However, other elements like the presence of a moral dilemma, an open ending, music, or cinematographic elements can be explored in further studies. Also, we included only published studies (and dissertations). Perhaps there are unpublished studies that could be added. However, because this review focused on the materials and not on effects, we do not consider this as a large threat to our conclusions. The results present what the main (published) authors in this research field selected as eudaimonic content. Another way to examine the notions of researchers is to interview them. It is an interesting suggestion for further research to compare this to our results.

It should be noted that the approach of this study to eudaimonic entertainment is not the only possible approach. Next to approaches that focus on the satisfaction of intrinsic needs (Rigby & Ryan, 2016), research has focused on (re)appraisals, in which viewers evaluate their emotions, which can produce further emotions in complex ways (Bartsch et al., 2008; Schramm & Wirth, 2008). In addition, research has addressed moral aspects of entertainment by linking responses to moral intuitions in domains such as harm/care and fairness (Tamborini, 2011). Nevertheless, the approach of eudaimonic entertainment as eliciting meaningful responses is a general approach that is acknowledged in many studies on this topic.

 In addition to the novel subcategories of portraying virtue in a context of struggling and struggling in a context of (ambiguous) virtue, there may be other subcategories of eudaimonic entertainment. For instance, portrayals of the beauty of the earth, that were used in only two of the studies that exposed participants to eudaimonic materials included in this review (Krämer et al., 2017, 2019), may be related to the virtue of transcendence which is seen as important for a specific form of eudaimonic entertainment (see Janicke-Bowles et al., 2021). Content analyses indicate that portrayals of beautiful nature are prevalent in eudaimonic YouTube videos (Dale et al., 2017; Rieger & Klimmt, 2019). In addition, these studies include other categories like portrayals of art and religious symbols that have not been found in this review. Future research should look for other categories and examine how these are related to eudaimonic responses. Nonetheless, this review has focused on the content of the storylines in eudaimonic entertainment, because most of the materials contained stories, making it likely that elements of the story are relevant for eudaimonic entertainment.

Conclusion

The present review has created an overview of the content of materials used in eudaimonic entertainment research. It has shown that typically, eudaimonic entertainment portrays characters struggling with threatened needs for safety, health or relatedness, combined with the virtue of humanity, like kindness, care and love. This combination either focuses on virtue as an answer to threatened basic needs, or it focuses on struggling with need threats in the presence of (some) virtue.

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded by the Dutch Research Council (Nederlandse organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO) Project no.: 406.18.SW.039).