Behavioral Intention of Repeated Watching and Personality Traits: Testing Mediation Model of Nostalgia Arousal and Social Connectedness

Abstract

Introduction

Classic old movies and TV series (COMTS) can evoke individuals’ memories from the past. “Personality traits-motivation-behavior” is a theoretical frame to understand that nostalgia can lead to repeated watching behavior.

Methods

We adopted an online survey to investigate the relationship between personality traits, nostalgia, social connectedness and the behavioral intention of repeated watching with those who re-watched movies or TV series (N = 645).

Results

Our results showed that open, agreeable and neurotic individuals were more likely to feel nostalgic and then have the behavioral intention of repeated watching. In addition, for agreeable and neurotic individuals, social connectedness plays a mediating role in the relationship between these personality traits and behavioral intention of repeated watching.

Keywords:

• personalities traits
• motivation theory
• social connectedness
• nostalgia arousal
• behavioral intention of repeated watching

Introduction

In our society, the number of people who would like to watch classic old movies and TV series (COMTS) is increasing compared to that of people who would like to watch new ones. Surprisingly, some people still prefer COMTS in their spare time, despite having seen them before, even multiple times. Those who are more comprehensively nostalgic can watch full seasons and specific episodes on Netflix, although these deals are often temporary and unpredictable.¹ Repeated watching becomes easy to achieve, given the advances in digital technologies and networking, allowing individuals to access movies or TV series in a more affordable way.² There are some professional video applications, such as Tencent Video, iQIYI Video, and Youku Video, in China. In particular, Youku Video has bought the copyrights of COMTS, making these people more easily recall and relive specific moments in media episodes. Repeated-watching behavior is an important cultural phenomenon, which helps individuals to form collective memory, generational identity, and cross-generational communication and understanding.³

In many ways, this nostalgic behavior is possible because many recently accessible resources for media nostalgia are in digital formats, such as DVDs and Hulu.¹ Although some scholars have noticed the field of re-reading,⁴ studies on repeating-watching are few. For example, Kneuer proposed the reasons for re-reading favorite books and emphasized the role of nostalgia.⁴ Several studies have been developed to explain the reason why people watch movies and to predict the appeal of the entertainment experience.² Although listening to songs repeatedly has been studied, there has been little quantitative study on watching repeatedly. The study highlights the importance of considering distinct personality traits and repeated watching behavior and suggestions for TV production. In particular, individuals’ repeated behaviors are part of an identification and may become incorporated into the self-concept.⁵

“Personality traits-motivation-behavioral intention” is a common theoretical frame for individuals to understand an inherent mechanism. Behavioral intention is an important potential determinant of participants and has attracted growing theoretical and empirical attention.⁶ Personality psychologists emphasize the differences between different personalities.⁷ In the previous literature, we found limited information about the relationships between personality traits and the behavioral intention of repeated watching. As an important internal power of influence, personality traits are regarded as needs or drivers of individuals. The Big Five model explains which types of personality traits are more likely to cause the behavioral intention of repeated watching. The Big Five model, including openness, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism, represents a broad structure of personality traits.⁸ The Big Five model has been a very interesting issue in various fields for a long time, and many papers have been produced around it. Many scholars use it to predict individual differences in different fields, such as industry and organization,^9,10 human resources,¹¹ and personal relationships.¹²

To understand the motivation theory, motivations are usually divided into external and internal motivations. The internal motivation refers to individuals implementing a certain action mainly for their own interests, such as personal interests and individual enjoyment.¹³ Nostalgia arousal and social connectedness are important inner motivations used to understand why individuals prefer repeated watching based on the difference in personality traits.

Since the 17th century, the term nostalgia has been coined. It is commonly used in psychology. Nostalgia is an emotion which is experienced by almost everyone.¹⁴ Nostalgia may play a fundamental role in addressing the issue of watching COMTS repeatedly. Ray stated that when television ran old movies in the 1950s, audiences’ memories of Hollywood and subsequently American ideology were remade and complicated.¹⁵ Nostalgia is often used in the field of psychology. However, recent development in nostalgia has raised the importance of sociology. Nostalgia is important in the interpretation framework. Nostalgia has also been shown to influence purchasing decisions.^16,17 Movies and televisions have great impacts on evoking reminiscing and nostalgia and bring people back to other times in their lives.¹⁸

Social connectedness is similar to a sense of belonging, which can help people form social bonds and have mental and physical health. Television is no longer a short-lived experience, marking a significant change in cultural practice that is the basis of sharing moving images as a form of social connectedness, which creates an even more intense transmedia experience, moving beyond text and video to real-world experience.¹⁸ When individuals lack social connectedness, their mental health may be negatively affected. It has revealed the awareness and internalized experience of interpersonal intimacy in relationships with family, friends, strangers, and society.¹⁹

We studied the effect of nostalgia arousal and social connectedness on the behavioral intention of repeated watching based on the previous research. We aimed to explain why some people like watching COMTS instead of new movies and TV series based on the difference in personality traits.

Literature

Motivation Theory

The concept of motivation refers to internal factors that promote action and the external factors that act as an inducement to action.²⁰ It is generally regarded as a force that directs individuals toward specific goals.²¹ Motivation reflects the physical and psychological processes and needs of individuals. Motivation theory is different from behavior theory, which is one of the decisive factors of behavior.²² It is an internal stimulus, which sets goals and provides power for individual’s behavior, causing persistence of voluntary actions. When demand reaches a certain intensity and is stimulated to a certain degree, it is transformed into motivation. The greatest importance to are arousal (activation, energizers) and direction (choice) of behavior.²³ When people watch COMTS repeatedly, nostalgia arousal is a necessary factor to be considered to help people recall memories of the past. By watching COMTS repeatedly, people can obtain different information, and then their nostalgia can be activated.

Social connectedness is a motivating factor to meet the needs for belonging and connection of individuals.¹⁹ Generally speaking, social connectedness refers to people’s sense of belonging and subjective psychological bond that people feel in relation to individuals and other groups.²⁴ The subjective experience of belonging lies at the core of the construct of social connectedness, which aims to capture social experiences stemming from recent interaction and the provision of cognitive information. Individuals who use video applications on their phones, iPads, or computers expect to escape the boredom of life, and they may be lonely and intend to search for placebos from the behavior. In addition, with the development of bullet screens for video applications, some people can build up social connectedness. This is because when they see similar topics and familiar things, they can not only link their thoughts with those of others but also recall memories from the past and then connect the past to the present. Therefore, in this study, we divided motivations into two parts: arousal (nostalgia arousal) and direction (social connectedness) of behavior.

Personality Traits and Motivations

Individual differences such as personality traits might also contribute to explaining entertainment usage.² In fact, personality traits have been important variables in predicting individual motivation differences. In the present study, personality traits were generally better predictors of motivations than behaviors.²⁵ Omar & Dequan stated that personality traits have a great impact on the individual motivation based on the Use & Gratification (U&G).²⁶ Tupes and Christal reported that different personality traits could be summarized into five factors.²⁷ The Big Five model is a hierarchical model of personality traits with five factors that represents personality at the broadest abstract level.²⁸ Openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism (OCEAN) were the five elements that summarize various personality characteristics. Over the past decade, many studies have presented Big Five models with different themes, which are widely used. Openness is usually associated with an active imagination, concern for inner feelings, aesthetic sensitivity, and a preference for diversity.¹¹ Conscientiousness is compatible with carefulness, thoroughness, responsibility and organization.²⁹ It means that individuals have strong mobility and can plan, organize, and carry. Roberts et al stated that conscientiousness was correlated with diligence, impulse control, reliability, and punctuality.³⁰ Extraversion is associated with novelty, excitement, and challenge, and it is compatible with sociable, talkative, and active people.²⁹ Agreeableness means that individuals are altruistic, sympathetic, and eager to help others and think that others are equally kind.¹⁰ Individuals who are neurotic tend to be anxious, depressed, angry, and insecure.²⁹ According to Shiner, neuroticism is a proclivity to experience negative consequences.³¹

Nostalgia arousal, in the process of watching COMTS repeatedly, is one of the most important motivations to satisfy people’s needs and alleviate boredom. In the 17th century, nostalgia was often used to describe homesickness rather than longing for or review of the past. In all the studies reviewed here, nostalgia is regarded as materials in different forms, such as old movies and TV series. However, the meaning of nostalgia has changed. The definition of nostalgia moved from the medical to the cultural realm in the late 19th century. Nostalgia refers more to longing for or recalling the past. The nostalgic propensity of the contemporary media has created a convenient media-driven version of the past to fill the void left by superficial postmodernity.¹ Nostalgia can be a form of disengagement from the present that has seemingly changed beyond recognition, a strategy of reintegrating the past and present in the transitional period, and a way to deal with changes. Van Tilburg et al stated that nostalgia had a unique bittersweet effective signature.³² Currently, two basic approaches are adopted in research on nostalgia. One is that the content of nostalgia narratives is more positive than negative.^33,34 The other is that the content of nostalgia narrations is more negative than positive.^35,36

Although nostalgia also represents a negative status, several scholars have investigated the psychological benefits, such as promoting positive self-views,³⁷ authenticity, self-esteem,³⁶ and a sense of meaning in life.³⁸ We know about nostalgia mainly based on observational and critical studies, although quantitative studies on nostalgia arousal are few. Bentley and Murray believed the role of nostalgia in re-watching by way of interviews, and think that it has a great power to take people back to other times in their life.¹⁸ Hence, in this paper, we define nostalgia arousal as an arousal state of longing for or recalling the past.

Based on the above, we proposed the research question and hypotheses as follows:

RQ1: Does nostalgia arousal mediate the relationship between personality traits and the behavioral intention of repeated watching?

H1a: The relationship between openness and the behavioral intention of repeated watching is mediated by nostalgia arousal.

H1b: The relationship between conscientiousness and the behavioral intention of repeated watching is mediated by nostalgia arousal.

H1c: The relationship between extraversion and the behavioral intention of repeated watching is mediated by nostalgia arousal.

H1d: The relationship between agreeableness and the behavioral intention of repeated watching is mediated by nostalgia arousal.

H1e: The relationship between neuroticism and the behavioral intention of repeated watching is mediated by nostalgia arousal.

Personality traits are ultimate predictors of many behavioral outcomes, and traits are essential building blocks of personality and refer to stable patterns of the way individuals think, feel and act.³⁹ A large volume of studies have been published to describe social connectedness, and many of them have focused on the mediating effects. Social connectedness is a social behavior contributing to the understanding of individuals’ motivations. It means a person’s subjectiveness of being in a close relationship with the social world.¹⁹ All human beings have the fundamental need for social connection and belonging.⁹ Social connectedness is a feeling of belonging and closeness to others and satisfaction with relationships and perceived support.⁴⁰ The enduring sense of connectedness provides people with a social lens used to perceive the world where they live.⁴¹

Different personality traits may improve the sense of social connectedness at different levels to generate a sense of belonging to a specific group. In Kircaburun et al’s study, motivations (such as maintaining existing relationships and meeting new people and socializing) as a mediating factor to consider why students with different personality traits have problematic social media use based on the Uses and Gratifications theory.⁴² Openness is an intrapsychic rather than an interpersonal dimension,⁴³ which leads open people to evoke positive reactions in others or seek relationships in social contacts.⁴⁴ Agreeableness is the motive to maintain active and smooth interactions with others and can reduce social conflicts with others.^45,46 Also, agreeable individuals are more likely to use the media to build and retain social connections²⁵ and may minimize interpersonal conflicts by being aggressive or causing less aggression from others.⁴⁷ Zainab studied social interaction anxiety, social connectedness, and personality traits.⁴⁸ The results showed that extraversion was significantly positively correlated with social connectedness, neuroticism was significantly negatively correlated with social connectedness, and openness, conscientiousness, and agreeableness were not significant predictors of social connectedness. Grieve and Kemp stated that extraversion and openness could significantly predict social connectedness.⁴⁹ Hence, in this paper, we define social connectedness as a close sense of belonging and a long-lasting and secure connectedness.

Based on the above, we proposed the research question and hypotheses as follows:

RQ2: Does social connectedness mediate the relationship between personality traits and the behavioral intention of repeated watching?

H2a: The relationship between openness and the behavioral intention of repeated watching is mediated by social connectedness.

H2b: The relationship between conscientiousness and the behavioral intention of repeated watching is mediated by social connectedness.

H2c: The relationship between extraversion and the behavioral intention of repeated watching is mediated by social connectedness.

H2d: The relationship between agreeableness and the behavioral intention of repeated watching is mediated by social connectedness.

H2e: The relationship between neuroticism and the behavioral intention of repeated watching is mediated by social connectedness.

Our research model is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1 Theory frame.

Method

Before the formal survey, we conducted a pre-survey, making sure the questionnaire is suitable for research. During the pre-survey, some participants told us about their experience of repeated watching, which gave us more insight into their thoughts. To test the research hypotheses, we administered an online survey by Credamo. It is an intelligent and popular research platform, which has more than three million samples from different sex, age, provinces, and so on. In addition, it helps us get in touch with participants, making it a suitable platform for online surveys. Through the Credamo platform, questionnaires were sent at random. Participants can join the survey through the Credamo platform or website link. All participants provided informed consent and they were informed of their right to quit at any time. The respondents who filled out the questionnaire online could get five China Yuan (CNY) as rewards. To reduce the errors associated with random sampling, we checked the quality of the questionnaires before distributing the rewards. The study was conducted according to the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki, and approved by the Institutional Review Board of Tsinghua University. Through a one-week investigation, 747 questionnaires were received. Only the responses of participants who had re-watched movies or TV series were included in the data analysis. After removing invalid questionnaires, 645 were included (N = 645).

Among the 645 participants, 209 were males (32.4%), and 436 were females (67.6%); 228 were unmarried (35.3%), and 417 were married (64.7%). Their mean age was 29.83 (SD = 6.460). More than 80% had a monthly disposable income of less than 12,000 CNY. In addition, 69.6% of the participants had a bachelor’s degree, and 17.2% had a master’s degree or above.

Measures

Our questionnaire included the control variables of gender, age, education, and income.^50–52 The independent variables of our hypotheses are factors (openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism) in the Big Five model. The dependent variable is the behavioral intention of repeated watching. All the other variables are mediating variables. Some of the items adapted from English versions were modified to be more consistent with the discourse in the Chinese context. Before data analysis, we performed confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) to ensure the feasibility of the measurement model.

In the Big Five model, people were asked to rate the extent to which they agree with over 30 statements, and their personality traits are determined using five 7-point scales,⁵³ anchored on “strongly disagree” (1) and “strongly agree” (7). The Big Five scale was adapted from the CBF-PI (Chinese Big Five Personality Inventory) Brief Version, which is more in line with the language style in China. Besides, to avoid the fatigue and boredom caused by too many questions, this brief version may effectively save the time and energy of the participants.

The items for openness were (1) “My imagination is rich”; (2) “My mind is always full of vivid pictures”; (3) “I am intensely curious about many things”; (4) “I am adventurous”; (5) “I am willing to break through the routine”; (6) “I am eager to learn something new, even if it is not related to my daily life”; (7) “I am willing to and easily accept new things and new ideas”. After the CFA (Cronbach’s α = 0.842, KMO = 0.828, M = 5.723, SD = 0.826), items (1) and (2) were removed.

The items for conscientiousness included (1) “I keep my promises”; (2) “Once I set a goal, I work persistently to achieve it”; (3) “I often think carefully before making decisions”; (4) “I am perceived to be cautious”; (5) “I am logical and organized”; (6) “I prefer to plan well”; (7) “I take tasks seriously and responsibly”; (8) “I am serious and responsible for others”; (9) “I do my best”. We performed the CFA (Cronbach’s α = 0.796, KMO = 0.790, M = 6.031, SD = 0.717) and removed items (1), (3), (4), (6), and (8).

The items for extraversion were (1) “I like attending social and entertaining parties”; (2) “I am always energetic”; (3) “I enjoy attending big parties”; (4) “At lively parties, I take the initiative and enjoy myself”; (5) “No silence is usually present when I am around”; (6) “I want to be a leader”; (7) “I am considered warm and friendly”. After the CFA (Cronbach’s α = 0.914, KMO = 0.852, M = 6.961, SD = 1.637), items (2), (6) and (7) were removed.

The items for agreeableness included (1) “Despite negative aspects of human society, I still believe that human nature is kind”; (2) “I think most people have good intentions”; (3) “Despite some liars in society, I think most people are trustworthy”; (4) “I always care about others”; (5) “I often feel sorry for people who are unfortunate”; (6) “I often feel sad when others tell me about misfortunes”. We performed the CFA (Cronbach’s α = 0.717, KMO = 0.699, M = 5.905, SD = 0.754) and removed items (3), (5) and (6).

The items for neuroticism were (1) “I often worry that something bad will happen”; (2) “I often feel scared”; (3) “Sometimes I feel useless”; (4) “I am often a little depressed”; (5) “I often relate myself to a careless remark from others”; (6) “In the face of pressure, I am about to collapse”; (7) “I often worry about unimportant things;” (8) “I often feel insecure in my heart”. Based on the results of our CFA (Cronbach’s α = 0.945, KMO = 0.944, M = 2.599, SD = 1.243), item (3) was deleted.

Social connectedness was measured using people’s agreement extent stated on a 7-point scale,¹⁹ anchored on “strongly disagree” (1) and “strongly agree” (7). The items are (1) “I feel isolated from the world around me”; (2) “Even around people I know, I feel that I do not belong here”; (3) “I feel alienated from others”; (4) “I have no sense of belonging with my peers”; (5) “I think I am not related to others”; (6) “Even among my friends, I do not feel like a brother or sister”; (7) “I feel that I have lost all contact with society”; (8) “I do not feel like a member of any group”. After the CFA (Cronbach’s α = 0.890, KMO = 0.838, M = 5.755, SD = 1.058), items (1), (6), (7) and (8) were removed.

Nostalgia arousal was measured through people’s agreement extent stated on a 7-point scale, anchored on “strongly disagree” (1) and “strongly agree” (7). The items were (1) “Missing the past is very important to me”; (2) “Nostalgia is very important to me”; (3) “Nostalgia is very valuable to me”; (4) “I am easily nostalgic”; (5) “I discuss my experiences with others”. In addition, we had some questions to indicate the frequency of their agreement on a 7-point scale, anchored on “never” (1) and “very frequently” (7). These items were (6) “How often do you experience nostalgia?”; (7) “How often do you think about your past experience?”. These items were adapted from the Past Positive of Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory and the Southampton Nostalgia Scale.⁵⁴ After the CFA (Cronbach’s α = 0.899, KMO = 0.862, M = 5.216, SD = 0.911), items (3) and (5) were removed.

The behavioral intention of repeated watching was measured using people’s agreement extent stated on a 7-point scale, anchored on “strongly disagree” (1) and “strongly agree” (7). The items were (1) “I tend to watch classic movies and TV series many times rather than just once”; (2) “I am willing to watch classic movies and TV series I have seen with others”; (3) “I like watching a certain movie and TV series repeatedly”; (4) “I am willing to actively recommend movies and TV series that I have seen more than once”; (5) “I am likely to watch the TV series I have seen again”. Items (2) and (4) were removed after the CFA (Cronbach’s α = 0.749, KMO = 0.688, M = 5.844, SD = 0.740).

We conducted reliability and validity tests of the constructs. The values of Cronbach’s α were all above 0.70, indicating acceptable internal consistency reliability. Moreover, the values of the composite reliability (CR) of the constructs ranged from 0.721 to 0.945, exceeding the CR threshold value of 0.70. In addition, the values of KMO were greater than 0.60, showing adequate validity (Table 1). To access the convergent validity of the constructs, we examined the average variance extracted (AVE). The values of AVE should be greater than 0.50.⁵⁵ Among the values of AVE of all constructs, only those of agreeableness were smaller than 0.50. This phenomenon may be related to that the items were too few, and the factor loading of each item was below 0.70. Therefore, the restriction on the number of items and the factor loadings both affect the AVE value of agreeableness.

Table 1 The Reliability and Validity of the Variables

Constructs	Items	Parameters of Significance Test			Item Reliability	Item Validity	Composite Reliability
		Estimate	S.E.	Est./S.E.	Cronbach’s α	KMO	CR
Openness	OPE3	0.659	0.028	23.512	0.842	0.828	0.844
	OPE4	0.762	0.022	34.601
	OPE5	0.817	0.018	44.832
	OPE6	0.661	0.032	20.902
	OPE7	0.696	0.031	22.612
Conscientiousness	CN2	0.755	0.022	34.386	0.796	0.790	0.799
	CN5	0.650	0.036	17.982
	CN7	0.649	0.034	19.085
	CN9	0.765	0.025	30.801
Extraversion	EV1	0.854	0.014	60.015	0.914	0.852	0.916
	EV3	0.865	0.014	63.685
	EV4	0.883	0.012	76.720
	EV5	0.818	0.017	47.569
Agreeableness	AG1	0.664	0.041	16.251	0.717	0.655	0.721
	AG2	0.697	0.040	17.637
	AG4	0.679	0.035	19.491
Neuroticism	NEU1	0.843	0.013	62.618	0.945	0.944	0.945
	NEU2	0.865	0.015	58.868
	NEU4	0.815	0.019	42.541
	NEU5	0.836	0.016	51.141
	NEU6	0.821	0.016	52.049
	NEU7	0.836	0.014	59.341
	NEU8	0.882	0.011	80.724
Social connectedness	SC2	0.842	0.020	42.382	0.890	0.838	0.889
	SC3	0.839	0.018	46.452
	SC4	0.779	0.024	32.880
	SC5	0.808	0.019	41.524
Nostalgia arousal	NOS1	0.808	0.017	46.709	0.899	0.862	0.900
	NOS2	0.811	0.018	43.940
	NOS4	0.805	0.018	45.444
	NOS6	0.792	0.019	40.683
	NOS7	0.790	0.020	39.523
The behavioral intention of repeated watching	RWBI1	0.764	0.027	28.248	0.749	0.688	0.752
	RWBI3	0.702	0.031	22.993
	RWBI5	0.660	0.035	19.006

The square root of the AVE of each construct (including agreeableness) was greater than the correlations of that construct with other constructs (Table 2). The behavioral intention of repeated watching is positively and significantly related to openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, social connectedness and nostalgia arousal, while the behavioral intention of repeated watching is negatively and significantly related to neuroticism.

Table 2 The Convergent Validity of the Variables

Variables	M	SD	AVE	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
Openness	5.732	0.826	0.521	0.722
Conscientiousness	6.031	0.717	0.500	0.606**	0.707
Extraversion	6.961	1.637	0.732	0.650**	0.527**	0.856
Agreeableness	5.905	0.754	0.463	0.532**	0.564**	0.534**	0.680
Neuroticism	2.599	1.243	0.710	−0.351**	−0.450**	−0.511**	−0.288**	0.843
Social connectedness	5.755	1.058	0.668	0.303**	0.417**	0.454**	0.346**	−0.725**	0.817
Nostalgia arousal	5.216	0.911	0.642	0.398**	0.318**	0.336**	0.385**	−0.077*	0.058	0.801
Behavioral intention of repeated watching	5.844	0.740	0.504	0.458**	0.435**	0.376**	0.444**	−0.254**	0.232**	0.450**	0.710

Notes: 1. Openness; 2. Conscientiousness; 3. Extraversion; 4. Agreeableness; 5. Neuroticism; 6. Social connectedness; 7. Nostalgia arousal; 8. The behavioral intention of repeated watching. The numbers above the diagonal are the square roots of the AVE, and the numbers below the diagonal are the correlations of the variables. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01.

Results

The structural equation model (SEM) was calculated using AMOS 21.0 to test H1a-e and H2a-e. We performed significance tests for indirect effects with bootstrapping procedures using 5000 bootstrap samples with a 95% bias-corrected confidence interval. All significant statistical relationships reported below were confirmed using the bootstrap method. Overall, the analysis of the SEM revealed an acceptable model fit (χ² = 1205.564, df = 538, p = 0.000, CFI = 0.953, TLI = 0.949, SRMR = 0.044, RMSEA = 0.044, and 90% CI = [0.041, 0.047]). The value of AGFI is nearly 0.9, which is close to the threshold. All fix indexes of the theory model are shown in Table 3.

Table 3 The Fix Indexes of the Theory Model

Fit Indexes	Values of Expectation	Actual Values
Absolute goodness of fit index
CMIN/DF	<3	2.241
GFI	>0.9	0.902
AGFI	>0.9	0.886
RMSEA	<0.08	0.044
SRMR	<0.06	0.044
Comparative fit index
NFI	>0.9	0.919
IFI	>0.9	0.954
TLI	>0.9	0.949
CFI	>0.9	0.953

The first part of our model involves the relationships between personality traits, including openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism, and nostalgia arousal. The results indicated that openness (β = 0.295, p = 0.007), agreeableness (β = 0.316, p = 0.009) and neuroticism (β = 0.174, p = 0.032) were significant positive predictors of nostalgia arousal, while conscientiousness (β = −0.007, p = 0.913) and extraversion (β = 0.053, p = 0.588) showed no significant influence on nostalgia arousal (see Table 4). These results revealed that open, agreeable and neurotic individuals were likely to evoke nostalgia.

Table 4 The Estimates of the Theory Model

Paths	Unstandardized B	Standardized β	t	p
Openness → nostalgia arousal	0.369	0.295	3.380	0.007
Conscientiousness → nostalgia arousal	−0.009	−0.007	−0.071	0.913
Extraversion → nostalgia arousal	0.037	0.053	0.692	0.588
Agreeableness → nostalgia arousal	0.390	0.316	3.401	0.009
Neuroticism → nostalgia arousal	0.115	0.174	3.223	0.032
Openness → social connectedness	−0.217	−0.142	−2.159	0.125
Conscientiousness → social connectedness	0.060	0.041	0.545	0.649
Extraversion → social connectedness	0.050	0.059	1.003	0.524
Agreeableness → social connectedness	0.297	0.198	2.830	0.036
Neuroticism → social connectedness	−0.583	−0.728	−14.896	0.000
Nostalgia arousal → behavioral intention	0.468	0.543	11.488	0.000
Social connectedness → behavioral intention	0.184	0.259	6.098	0.000

The second part of our model focuses on the relationships between personality traits and social connectedness. Only agreeableness (β = 0.198, p = 0.036) and neuroticism (β = −0.728, p = 0.000) showed significant effects on social connectedness. Openness (β = −0.142, p = 0.125), conscientiousness (β = 0.041, p = 0.649) and extraversion (β = 0.059, p = 0.524) had no such influence on social connectedness. These results meant that agreeable individuals were more likely to feel a sense of social connectedness with others, while neurotic ones were less likely to have that feeling.

The third part of our model reveals the relationships between nostalgia arousal, social connectedness and the behavioral intention of repeated watching. Nostalgia arousal (β = 0.543, p = 0.000) and social connectedness (β = 0.259, p = 0.000) were significant positive predictors of the behavioral intention of repeated watching (see Figure 2).

Figure 2 Results of the model.

Notes: The regression weights were standardized. *p<0.05, **p<0.01,***p<0.001.

Five paths indicated significant indirect mediating effects of nostalgia arousal and social connectedness on the behavioral intention of repeated watching. Nostalgia arousal had a mediating effect between openness and the behavioral intention of repeated watching (effect = 0.173, 95% CI = [0.046, 0.344]). The mediating effects of nostalgia arousal also existed between agreeableness and the behavioral intention of repeated watching (effect = 0.182, 95% CI = [0.049, 0.381]) and between neuroticism and the behavioral intention of repeated watching (effect = 0.054, 95% CI = [0.006, 0.096]). Therefore, H1a, H1d and H1e were supported. In addition, for people who are agreeable (effect = 0.054, 95% CI = [0.004, 0.113]) and neurotic (effect = −0.107, 95% CI = [−.152, −0.067]), social connectedness played a mediating role, indicating that H2d and H2e were supported (Table 5).

Table 5 The Indirect Effects in the Study

Paths	Effect	95% CI	Hypothesis
Openness → nostalgia arousal → behavioral intention	0.173	[0.046, 0.344]	Support
Conscientiousness → nostalgia arousal → behavioral intention	−0.004	[−.204, 0.131]	Not Support
Extraversion → nostalgia arousal → behavioral intention	0.018	[−.047, 0.077]	Not Support
Agreeableness → nostalgia arousal → behavioral intention	0.182	[0.049, 0.381]	Support
Neuroticism → nostalgia arousal → behavioral intention	0.054	[0.006, 0.096]	Support
Openness → social connectedness → behavioral intention	−0.040	[−.105, 0.011]	Not Support
Conscientiousness → social connectedness → behavioral intention	0.011	[−.039, 0.074]	Not Support
Extraversion → social connectedness → behavioral intention	0.009	[−.020,0.041]	Not Support
Agreeableness → social connectedness → behavioral intention	0.054	[0.004, 0.113]	Support
Neuroticism → social connectedness → behavioral intention	−0.107	[−.152, −0.067]	Support

Notes: The estimates of indirect effects were standardized. N = 645; behavioral intention: behavioral intention of repeated watching.

To further explore the extent of the mediating effects, we measured the direct effects between the five personality traits and the behavioral intention of repeated watching. Agreeableness showed a significant direct effect (effect = 0.269, 95% CI = [0.053, 0.536]), while openness (effect = 0.192, 95% CI = [−.047, 0.425]) and neuroticism (effect = −0.108, 95% CI = [−.315, 0.100]) showed no significant influence. These results revealed that two paths including agreeableness showed partial mediating effects, and the other three showed full mediating effects.

Findings and Discussion

Watching COMTS repeatedly is increasingly popular in our society. Technology provides several types of technical support, making it possible for people to return to the past. Therefore, it is convenient that people can easily evoke their nostalgia by watching old movies or TV series. The theoretical frame of “personality trait-motivation-behavior” explains that the differences in personality traits can predict motivations, and the motivation system is an important and necessary factor in predicting individuals’ behavior. The initial objective of our study was to identify which personality traits tended to watch COMTS repeatedly. The results indicated that open, agreeable, and neurotic people were more likely to watch COMTS repeatedly. Meanwhile, nostalgia arousal and social connectedness play mediating roles in the relationship between personality traits and repeated watching behavioral intention.

Nostalgia arousal is a potential motivation for people who prefer to watch COMTS repeatedly. To some extent, COMTS contain various nostalgia elements that can trigger the behavioral intention of repeated watching, such as catchwords and classic dialogs. Our results showed that open, neurotic, and agreeable individuals tended to stimulate nostalgia positively and then trigger the behavioral intention of watching COMTS repeatedly. Interestingly, we found that nostalgia arousal has a partial mediating effect on the relationship between agreeableness and behavioral intention of repeated watching. However, nostalgic arousal had full mediating effects on the relationship between openness, neuroticism and behavioral intention of repeated watching. In addition, although some scholars have argued that nostalgia is not significantly moderated by neuroticism,⁵⁶ this seems not to be the case. In our study, the proneness to neuroticism significantly affected nostalgia, and nostalgia played an important role in the relationship between neuroticism and the behavioral intention of repeated watching. These results may be due to nostalgic nature, which contains both positive and negative elements.^57–59 Positive aspects of nostalgia include significant life events and meaningful social interactions.⁵⁶ Highly open people tend to communicate with others to gain satisfaction. By watching COMTS repeatedly, individuals gain more cultural capital to store in their minds. When they communicate with others about the cultural capital, their memories of the past are evoked. Like openness, agreeableness represents positive interpersonal outcomes, such as likeability and popularity.^60,61 The friendly and considerate attitudes of agreeable individuals in social situations might explain why agreeableness and nostalgia arousal are associated with positive emotions. Regarding negative nostalgia, it is a feeling of recalling the past, representing a desire to leave the past, rather than a proactive and constant search for the future and neuroticism is negative affectivity.^62–64 Therefore, we believe that neuroticism can easily affect negative nostalgia and then trigger people to watch COMTS repeatedly.

Social connectedness plays an important role in the relationship between personality traits (agreeableness and neuroticism) with repeated watching behavioral intention. People have a basic need to belong.⁶⁵ From the view of time, past time reshapes the lives of people and becomes a part of them. From the view of relationships, social bonds are a form of social connectedness. The experience of interpersonal closeness in the society includes proximal and distal relationships with family, friends, peers, acquaintances, strangers, community, and society.⁴¹ Agreeableness is related to cooperation, friendliness, warmth, sympathy, trust, altruism, and consideration.⁶⁶ Therefore, agreeable individuals are more likely to maintain existing relationships and communicate with friends. People can learn a lot of memes and increase interesting knowledge to build social capital by watching COMTS repeatedly. Social interactions tend to be explained by neuroticism.²⁵ This finding broadly supports other scholars in this area to link neuroticism with behavioral intentions. For example, the relationships between personality traits and social behavior are significant, and neuroticism is an important predictor of social relationship outcomes.⁶⁷ Neurotic individuals are easily in negative states, such as depression, anxiety, and insecurity.⁶⁶ Highly neurotic people prefer to experience interpersonal stress and have strong anxiety about interpersonal communication.⁶⁸ Therefore, emotional unstability may cause individuals to make fewer social connections among people and society. Highly neurotic individuals prefer to release pressure by themselves rather than build relationships with others, so the behavioral intention of repeated watching becomes a way of catharsis. However, low neurotic individuals prefer to establish a relationship with society rather than stand alone.

Perhaps the most unexpected finding is that extraversion is not associated with the behavioral intention of repeated watching. Extraversion mainly refers to sociability and agency or the motivation to form interpersonal bonds, be warm and affectionate, and seek excitement and attention.⁶⁹ Although extroversion and openness can predict social connectedness from Facebook,⁴⁹ extroversion cannot predict nostalgia arousal and social connectedness on the behavioral intention of repeated watching in this study. Among the personality traits, extraversion is most dramatically associated with agency and communion; extraversion is a blend of high agency and high communion.⁷⁰ Extraverted individuals are more likely to be gregarious in general and are good at leading and connecting with others.⁷¹ However, when people are nostalgic, they do not need to communicate and connect with each other in the Internet era. In addition, watching movies and TV series is also a personal behavior that does not require a connection with others in most situations. In particular, with the development of mobile media, individuals have mobile phones with various video applications installed, which can play any videos they like at any time.

Implications and Limitations

This study aimed to explore which personality traits make individuals prefer repeating watching and whether nostalgia arousal and social connectedness play mediating roles based on the theoretical framework of “personality trait-motivation-behavior”.

We used a model with social connectedness and nostalgia arousal as mediators. The results of the statistical analysis partly supported our hypotheses. The research results represent a further step towards developing the mechanism of the behavioral intention of repeated watching. The findings can contribute to better understanding which personality traits make individuals prefer to watch COMTS repeatedly. This study can answer how personality traits affect the behavioral intention of repeated watching. And we raise new questions needing to be solved in the future. For instance, are there any variables that moderate this process? What other mediating mechanisms influence the behavioral intention of repeated watching? In addition, for different media channels, it is important to monitor users’ viewing data, and then analyze it to match appropriate media content.

Although our findings provide new insights for the research on repeated watching behavior, several limitations of this study must be noted. First, nostalgia is an immediate concept that may be related to people’s life experiences. Different kinds of people may have diverse experiences and frequencies of nostalgia. In future research, specific people, such as adolescents and older adults, can be studied to obtain more comprehensive information. Second, our research focused more on how personality traits and social relationships affect repeated watching behavior. However, the mechanism of the Big Five model on repeating watching behavior is quite complex, and satisfaction, entertainment, and other variables can be introduced for in-depth discussion.

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.