Selective viewing: Cognition, personality and television genres

Theorists have noted that cognitive processing and personality are essential in explaining television viewing behaviour, but evidence has been difficult to obtain. The present investigation employed a new cognitive-personality approach to the intriguing question why do we watch what we do? Because self is central to personality, concept of self was measured in addition to concepts of television genres. In two studies, university students rated self and various television genres on several bipolar constructs in a computerized grid test. They also indicated their viewing behaviour for each genre and their viewing hours per week. Indices of congruence between concept of self and concept of each genre (self—other distance scores) were calculated and correlated with genre viewing behaviour. The findings support the conclusion that similarity of constructions of self and genre predicts selective viewing and demonstrate the relevance of viewer's genre concepts and personality to television viewing behaviour.