What is it about?
We asked Polish teenagers to describe how they choose TV shows to watch for leisure on different streaming platforms. We prompted them to think deeply about favorite plots, characters, and character traits. They liked characters who faced and overcame obstacles, and thus showed complex psychology. Favorite characters showed personality traits, situations, behaviors, and attitudes that viewers recognized in themselves as well.
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Why is it important?
Our results show that teenagers are open to TV shows with diverse characters, provided that they show complex inner life and are portrayed with attractive personality traits. This means that TV shows with sexual and ethnic minority characters could be interesting to youth audiences, even in conservative countries like Poland. Some respondents mentioned that they are interested in diverse characters because they have few interactions in real-life and can learn about them.
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Recognizing the similarities and appreciating the differences? Content choices and perceived (dis)similarity with TV show characters among youth., Psychology of Popular Media, March 2023, American Psychological Association (APA),
DOI: 10.1037/ppm0000465.
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