Are You What You Watch?

Are You What

You Watch?

Tracking the Political Divide

Through TV Preferences

By Johanna Blakley, PhD; Erica Watson-Currie, PhD;

Hee-Sung Shin, PhD; Laurie Trotta Valenti, PhD;

Camille Saucier, MA; and Heidi Boisvert, PhD

About

The Norman Lear Center is a nonpartisan research and public

policy center that studies the social, political, economic and

cultural impact of entertainment on the world. The Lear Center

translates its ﬁndings into action through testimony, journalism,

strategic research and innovative public outreach campaigns.

Through scholarship and research; through its conferences, public

events and publications; and in its attempts to illuminate and

repair the world, the Lear Center works to be at the forefront of

discussion and practice in the ﬁeld.

futurePerfect Lab is a creative services agency and think tank

exclusively for non-proﬁts, cultural and educational institutions.

We harness the power of pop culture for social good. We work

in creative partnership with non-proﬁts to engineer their social

messages for mass appeal. Using integrated media strategies

informed by neuroscience, we design playful experiences and

participatory tools that provoke audiences and amplify our clients’

vision for a better future.

At the Lear Center’s Media Impact Project, we study the impact

of news and entertainment on viewers. Our goal is to prove that

media matters, and to improve the quality of media to serve the

public good. We partner with media makers and funders to create

and conduct program evaluation, develop and test research

hypotheses, and publish and promote thought leadership on the

role of media in social change.

Are You What You Watch? is made possible in part by support

from the Pop Culture Collaborative, a philanthropic resource that

uses grantmaking, convening, narrative strategy, and research

to transform the narrative landscape around people of color,

immigrants, refugees, Muslims and Native people – especially

those who are women, queer, transgender and/or disabled.

Through partnerships between the social justice sector and the

pop culture industries, the Collaborative believes activists, artists

and philanthropists can encourage mass audiences to reckon with

the past and rewrite the story of our nation’s future.

Acknowledgements

We’d like to thank the entire team at the Norman Lear Center for their support of our work, headed by Marty Kaplan; also Kristin (Eun

Jung) Jung, MA, for her ongoing enthusiastic assistance with Media Impact Project research; Tessa G. Baker, MA, for her work on the

original Zogby reports and her insight into these new rounds; Michelle van Gilder, our partner then in Zogby and today in The Africa

Narrative; and Tracy Van Slyke and Bridgit Antoinette Evans of Pop Culture Collaborative for their visions of a better world through

story.

Table of Contents

Introduction

The Study

The Survey

Key Findings

Ideological Groups

Entertainment & Media Preferences

Cultural Touchstones & Fan Favorites

Social Justice Issues & Patterns of Viewership

Ideological Shifts

Entertainment Trends: 2008 vs 2018

Portraits of Blues, Purples & Reds

Who Are the Blues?

Who Are the Purples?

Who Are the Reds?

Changing Colors Then & Now

Survey Results

Ideology: Nine Signs of Common Ground

Partisan Shifts

Exploring Entertainment Preferences

Appetites for Entertainment

Most & Least Watched Shows

Most Liked & Disliked Shows

Cultural Touchstones & Fan Favorites

Network & News Preferences

Genre Preferences

Reasons for Tuning In

Trends in Entertainment Preferences 2008 vs. 2018

Anatomy of Three Crime Dramas

Criminal Minds

Law & Order: SVU vs. NCIS

Social Issues & Entertainment Preferences

How Americans Rank Social Issues

Social Justice Issues

Patterns of Viewership

Do Viewers Take Action?

Self-ecacy & Entertainment Consumption

Calls to Action

How To Use This Research

Understanding Your Audience

Segmenting Your Audience

Locating Mass Audiences

Activating Your Audience

Conclusion

Next Steps

Methods

Appendix

Do dierent political group members like the same shows? Do they

experience similar feelings and emotions while viewing them? Are there

elements in TV shows that Americans from across the political spectrum

enjoy, laugh at or even love to hate together?

Entertainment preferences often go unrecognized as powerful indicators of personal and social aspirations.

By investigating connections between entertainment preferences and political beliefs, we can learn whether

ideological polarization is reﬂected in leisure time amusements. The Lear Center has produced almost two

decades of academic research demonstrating that entertainment plays a key role in people’s lives, igniting

curiosity, inciting conversations and inﬂuencing attitudes and behavior.1 The goal of this research is to shed

more light on the complex relationship between our storytelling preferences and the values and convictions

that shape our understanding of the world.

We believe this dataset will be an indispensable tool for practitioners who hope to achieve culture change

by leveraging the power of pop culture. Any one of the 37 social issues we tracked can be used as a focal

point for an exploration of American attitudes toward that issue, their entertainment preferences and their

psychographic, demographic and political attributes. The dataset can also be used to conduct a deep dive

into the priorities, beliefs and other shared characteristics unique to the fanbase of any of the 50 TV shows

we tracked.

The Study

The current study combined survey research on 50 television shows

identiﬁed by a 2016 New York

Times study

as being popular on Facebook in regions that correspond to voting behavior in the 2016

election. The Times’ report found that American TV viewing preferences demonstrate distinct patterns

that correspond with regional political views. While the Times research utilized 2016 presidential voting

data aggregated by zip code, the Lear Center study gathered individual voting history and attitudinal data

through a survey instrument, allowing us to establish a much stronger connection between TV preference,

1 Lear Center research reports and summaries can be found on the Hollywood, Health & Society site, https://hollywoodhealthandsociety.org/

materials/research-evaluation, and on the Media Impact Project site, http://www.mediaimpactproject.org/research.html.

2 See Appendix A for list of Entertainment TV Shows

3 Katz, Josh (2016, December 27). ‘Duck Dynasty” vs. “Modern Family”: 50 Maps of the U.S. Cultural Divide. The New York Times: Upshot section.

Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/12/26/upshot/duck-dynasty-vs-modern-family-television-maps.htm?_r=0

Introduction

4 Such as Baker, T., Blakley, J., Z., & N. (2008, April). You Are What You Watch (And Listen To, And Read). Retrieved from https://learcenter.org/

pdf/entertainmentandpolitics.pdf

5 Zogby Analytics - Home. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://zogbyanalytics.com/

6 See appendices for full listings of all survey items.

7 See Appendix B for list of all Social and Political Issues.

political beliefs and behavior. The ﬁndings closely align with insights from the Lear Center’s prior research

studies,

in partnership with Zogby Analytics

(2007, 2008), exploring how American entertainment

habits track with their political values. At that time, our research revealed three signiﬁcant clusters of

respondents: liberals, conservatives and a swing group. The liberals were then characterized as Blues, the

conservatives were classiﬁed as Reds, and the swings became the Purples, representing the bleeding of

the two polar political proﬁles in the middle of the American ideological landscape. Similar ﬁndings were

mapped in our current study.

Meanwhile, futurePerfect Labs (fPL) founder Heidi Boisvert, a Research Fellow at the Lear Center’s Media

Impact Project (MIP), saw an opportunity to extend her own research using biometric sensors to test the

neurobiological eects of narrative elements in entertainment media. Boisvert received a grant from the

Pop Culture Collaborative (PCC) to pilot a project, and the MIP team was invited to assist with the multi-

phased research study to investigate correlations between entertainment story elements, geographic

location, political beliefs and viewers’ neurobiological responses to TV content.

The results reported here represent Phase One of a larger study, to be published later this year. In

Phase Two, we will use a detailed content analysis of these TV shows to conduct a deeper investigation,

measuring biometric responses to TV viewing. Findings will be interpreted by the narrative engine, a new

open-source analytic and predictive modeling tool developed by futurePerfect’s Boisvert. The narrative

engine & AI system is designed to allow researchers to analyze combined datasets from story coding

(scene-by-scene content analysis), survey data and physiological arousal patterns to provide new insights

into media impact. Of particular interest is the question:

What combinations of narrative ingredients (character, plot, framing, emotional cathartic moments) of

episodic TV shows are the most salient, appealing and galvanizing to speciﬁc audiences?

The Survey

In a nationally representative online survey, 3,096 participants were asked an extensive series of questions

regarding their political beliefs, entertainment preferences and viewing behaviors. Questions addressed

their knowledge and feelings about speciﬁc television shows; what they like about their favorite shows, as

well as their happiness, self-ecacy, voting history and demographics.

Respondents were also asked about their personal values and attitudes toward 37 key social and economic

issues widely debated in politics and news media.

Most questions were framed in a series of opposing

statements with which they could strongly or slightly agree. This oers a more nuanced approach than

asking about political party identiﬁcation. Their responses were compared to results from our 2008 survey;

both studies used an iterative clustering technique to arrive at three distinct groups based on these

opinions and attitudes. These clusters were found to have distinct in-group similarities; comparing the two

provided a unique opportunity to explain ideological shifts that have taken place in the US over the past

decade. These will be described in detail in the ensuing report.

Ideological Groups

Using the same statistical clustering analysis as in our studies 10 years ago, we again discovered three

ideological groups in the United States that share common attitudes and values, regardless of voting

history or political party preferences:

 Blues who have liberal attitudes toward abortion, the environment, guns, marriage and

immigration, make up 47% of the population. Blues are the least satisﬁed with their lives.

A majority are women; this group contains the most African Americans.

 Purples, a swing group comprising 18% of the population, hold positions across the political

spectrum. With the largest share of Asians/Paciﬁc Islanders and Hispanics/Latinx, Purples

are the most religious group and the most satisﬁed with their lives.

 Reds make up 35% of the country, holding conservative views on most issues, including

positive attitudes towards police and skepticism about armative action, immigrants and

Islam. Reds have the highest proportion of senior citizens.

Entertainment & Media Preferences

 Blues like many more TV shows than Reds. They are open to viewing foreign entertainment

options and material that doesn’t reﬂect their values. Blues often get their news from

MSNBC and news websites, and they typically enjoy watching Modern Family.

 Purples are the most voracious TV viewers and they enjoy more about the viewing

experience than other groups. Since Purples appreciate the educational value of TV

programming, and are the most likely to say they take action based on what they learn

about politics and social issues from ﬁctional movies and TV, they are an ideal target group

for social change campaigns. Favorite shows include The Voice and Dancing with the Stars,

but they also like Saturday Night Live, a favorite among Blues, and Duck Dynasty, which is

preferred by Reds.

 Reds say they seldom watch entertainment TV, but when they do, they are likely to say they

do so for an adrenaline boost. They watch the Hallmark, History and Ion channels far more

than others and their favorite shows include NCIS and Criminal Minds.

Key Findings

Cultural Touchstones & Fan Favorites

 Five shows have equal appeal for all ideological groups: America’s Funniest Home Videos,

Bones, Criminal Minds and MythBusters are enjoyed by all three groups. Pawn Stars has the

distinction of being watched, but hated by all groups. Ten years ago, our study found only

one show that was equally liked by all groups, House.

 Game of Thrones is the fan favorite among all groups, though far fewer Reds watch the show.

Social Justice Issues & Patterns of Viewership

 Immigration

 Those who believe immigrants want to work for a better life are more likely to watch

Saturday Night Live, The Tonight Show, Modern Family, Game of Thrones and The

Daily Show with Trevor Noah.

 Those who believe immigrants want to be handed a better life are more likely to

watch Duck Dynasty.

 Americans who rank immigration among their top three issues are more likely to

be fans of The Walking Dead.

 Gender Equality

 Saturday Night Live viewers are likely to believe that men and women should share

parental and household duties equally.

 Americans who believe a woman’s primary responsibility is to her children and

home are more likely to watch four reality TV shows: Wipeout, Ridiculousness, Cake

Boss and So You Think You Can Dance; two scripted shows, The Walking Dead and

Adventure Time; and the music video show 106 & Park.

 Race Relations/Discrimination

 Americans who consider race among their top issues are more likely to say their

favorite shows are The Daily Show, Orange is the New Black, Scandal and Fast N’

Loud, a reality show about refurbishing old cars.

 Respondents who rank race among their least important issues prefer NCIS, The

Big Bang Theory, The Walking Dead and Law & Order: SVU.

 Actions in Response to Entertainment

 When they learn something from ﬁctional movies and TV shows, Blues are most likely

to discuss it with others and seek even more information.

8 Donald Trump’s Presidential campaign also discovered this association, as reported in Bertoni, S. (2016, November 23). Exclusive Interview:

How Jared Kushner Won Trump The White House. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenbertoni/2016/11/22/exclusive-inter

view-how-jared-kushner-won-trump-the-white-house/#10452fc13af6

 Purples take more public-facing actions such as contacting newspapers and talk shows,

registering consumer complaints, and making their opinions known to public ocials.

Ideological Shifts

 Overall, the number of people who described themselves as Democrat or Republican ten

years ago has dropped by about 20%, coinciding with a rise in Independents.

 Americans diametrically opposed in 2008 are showing signs of shifting – generally toward

moderate views – around nine key issues: environment, regulation of business, privacy

around new technologies, public education, guns, marriage, abortion, helping the poor and

tax reductions.

 72% of these shifts are in the Blue direction. This ﬁnding comes as a surprising reality-check

that deﬁes the simplistic media narrative about an increasingly divided nation, as many of

the shifts are away from entrenched positions towards the center.

Entertainment Trends: 2008 vs 2018

The biggest dierences in viewing patterns in the past ten years are found in shows that feature

topical comedy and commentary on current events:

 Among late-night shows, Saturday Night Live now ranks highest among Blues and

lowest among Reds. The reverse was true in 2008.

 NBC’s The Tonight Show switched hosts from Jay Leno to Jimmy Fallon, and we

found a big shift in the ideological makeup of its audience. In 2018, Blues are most

likely to rank it among their favorites and Reds are the least likely to do so. The

reverse was true in 2008.

For long-running shows, some patterns persisted:

 Despite switching from Jon Stewart to Trevor Noah, Comedy Central’s The Daily

Show remained very popular among Blues and rarely watched by Reds.

 Fox’s The Simpsons and Family Guy remained most popular among Blues and least

popular among Reds.

 Despite not being a big favorite for any group, ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy

remained

popular among Purples and least popular with Reds.

9 The longest running medical drama on primetime TV as reported in Dugan, C. (2019, February 28). Grey’s Anatomy Set to Become

the Longest-Running Primetime Medical Drama on TV - Surpassing ER! Retrieved from https://people.com/tv/greys-anatomy-longest-prime

time-medical-drama/

The Norman Lear Center’s Media Impact Project and futurePerfect Lab administered an extensive,

nationwide US survey focusing on entertainment preferences and political beliefs.

We asked detailed

questions about popular TV shows, including which ones they love or hate, and why. Using statistical

clustering analysis, we grouped respondents into categories based on how they responded to 28 paired

statements about hot-button political and social issues.

The results revealed three signiﬁcant clusters of respondents: a group that holds predominantly liberal

political positions makes up 47% of the national sample; a group with mostly conservative convictions

comprises 35%, and a uniquely-opinionated swing group makes up 18% of the nation. The liberals were

then characterized as Blues, the conservatives were classiﬁed as Reds, and the swings became the Purples,

representing the bleeding of the two polar political proﬁles in the center of the American ideological

landscape. In our 2008 study, we discovered three similar coherent groups, though each group has shifted

in size, with Blues increasing by 10%.

10 See appendices for full listings of all survey items.

11 It’s important to note that although the Blue and Red groups seem to align with the political views of Democrats and Republicans, the clusters

were not based upon party self-identiﬁcation; in fact, substantial proportions of Blues did not identify as Democrats and substantial

proportions of Reds did not identify as Republican.

Portraits of Blues,

Purples & Reds

TYPOLOGY– NUMBER OF BLUES, PURPLES & REDS: 2018 VS. 2008

A solid group of about 20% Purples – independent thinkers who can swing on key issues -- held steady in

both studies.

35%

18%

47%

20%

43% 37%

2018 2008

“Most believe US laws do not

suciently protect minority

rights, but they have mixed

feelings about armative action.”

Who are the Blues?

Blues are the largest ideological group in the country, accounting for almost half the population. They

strongly believe that the government should help everyone achieve the American Dream. Blues tend to

prioritize equality over freedom, overwhelmingly agreeing on a shared duty to help the less fortunate.

They strongly believe that immigrants are motivated by their desire to work for a better life, as opposed to

looking for a free handout. They hold a mixed view of police, with a sizable faction saying police ocers

use their authority to oppress some

minority groups, and a slight majority

saying they protect and serve local

communities and citizens. Most believe US

laws do not suciently protect minority

rights, but they have mixed feelings about

armative action; a majority believe it

levels the playing ﬁeld, while a sizable

minority feels it rewards some groups at

the expense of others. Blues want religion

to be left out of public life and most

believe that Islam is a religion of peace. Of the three groups, Blues are the most religiously diverse, though

less than one in ﬁve describe themselves as very religious. In fact, almost 25% are atheist or agnostic. They

almost unanimously agree that abortion is a private decision between a woman and her doctor and that

men and women should share parental and household duties equally. Most Blues believe mainstream

media responds to the market, supplying consumers with the content they want, while a sizable minority

feels media drives the US political agenda.

Blues are the unhappiest group, more likely than the rest of the country to be unsatisﬁed with their

personal, family, business and social lives. More than half are females between 30 and 64. Compared to

other groups, they are more likely to be single. Blues are also more racially diverse than Reds, including the

largest number of African Americans. They are more likely to live in urban or suburban areas, and most

consider themselves moderate or liberal, with over half identifying as Democrats, a third identifying as

Independent and the rest (10%) are Republican.

Blues say they often learn about politics and social issues from ﬁctional entertainment sources, including

TV shows and ﬁlms. They are most likely to discuss what they learn from ﬁctional shows with others,

and to seek out more information. Most consume news daily, or at least weekly, and they tend to prefer

CNN, followed by the New York Times and MSNBC. This group also prefers NPR News far more than

Reds or Purples.

Blues are interested in diverse entertainment options, including foreign programming: they enjoy

entertainment that reﬂects values other than their own, and they are even open to entertainment that they

believe to be in bad taste. Blues agree with Reds that ﬁctional TV shows and movies, whether they intend

to or not, contain political messages. Blues like drama and documentaries even more than Purples, and

a lot more than Reds. While all groups enjoy character-driven TV shows that put them in a good mood,

Blues express a greater preference for shows that inspire discussion. Like Purples, a majority of Blues

watch Saturday Night Live, but they are the only group for which Modern Family ranks among their most-

watched shows, and they are the least likely to watch Duck Dynasty. Comedy Central’s The Daily Show is

popular among Blues.

Who are the Purples?

Accounting for 18% of Americans, the Purples are a widely divergent group, swinging from conservative

to liberal on key issues, while marching to their own drummer on others. Purples reﬂect the most diverse

range of political party identiﬁcations, and their views span the political spectrum, from progressive

to moderate to very conservative. And yet, they are the least likely to call themselves Libertarians or

Independents. They identify as Republican (46%), Democrat (32%) and Independent (21%). More than half

of them voted for Donald Trump, and less than a third voted for Hillary Clinton. Heavy TV watchers, they

are the group most likely to watch TV news on a daily basis, but they are equally likely to tune into CNN as

Fox News.

Like Reds, most Purples believe mainstream media drives the US political agenda. They tend to feel the

government should help everyone achieve the American Dream, strongly believing in a shared duty to help

the less fortunate, despite prizing the ideal of freedom above the importance of equality. Like Blues, they

have mixed views about armative action, with most believing it levels the playing ﬁeld. Most Purples

hold a favorable view of police, saying they protect and serve local communities and citizens, and they

think that US laws suciently protect minority rights. In agreement with Blues, most Purples believe

foreigners immigrate to America for a chance to work for a better life. However, even more so than Reds,

Purples would prefer that religion play more of a role in public life. They are split on views about Islam,

with a slight majority thinking it encourages violence.

Some 68% prefer a traditional deﬁnition of marriage, although they have mixed views on women’s role,

with a sizable minority believing a woman’s primary responsibility is to her children and home, though the

majority feel that both men and women should share duties equally. They believe that abortion is a private

decision between a woman and her doctor.

Including more men than women, most Purples live in cities. The majority are between 30 and 49; Purples

have the lowest number of senior citizens among their ranks. Although they include fewer African Americans

than Blues, Purples have the greatest proportion of Asians and Hispanics. Purples are the most religious

of the three ideological groups, with the vast majority characterizing themselves as moderately to very

religious, mostly Catholic followed by Christian. Purples have the greatest proportion of married people

and the lowest share of divorcees. About one quarter are single. Purples are by far the happiest and

most satisﬁed group, with the highest estimation of their overall happiness and satisfaction with their

personal, family, business and social lives. Members of this group are most likely to say that their lives are

turning out as expected and they have the most conﬁdence in their ability to make a dierence in their

communities, cities, states, the nation and the world. They are more likely than other groups to take public

actions based on learning something from ﬁctional movies or TV shows, and make themselves heard by

contacting newspapers, call-in shows, and public ocials or ﬁling consumer complaints.

Purples are the group most doubtful that ﬁctional TV shows and movies, whether they intend to or not,

contain political messages. Nevertheless, like Blues, they say they learn about political and social issues

from entertainment fare and they enjoy diverse entertainment options, including content produced in

other countries and oerings that might be in bad taste or reﬂect values other than their own. Purples

enjoy educational, reality and children’s programming more than Blues or Reds. They don’t much like

business shows or soap operas, but they enjoy almost everything about the shows they do like – including

the humor, suspense and emotional impact – but they especially appreciate their educational value.

Compared to Blues and Reds, Purples are much more likely to say they watch shows to be inspired and to

gain new insights; to think about meaningful issues and to have discussions, both while they watch and

afterwards. They like shows that give them an adrenaline boost and that give them a chance to experience

feelings that are dicult to allow in everyday life. More than half have watched Saturday Night Live, a

preference they share with Blues, but only Purples rank The Voice and Dancing with the Stars among their

most-watched shows.

Who are the Reds?

Accounting for 35% of Americans, Reds are the demographically oldest group and the most likely to live

in suburban or rural areas. Protecting freedom is more important than ensuring equality to Reds, who feel

it’s not the government’s role to help everyone achieve the American Dream. They lean toward perceiving

immigrants as people who want to be handed a better life. Reds want religion to play more of a role in

public life, and a majority agree it is our duty to help the less fortunate. Many feel that the Islamic religion

encourages violence. Reds lean toward prioritizing security over liberty, and they hold a favorable view of

“Reds lean toward prioritizing security

over liberty, and they hold a favorable

view of police, strongly believing they

protect and serve local communities

and citizens.”

police, strongly believing they protect and serve local communities and citizens. Most assert that US laws

suciently protect minority rights, and they ﬁrmly believe that armative action rewards some groups at

the expense of others. Some 70% of Reds adhere to a traditional deﬁnition of marriage as only between one

man and one woman, a marked dierence to the 97% from ten years ago. Most Reds believe that both men

and women should share parental and household duties equally. They hold mixed views about abortion,

but a majority leans toward viewing it as a private decision between a woman and her doctor. Reds believe

mainstream media drives the US political agenda.

About half male and female, a majority of Reds are married; they have the fewest singles and the highest

percentage of divorcees. Reds are the least racially diverse group, and more than two-thirds say they

are moderately to very religious, mostly Catholic or Christian. Describing themselves as moderate,

conservative or very conservative, the majority identify as Republican, but almost a third call themselves

Independents. Some two-

thirds voted for Donald Trump

and 8% for Hillary Clinton.

Compared to the rest of the

nation, Reds have the least

conﬁdence in their ability

to make a dierence in their

communities, the nation or the

world.

Most Reds watch TV news

daily (usually Fox News) or

at least once a week. Reds

tend to be the least familiar with the 50 entertainment TV shows on our list, as they watch entertainment

TV far less than other groups, with 18% reporting less than two hours per week. When they do watch TV

or ﬁlms, Reds prefer action-adventure. They dislike talk shows more than the other groups. Compared

to Blues and Purples, fewer Reds enjoy a show for its ability to inspire. They are also least likely to enjoy

moments of sadness and poignancy in the stories they watch, and they tend not to watch shows in order

to experience feelings that are dicult to allow in everyday life. Reds are less interested in seeking out

diverse entertainment options, including entertainment that originates outside of the US, or that reﬂects

taste or values dierent from their own. They are least likely to say they have learned about politics and

social issues from ﬁctional movies or TV; in fact, they had the highest proportion of people in any group

saying they never do so. Reds are the least likely to use shows to stimulate discussion, or provide new

insights. Reds enjoy crime procedurals such as NCIS and the dark fantasy Supernatural.

13 12 See Appendix C for list of all Demographic and Psychographic items.

The three distinct cluster groups we detected in 2018 were also found in our similar survey ten years ago.

These results provide a unique perspective to explain longitudinal changes that have taken place in the

US over the past decade. Demographically,

survey respondents were predominantly

white in 2018, though less so than a decade

ago, with small increases across all non-

white groups. The proportion of female Blues

and Reds increased in the past ten years,

as the proportion of males decreased. More

Blues and Reds have shifted their homes to

suburbs, and Reds also to rural areas, moving

away from cities, while many Purples moved

into large cities. Although the Purple group

slightly decreased in size, more Blues and Reds consider themselves Independents in 2018, as the number

of people who aligned with either the Democratic or Republican party dropped by 20% from 2008.

“The number of people

who aligned with either the

Democratic or Republican party

dropped by 20% from 2008.”

Changing Colors Then & Now:

Comparing 2008 and 2018 Survey Results

POLITICAL PARTY AFFILIATION: 2018 VS. 2008

Signicant drops in both major party afliations corresponded with a rise in independent voters.

2008

2018

Democrat Independent Republican

POLITICAL IDEOLOGY: 2018 VS. 2008

A trend toward the ideological middle was detected across all groups, indicating a move away from extremism in

both political parties.

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

Progressive/Very Liberal LibertarianModerate ConservativeLiberal

2008

2018

Very Conservative

While the Purples create a strong force in favor of government regulation of business, the extreme Blues and Reds

have softened their positions.

IS GOVERNMENT REGULATION A BURDEN?

31%

28%

66%

27%

18%

5% 23%

8% 28% 63%1%

39% 32%

37% 27% 17%

44% 21% 8%

46% 20% 6%

Strongly

Agree A

Strongly

Agree B

Somewhat

Agree A

Somewhat

Agree B

2018

2008

2018

2008

A. It is important for the government to regulate business B. Government regulation creates an undue burden

on business

3. Cautious of New Technology

The general public appears to have become more risk-averse regarding new technology, perhaps due

to abuses by tech companies and online privacy violations that have dominated the news. Support

has substantially decreased for the view that we should embrace new technology and all the social and

economic changes it brings. Fewer Blues and Purples now hold that view, while the Red majority has

reversed its previous view, with a majority now saying we should be wary of new technology and slow

down its implementation when necessary.

Ideology: Nine Signs of Common Ground

Americans diametrically opposed in 2008 are showing signs of shifting – generally toward moderate views

– around nine key issues: environment, regulation of business, privacy around new technologies, public

education, guns, marriage, abortion, helping the poor and tax reductions.

Some 72% of these shifts are in the Blue direction. This ﬁnding comes as a surprising reality-check that

deﬁes the simplistic media narrative about an increasingly divided nation, as many of the shifts are away

from entrenched positions towards the center.

1. More Resources for Environmental Protection

Since 2008, agreement that government needs to devote more resources to protecting the environment

increased from about one-half to three-quarters overall. Much of this shift can be attributed to Reds

moving away from their previously near-unanimous belief that the government has taken protecting

the environment too far and is hurting business. In fact, 45% of Reds now agree with almost all Blues

and most Purples that more government support of environmental protection is required.

2. Regulation of Business

Ten years ago, a slight majority agreed that government regulation creates an undue burden on

business. In 2018, we see a shift away from that sentiment, with a majority belief that it is important

for the government to regulate business. Both Blues and Reds appear to have softened their positions,

while the Purple majority favoring government regulations has increased in both size and strength.

IS ABORTION A PRIVATE DECISION?

78% 16% 3% 3%

92% 7%

30% 30% 21%

19%

62% 19% 9% 10%

36% 22%

16%

26%

16% 15% 17% 53%

Strongly

Agree A

Strongly

Agree B

Somewhat

Agree A

Somewhat

Agree B

2018

2008

2018

2008

A. Abortion is a private decision between a woman

and her doctor

B. Abortion is NOT a private decision between a woman

and her doctor

A remarkable shift towards agreement that abortion is a private decision was traced across all groups, led by a

softening of position by Purples and shifting sides by Reds.

4. Need for Gun Legislation

Public opinion has shifted away from the belief that the Constitution gives us the absolute right to

bear arms, to greater agreement that times have changed and it’s necessary to regulate gun ownership.

Although often presented in news media as an insuperable partisan divide, our data shows that the

entrenched majorities on both sides of this issue have actually weakened slightly, in that fewer attest to

strong agreement with their chosen side.

5. Support for Public Education

Overall support for investing in public education increased sharply compared to ten years ago

when half of Americans agreed that the only way to get a better education in America is to invest in

public education. In 2018, 80% of respondents agreed with this statement. Most of the general shift

is attributable to a Red drift in position away from the belief that the only way to get better education

in America is to invest in private education to a majority agreement (63%) that it’s better to invest in

public education.

6. Abortion Rights

Overall, more people support the belief that abortion is a private decision between a woman and her

doctor now than ten years ago. The Red majority has shifted to this point of view, and their strong

agreement to the contrary has also declined. Notably, strong agreement has decreased somewhat for

Blues and Purples.

7. Help for the Less Fortunate

The vast majority of all Americans agree that they have a responsibility to help those less fortunate.

In 2008, 75% agreed that it is our duty to help the less fortunate, and now 80% have adopted that view.

The shift is led by Purples (from 77% to 83%), while agreement from Reds has increased more modestly

(from 58% to 61%). Blues kept their super-majority of ten years ago when they were almost unanimous

on this issue, but now they less forcefully agree (down from 99% to 91%).

8. Marriage

Overall public opinion has shifted on the issue of marriage equality. Whereas ten years ago the

majority of Americans agreed that marriage should only be between one man and one woman, the

majority now believes that the institution of marriage should adapt to a changing society. Drilling

down, we see the Red majority of ten years ago, when 97% held a strong belief in traditional marriage,

has shrunk to 70%. Close to one-third of Reds now agree that marriage should adapt to a changing

society. Conversely, a slightly greater majority of Purples have shifted toward the more traditional

viewpoint.

9. Reduced Taxes

The majority opinion that all Americans would beneﬁt from drastically reduced taxes has increased

from 59% to 63% – a rare example of a shift toward the more traditionally conservative end of the

spectrum. This is largely due to a shift by the Blues, whose majority went from almost 90% agreement

that not all Americans would beneﬁt from drastically reduced taxes to over-half now agreeing all

Americans would beneﬁt from drastically reduced taxes. Majority agreement from Purples has

increased from over half to almost 70% as well. Surprisingly, the Red majority has decreased on this

issue (from 92% to 74%), with strong agreement declining from 78% to 39%.

Partisan Shifts

1. View of Government

Although in both 2008 and 2018 a majority of respondents agreed that government generally creates more

problems than it solves, this position is held less strongly now. Thus, the Blue majority shifted from three-

quarters in agreement that government generally solves problems to almost 70% indicating that government

generally creates more problems than it solves; whereas, the Purple majority reversed from over three-

quarters agreeing government creates problems to over 60% believing it generally solves them. Meanwhile,

Reds’ belief that government creates more problems than it solves declined from 95% to 85%.

WHAT IS MARRIAGE?

A. Marriage should only be between one man and one woman B. The institution of marriage should adapt to a

changing society

Strongly

Agree A

Strongly

Agree B

Somewhat

Agree A

Somewhat

Agree B

9% 6%

19%

66%

18% 72%

46% 22% 24%

53%

10% 14% 23%

53%

17%

16%

14%

93%

2018

2008

2018

2008

Overall, public opinion has shifted toward agreement that marriage should adapt to a changing society, as

opposed to marriage being only between one man and one woman.

WHAT IS AMERICA’S ROLE IN THE WORLD?

A. America should actively promote its values of Freedom and

Democracy around the world

B. It is not America’s job to promote its values around

the world

21% 32% 27% 20%

21% 30%

41%

37% 36%

21% 6%

19%

24% 25% 32%

12%

47% 28%

13% 12%

26%

31% 30%

Strongly

Agree A

Strongly

Agree B

Somewhat

Agree A

Somewhat

Agree B

2018

2008

2018

2008

Although the nation remains split, we found startling reversals among Blues, Purples and Reds around views

on internationalism.

2. View of America’s Role in the World

We detected a startling reversal among Blue, Purple and Red answers to the question do you agree that

America should actively promote its values of Freedom and Democracy around the world, as opposed to

the view that it is not America’s job to promote its values around the world. Although the nation remains

split, positions have shifted, with more Blues and Purples moving towards internationalism, now agreeing

that America should promote freedom and democracy, while the Red majority now agrees that is not

America’s job.

DOES GOVERNMENT SOLVE PROBLEMS?

A. Government generally solves problems

4% 33%

40%

23%

18%

57%

19% 6%

20% 41%

27%

12%

19%

35%

42%

12%

40% 45%

22%

75%

Strongly

Agree A

Strongly

Agree B

Somewhat

Agree A

Somewhat

Agree B

2018

2008

2018

2008

Partisan shifts over the past ten years reveal a reversal among Blue and Purple views around the ability of

government to solve problems.

Appetites for Entertainment

We wanted to learn more about the Americans whose political values are so often characterized as

diametrically opposed to determine if there are distinctions in entertainment choices inherent to each

group or, conversely, to ﬁnd cultural touchstones, programs and stories that resonate across ideological

divides. Looking at each group, we determined what shows they had watched,

what shows they liked

most, what features they enjoyed about those shows (e.g., character, story, humor)

and which genres

they preferred.

Analysis revealed that Purples have a

voracious appetite for TV. They watched most

entertainment shows more than Blues, and

far more than Reds. When asked what they

enjoyed most about the experience, Purples

said they liked almost every feature of the

shows, such as identifying with the characters

and learning about other people’s lives. Reds

however, watched in much smaller numbers.

In the case of Game of Thrones, which is at the

“When Reds watched

entertainment TV, they chose

shows that put them in a good

mood and had characters they

could identify with.”

13 See Appendix A for list of Entertainment TV Shows.

14 See Appendix D for lists of What They Like / Dislike About TV Shows and Emotional Responses to TV Shows.

15 See Appendix E for list of Film and TV Genres.

ENTERTAINMENT PREFERENCES AMONG BLUES, PURPLES & REDS

Exploring Entertainment

Preferences

Blues Purples Reds

Number of shows liked (Out of 50) 22 40 14

Number of enjoyable TV show features (Out of 9) 7 9 2

Number of genres liked (Out of 17) 13 14 6

Purples love watching TV, and they enjoy everything about the experience. Reds, conversely, watch far less and

enjoy fewer features of entertainment.

top of all three groups’ most-liked lists, we found that half as many Reds watched it than Blues or Purples.

When Reds watched entertainment TV, they chose shows that put them in a good mood and had characters

they could identify with. Blues rated most features of TV watching favorably and shared with Purples a

diverse taste.

Most & Least Watched Shows

Rob Drydek’s Fantasy Factory and Bad Girls Club were the least popular programs overall: these were the

only shows that less than 10% of all respondents had watched.

We found just two shows that were watched by about half of the people from all groups: The Simpsons

(watched by 60% of Blues, 59% of Purples, and 49% of Reds) and The Big Bang Theory (watched by 57% of

Blues, 52% of Purples, and 49% of Reds). Majorities of Blues (56%) and Purples (52%) watched Saturday

Night Live, a show viewed far less by Reds (33%). Blues and Purples also watched the animated Family

Guy and SpongeBob SquarePants at rates of about 40%. Over 40% of Blues also watched South Park, and

another 42% of Purples ranked The Tom and Jerry Show among shows they watched often enough to have

an opinion about.

MOST WATCHED SHOWS BY GROUP

Bones

Family Guy

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

Law & Order: SVU

Modern Family

Once Upon a Time

Saturday Night Live

Scandal

South Park

The Big Bang Theory

The Daily Show with Trevor Noah

The Simpsons

106 & Park

16 and Pregnant

Adventure Time

American Dad

American Horror Story

Bad Girls Club

Cake Boss

Criminal Minds

Dancing with the Stars

Duck Dynasty

Empire

Fast n' Loud

Game of Thrones

Grey's Anatomy

Keeping Up with the Kardashians

Love & Hip Hop

MythBusters

Orange is the New Black

Pretty Little Liars

Real Housewives of Atlanta

Ridiculousness

Rob Dyrdek's Fantasy Factory

So You Think You Can Dance

SpongeBob SquarePants

Supernatural

Teen Mom

The First 48

The Tom and Jerry Show

The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon

The Vampire Diaries

The Voice

The Walking Dead

Tosh.0

Wipeout

America's Funniest Home Videos

Deadliest Catch

NCIS

Pawn Stars

Purples voracious appetite for entertainment indicated, as they watched 34 of the 50 shows more than other

groups. Blues watched 12 and Reds just four more than others.

Most Liked & Disliked Shows

When asked to score the shows they’ve watched on a 100-point scale from hate it to love it, Purples tended

to give the highest scores: they rated almost half of the shows over 80 points, with 40 shows above 75. Blues

scored only nine shows over 80, and 22 over

75. Reds only gave six shows high scores, with

just 14 scoring above 75 points.

Blues and Purples liked Game of Thrones a

little bit more on average (89%) than Reds

(87%). However, only about half as many Reds

watched Game of Thrones (16%). Other shows

had similar small but devoted fan bases:

Empire and Pretty Little Liars received high

ratings from Reds, but they were also on Reds list of least watched shows. This may indicate that Reds who

have yet to discover these shows have a high likelihood of enjoying them. In the same vein, Rob Dyrdek’s

Fantasy Factory, Bad Girls’ Club, and Love & Hip Hop were not watched by many Purples, but, those who

watched liked them quite a bit, on average rating them above 80 on a 100-point scale.

When asked what they liked about their favorite shows, all groups gave their highest rankings to

characters, followed by story/plot. The groups then diverged:

 Blues liked humor and style/tone more than other groups

 Purples liked educational value more than other groups

 Reds liked emotional impact much less than other groups

Five shows got the lowest ratings from all the ideological groups: Keeping Up with the Kardashians, 106 &

Park, Pawn Stars, Grey's Anatomy and Scandal. When given the opportunity to specify what they disliked

about these shows, Blues and Reds mentioned the characters, style/tone and story/plot most frequently,

while Purples bemoaned the lack of educational value.

Cultural Touchstones & Fan Favorites

In our 2008 study, we found only one TV show that was equally beloved among ideological groups: Fox

TV’s long-running House. In that study we asked about the top 25 shows airing at the time of the survey;

in our 2018 study, we focused instead on 50 shows identiﬁed by the New York Times as the most popular

on Facebook in regions that corresponded to voting behavior in the 2016 election.

This list included

several shows that have demonstrated long-term mass appeal, often on a global scale.

Even with this

time-tested sample, we only discovered ﬁve shows that appealed to all ideological groups equally: that is,

there was no dierence among Blues, Purples and Reds in their likelihood to watch these shows, and they

rated them similarly. Interestingly, the lack of dierences between groups remained even after we factored

out the dierences attributable to demographics normally used to describe dierent audience segments

for shows, including gender, age and race. Given the many choices available for viewing widely dierent

programming, we think this is helpful news for social activists seeking change through storytelling, as one

show can reach literally millions of viewers across the political spectrum.

16 See Appendix A for list of all Entertainment TV Shows.

17 As reported in Katz, Josh (2016, December 27). ‘Duck Dynasty” vs. “Modern Family”: 50 Maps of the U.S. Cultural Divide. The New York Times:

Upshot section. Accessed 3/15/19: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/12/26/upshot/duck-dynasty-vs-modern-family-televi

sion-maps.htm?_r=0 Note: Katz’ 2016 article used the number of “likes” given to a show’s Facebook page as an indicator of “fandom.” He

obtained data on TV shows’ number of “likes” by active Facebook users in each US ZIP code, and he correlated that with voting data for

precincts in the same ZIP codes.

“This may indicate that Reds

who have yet to discover these

shows have a high likelihood of

enjoying them.”

For example:

 Criminal Minds, which we analyze at length below, was as likely to be watched by

Blues, Purples and Reds.

 America’s Funniest Home Videos was more popular with females, but there were no

dierences in viewership by ideological group or by age, race or ethnicity.

 Bones, the networks’ longest-running drama that aired from 2005 to 2017 and remains

available via streaming, was rated favorably by all who watched, and did not have signiﬁcantly

dierent viewership by demographic.

 MythBusters appealed to all ideological stripes, although it tended to be more popular with

younger white males.

 Pawn Stars, now in its ﬁfteenth season, had equal appeal for Blues, Purples and Reds, but

was more popular among white males. However, unlike the others, this is a show that people

equally love to hate. Viewership is high among all three ideological groups, but ratings are

low: in short, people are hate-watching Pawn Stars.

While we cannot describe it as a cultural

touchstone, because so few Reds watch it,

Game of Thrones distinguished itself as the

highest-rated show in our study. It was a fan

favorite among Blues, Purples and Reds.

Network & News Preferences

Most people watch networks based on their content preferences and presentation style, but allegiance to

just one or two channels has been associated with information “bubbles,” where they are only exposed to

a narrow range of choices and information.

The dierences in selection of preferred networks by Blues,

Purples and Reds reveal distinctly dierent appetites:

 Blues are by far the biggest viewers of MSNBC, watching this network at three times the

rate of Purples, and nearly ten times that of Reds. Blues also watch NBC twice as much as

Purples and 1.5 times as much as Reds. Blues prefer to get their news from network TV and

also news websites (CNN.com and MSNBC.com) more than other groups. They are also the

largest audience for NPR.

 Purples watch TNT at twice the rate of others, and they watch Univision almost ﬁve times

more than Reds and three times more than Blues, likely due to the group’s greater number

of Hispanics/Latinx. Purples also tend to watch ESPN signiﬁcantly more than other groups

and they enjoy international newspapers as well.

 Reds were over six times more likely than Blues, and almost twice as likely as Purples, to

watch Fox News. Reds also watch Hallmark, History and Ion signiﬁcantly more than others.

CNN, HBO and AMC are far less popular among Reds, and this group is the least likely to

say they use comedy news programs or national newspapers as a news source. Reds prefer

local TV news more than other groups, and radio is a more signiﬁcant news source for them

than for Blues.

18 See Appendix F for list of networks, and Appendix G for list of news sources.

19 Lulkin, Maiz. (2016, June 17). Fixing the ﬁlter bubble. Accessed 3/15/19: https://medium.com/@joaomilho/ﬁxing-the-ﬁlter-bubble-e360a2c9bfdc.

20 Analyses were conducted to determine likelihood of watching based on signiﬁcant dierences in odds ratios between groups (i.e., a measure

of association indicating a group’s probability compared to another group). We compared two groups at a time: Blue vs. Red, Purple vs. Red and

Blue vs. Purple to develop the models. The models controlled for basic demographics, including age, gender and race/ethnicity (white vs. others).

“People are hate-watching

Pawn Stars.”

Genre Preferences

Reds were fans of only ﬁve of 17 TV and ﬁlm genres, whereas Blues liked eight and Purples liked 14

genres.

The genres with the most appeal for all groups were action-adventure, comedy and drama.

Mysteries/thrillers, documentaries and science/nature programming also scored high for all groups, with

Blues favoring dramas and documentaries a bit more than Purples. All groups gave low scores to business

programs, talk shows and soap operas, but Reds liked talk shows even less than other groups.

GENRE PREFERENCES

Comedy Talk Shows Soap OperaAction/Adventure Mystery/Thriller Sports Reality

WHAT NETWORKS ARE THEY WATCHING?

MSNBC

CNN

FOX

CNN

Univision

HISTORY

HBO

MSNBC

ION

NBC HBO HALLMARK

AMC

TNT

NBC

AMC

ESPN

Each group is drawn to different networks with distinctly different types of programming.

Purples liked most genres more than both Blues and Reds.

21 See Appendix E for list of Film and TV Genres.

22 The roots of this research extend further back to scholars studying media gratiﬁcations in the 1940s (e.g., Cantril, 1942; Wolfe and Fiske, 1949).

See also Blumler, J. G., & McQuail, D. (1969). Television in Politics — Its Uses and Inﬂuence. Pp. xxvii, 379. Carter, R. E. (1969). In The Annals of

the American Academy of Political and Social Science. University of Chicago Press, 386(1), 221–222. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002716269386001

74, which laid the groundwork for what would come to be known as the Uses and Gratiﬁcations approach to media research.

Reasons for Tuning In

Developed by media scholars over 45 years ago,

communication studies’ Uses and Gratiﬁcation

construct

states that people seek out media that fulﬁlls emotional and informational needs.

In order to understand

what respondents get from the entertainment they most enjoy, we assessed

emotional gratiﬁcations

associated with TV watching.

Participants were asked if and how the following statements apply to them:

We found extreme dierences between the groups. Purples consistently gave higher ratings to all nine

of the possible reasons for watching their favorite shows, and what they liked about watching them. Reds

rated all items lower than other groups. Aside from the Purple tendency to like things most, and the Red

instinct to like things least, people generally said they most often enjoy watching shows that allow them to

identify with characters, that raise their mood or give them an adrenaline boost.

The TV shows and movies I

most enjoy …

What do you like about watching

your favorite shows?

inspire me to think about meaningful issues.

inspire me with new insights.

put me in a good mood.

inspire me to discuss show with others

after watching.

stimulate discussion with others while watching.

I enjoy the adrenaline boost.

I enjoy identifying with the characters.

I can experience feelings that are difcult for

me to allow in everyday life.

I like moments of sadness and poignancy.

25 See Bartsch, Anne & Vieho, Reinhold. (2010). The Use of Media Entertainment and Emotional Gratiﬁcation. Procedia - Social and Behavioral

Sciences. 5. 2247-2255. 10.1016/j. Accessed 3/15/19: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877042810018185.

26 See Appendix H for list of Viewing Behaviors: How, Why and Where They Watch.

23 Katz, E., Blumler, J. G., & Gurevitch, M. (1973). Uses and gratiﬁcations research. The Public Opinion Quarterly, 37(4), 509-523.

24 See Ruggiero, T. E. (2017). Uses and Gratiﬁcations Theory in the 21st Century. Reﬁning Milestone Mass Communications Theories for the 21st

Century, 36-70. Accessed 3/15/19: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233138016_Uses_and_Gratiﬁcations_Theory_in_the_21st_Century.

WHAT THEY LIKE ABOUT TV SHOWS AND MOVIES

Across all groups, people most like to watch TV because it puts them in a good mood.

Put in a good mood Sadness/poignancyIdentify w/characters Inspire thinking

While it is important to know what kind of content people are watching, understanding why people tune in

is essential to developing smart cultural strategies for social change. Social activists are far more likely to

be successful in their eort to create engaging content if they understand what their target audiences will

ﬁnd fulﬁlling.

Trends in Entertainment Preferences: 2008 vs. 2018

For the long-running shows we investigated

in 2008 that were still on the air in 2018, we

were interested in knowing if they attracted

similar audiences over the years, or if their

appeal had changed. This analysis uncovered

some intriguing shifts. The biggest dierences

in viewing patterns are found in shows that

feature topical comedy and commentary on

current events, including the late night shows:

 The Reds enjoy talk shows the least, but those who did watch NBC’s Saturday Night Live

in 2008 had ranked it their most preferred late night show. That same year, the Blues had

much preferred The Daily Show among the late nighters. Today we trace a switch, where

SNL now ranks highest among Blues and lowest among Reds.

 NBC’s The Tonight Show switched hosts from Jay Leno to Jimmy Fallon and the ideological

makeup of its audience shifted signiﬁcantly. In 2008, the show was in favor with Reds while

very few Blues ranked it as a preferred option. This ﬂipped in 2018, when Blues were most

likely to rank it among their favorites and Reds were least likely to do so.

Despite switching from Jon Stewart to Trevor Noah, Comedy Central’s The Daily Show remained most

popular among Blues and rarely watched by Reds. Other ﬁndings include:

 Fox’s The Simpsons and Family Guy remained most popular among Blues and least popular

among Reds.

 Long-running competition shows such as So You Think You Can Dance (Fox) and Dancing

with the Stars (ABC) remained among the most watched shows by Purples and the least

watched by Reds.

 ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy

remained mostly watched by Purples and least popular with Reds.

27 Soon to become longest running medical drama on primetime TV as reported in Dugan, C. (2019, February 28). Grey’s Anatomy Set to

Become the Longest-Running Primetime Medical Drama on TV - Surpassing ER! Accessed 3/15/19: https://people.com/tv/greys-anatomy-

longest-primetime-medical-drama/

“Understanding why people tune

in is essential to developing

smart cultural strategies.”

Anatomy of Three Crime Dramas

Police procedurals and legal dramas are the bread and butter of primetime lineups, drawing the largest

audiences in the US: an average of 112 million viewers tune-in each week for crime shows on network

television, with presumably millions more watching on streaming services.

To explore how dierent

ideological groups respond to the same shows, we chose three perennial police procedurals that were liked

by all three groups, and we compared current reactions to those of ten years ago.

Criminal Minds

Criminal Minds is the rare show that is equally favored among Blues, Purples and Reds, even when we

control for age, race and gender. All groups gave it an average score over 80 on the 100 point “liking”

scale, with at least one-third from each group reporting they watched it. The show was a preferred show for

18% of respondents in 2008, ranking highest with Purples followed by Blues and then Reds, and we found

the same pattern in 2018. Thus, Criminal Minds can be considered a color neutral show, appealing across

demographic and ideological groups. If a

social issue is covered on this show, it will

reach a broad range of viewers.

Further analysis of what each group

speciﬁcally liked about the show revealed

some common themes, but also some

interesting contrasts. For example, all groups

most frequently selected the characters as

what they liked best. After characters, Reds

were next most likely to say they liked the

style and tone, whereas Purples noted both

suspense and the educational value of the

show. Almost half of the Blues liked its

emotional impact and the way it makes them

feel. More than half of Blues indicated that

the emotional responses they most often

feel while watching are surprise, fear and sadness. Half of the Purples also felt surprise and fear, although

Purples were as likely to say they felt hope. Some 40% of Reds also felt surprise while watching the show,

but the fear, sadness and hope felt by the other groups were not reported as often by Reds. In fact, Reds’

second most frequently reported feeling was neutral while they watched this show. Reds and Purples also

selected disgust and anger far more often than Blues.

“Criminal Minds can be

considered a color neutral show,

appealing across demographic

and ideological groups. If a

social issue is covered on this

show, it will reach a broad range

of viewers.”

28 See the Media Impact Project’s forthcoming 2019 report: Racial Disparities in the Criminal Justice System: An Examination of Depictions in

Mainstream Television.

29 Due to dierences in how questions were posed and discrepancies between number and types of other shows investigated by both studies, these

comparisons are provided as indicators of general feelings and trends in viewership behavior.

The Purple group’s responses stood apart in several ways. Purples watched this show most often to learn

about other people’s lives; they were more likely to say it makes them feel inspired and helps them think

about their own lives more than other groups. Purples also enjoyed social viewing more than the other

groups. Blues most frequently watched Criminal Minds because it allowed them to experience things they

can’t in real life, while both Reds and Blues watched to forget about their own problems at double the rate

of Purples.

Law & Order: SVU vs. NCIS

Although both of these long-running police procedurals enjoy broad appeal, analysis revealed an

interesting fact: both today and ten years ago, NBC’s Law & Order: Special Victims Unit appealed more to

Blues, whereas the Reds -- the group that generally eschewed most entertainment programming -- watched

CBS’s NCIS at a higher rate than most other shows and more than other groups.

We found that just under

half of those who selected SVU as the show they liked best (n=152) were Blues (47%) while 35% were Reds.

Those who most liked the show were generally consistent in their reasons, praising the characters and its

story and plot most frequently. The emotion they reported feeling while viewing the show was surprise.

For NCIS, those numbers ﬂipped: of those who selected NCIS as the show they liked best (n=233), half were

Reds and one-third were Blues. Although Reds are generally infrequent TV watchers, NCIS appears to have

a special attraction for this group, perhaps related to the adrenaline boost that Reds say it provides. Still, all

fans agreed that the characters were what they enjoyed most, followed by its story/plot. Thus, we see that

despite diering values, priorities and interests in many of their outlooks, viewers were drawn to shows

with compelling characters and intriguing stories. Since this is the stock in trade of police procedurals,

these ﬁndings provide some evidence for why the subgenre remains a TV staple.

30 Only the two most watched shows for all groups (The Simpsons and The Big Bang Theory) were more likely to be watched by Reds.

Social Issues &

Entertainment Preferences

Participants were asked to select the three most and least important topics in the US today from a list of

19 topics.

The chart below shows the ﬁve selected most important overall, with the relative frequencies of

each group.

How Americans Rank Social Issues

Overall, health care/insurance is the number one concern Americans shared (45%) trailed at some distance

by terrorism/security (28%) and Social Security (24%). The healthcare ranking was in part driven by the

Blues, as Purples and Reds were more likely to rank terrorism/security as their top concern, with health

care second. Environment and education/schools were the second and third most frequently selected by

Blues; while Purples and Reds chose them far less frequently. Purples were more likely to select crime/

violence among their most important issues than other groups, while immigration was selected much

more frequently by Reds.

RANKING OF SOCIAL ISSUES

0% 10% 20% 40% 50% 60%30%

Healthcare/Insurance/

Prescription Drug

Prices

Terrorism/Security

28%

Social Security

24%

Immigration

22%

Jobs/Unemployment

21%

45%

On average, health care was selected as the most important issue to Americans, a result driven by Blues. Purples

and Reds more frequently selected security and terrorism as most important.

31 See Appendix B for full list of all Social and Political Issues.

Social Justice Issues

Despite some support from Blues, social justice issues related to race, gender and sexual discrimination

were not priority issues for Americans. In fact, a majority of Reds ranked these issues at the very bottom

of their priority lists, and Purples were aligned more closely with Reds than Blues in their lack of interest

in these topics. As for least important issues, Americans most frequently selected LGBTQ+ rights (41%)

overall, followed by gender equality (30%)

and utility rates/gas prices (29%). Reds and

Purples identiﬁed LGBTQ+ rights and gender

equality as their least important issues far

more frequently than Blues, who instead

selected utility rates and morality/values.

Reds were also the most likely to identify race

relations/discrimination as least important

to them.

For those working in the social justice media

space, this ﬁnding has serious implications:

instead of focusing chieﬂy on the best methods to harness media storytelling to shift social norms,

activists also need to convince Americans that social justice issues are actually important. This may mean

placing more emphasis on raising awareness of discrimination and its profound social impact as opposed to

proposing solutions to things that Americans don’t consider pressing problems. Further research should be

conducted to discover whether the chief reason these issues appear at the bottom of American priority lists

is that most Americans are more aware of the progress that has been made against race, gender and sexual

discrimination and less aware of continuing inequities and their eects.

“Despite some support from

Blues, social justice issues

related to race, gender and

sexual discrimination were not

priority issues for Americans.”

Patterns of Viewership

We wondered whether we could detect any unique viewing patterns common among those who held more

positive vs. more negative attitudes toward social justice topics.

Focusing on American attitudes toward

three key social justice topics – immigration, gender equality and race relations/discrimination – we

discovered distinct patterns of TV viewership.

Immigration: Those who believe immigrants want to work for a better life are more likely to watch

Saturday Night Live, The Tonight Show, Modern Family, Game of Thrones and The Daily Show. Those who

believe immigrants want to be handed a better life are more likely to watch Duck Dynasty. Regardless

of their view of immigrants’ motivations, those who believe immigration is among the top three most

important issues selected from our list of 19 had a much greater propensity to select The Walking Dead

as their best liked show.

Gender equality: Viewership of Saturday Night Live distinguishes those who believe men and women

should share parental and household duties equally. This group is also signiﬁcantly more likely to watch

NBC, CBS, HGTV and MSNBC. Those who believe a woman’s primary responsibility is to her children

and home were more likely to watch Fox News, CNN, ESPN and the History Channel. They were also

signiﬁcantly more likely to have been viewers of four reality TV shows: Wipeout, Ridiculousness, Cake Boss

and So You Think You Can Dance; two scripted shows, The Walking Dead and Adventure Time, and the music

video show 106 & Park.

Race Relations/Discrimination: Respondents who considered race among their most important issues were

more likely to say that their favorite shows were The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, Orange is the New Black,

Scandal and Fast N' Loud, a reality show about refurbishing old cars. Respondents who ranked race among

their least important issues preferred NCIS, The Big Bang Theory, The Walking Dead and Law & Order: SVU.

For social change activists, these ﬁndings can be practically applied. For example, if a group working

towards non-discrimination wanted to “rally the troops,” they should seek out audiences who care about

this issue, such as those who watch The Daily Show. Chances are these messages would not broaden

awareness, though, as this group already cares about race issues. Nevertheless, activists could remind

audiences to discuss these issues with friends and family members, and help to galvanize core supporters.

If that same group wanted to reach people who rank non-discrimination among their least important

concerns, then vaulting the ideological divide and getting a race relations storyline into an episode of

NCIS, which attracts an audience cold about your issue, could increase awareness.

Do Viewers Take Action?

Over half (59%) of the respondents said they had taken some action based on something they had learned

from a ﬁctional movie or TV show. These actions included having conversations with friends, family and

co-workers: a crucial step toward socializing new ideas that can lead to broader cultural shifts. These are

a clear sign of social engagement, which requires taking a position and using critical thinking to explore

the relevance and meaning of a story. Fictional stories and characters, in particular, provide a safe place to

explore unfamiliar issues or viewpoints and contemplate new ideas about how the world works, and how it

might work in the future.

Overall, one third of Americans said that they had sought more information about an issue after

encountering it in a ﬁctional story, demonstrating the porous boundary between ﬁction and fact. The

ability to focus mass attention may be mass media’s superpower: whether it intends to or not, mainstream

32 Comparisons in this section were made on subsets of the data: Viewing preferences of those who ranked each of these issues among either

their three most important or three least important issues.

33 Donald Trump’s Presidential campaign also discovered this association, as reported in Bertoni, S. (2016, November 23). Exclusive Interview: How

Jared Kushner Won Trump The White House. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenbertoni/2016/11/22/exclusive-interview-how-

jared-kushner-won-trump-the-white-house/#10452fc13af6

media sets de facto agendas as it produces and disseminates content. For example, it is unlikely that the

viewers who tuned into the “Witness” episode of Law & Order: SVU did so in order to learn about the

plight of asylum seekers, but a Lear Center study found that viewers increased their knowledge about US

immigration and asylum policies, as well as learning about conﬂict minerals.

While Blues are more likely to report that they had spoken to someone or sought more information, Purples

were far more likely than the other groups to have taken higher level actions, including making donations to

charity, volunteering, contacting newspapers and public ocials, and registering to vote - apparent signs that

they not only learn about political and social issues from ﬁctional entertainment they sometimes act on that

information. In comparison, Reds were generally the least likely to say that they had taken action.

Other Lear Center research has found that entertainment programming is particularly eective at shifting

attitudes and even overcoming ideological bias. In a 2017 study of USA’s popular scripted series Royal Pains,

we discovered that viewers of an episode about a transgender teen were more likely to have supportive

attitudes toward transgender people and policies than Royal Pains viewers who had not seen that episode.

We also found that there was a cumulative eect: the more entertainment storylines about transgender

issues that viewers had seen, the more supportive their attitudes were. Notably, exposure to news stories

34 Murphy, S.T., Hether, H.J., Felt, L.J., & Bungton, S.C. (2012). Public Diplomacy in Prime Time: Exploring the Potential of Entertainment

Education in International Public Diplomacy. American Journal of Media Psychology, 5, 5- 32.

ACTION TAKEN AFTER WATCHING FICTIONAL MOVIE OR TV SHOW

Viewers were most likely to talk with a friend or seek additional information. While far fewer called a politician,

consumer group or newspaper, Purples were always more likely to do so.

0% 10% 20% 40% 50% 60%30%

Sought more

information

Donated to a charity

or foundation

Joined volunteer group

Registered to vote

Contacted a newspaper

Filed a consumer

complaint

Contacted a

public official

Called in to radio or TV

talk show

Spoke with

friend, coworker,

family member

33%

43%

about transgender people and issues had no eect. The most compelling ﬁnding, however, was that

exposure to two entertainment storylines actually decreased the negative eect of ideological bias by half:

that is, politically conservative viewers who saw multiple shows featuring transgender characters had more

positive attitudes toward trans people than those who saw just one.

Self-ecacy & Entertainment Consumption

Inﬂuential psychologist Albert Bandura has published studies since the 1970’s demonstrating that

people’s sense of self-ecacy is aected by the media representations they encounter: when people

see individuals like themselves succeeding at something, they are more likely to believe that they can

do it, too.

This research

provides the evidence base

for eorts to diversify

demographic representations

in mainstream media.

In this survey, we included a set

of questions that gauge each

respondent’s sense of self-ecacy

by asking them to describe their

degree of conﬁdence in their

ability “to make a dierence” in

their home, local community, city, country and in other countries.

Focusing on the ideological groups, we

discovered that all groups were equally conﬁdent about their self-ecacy within their homes, but Purples

exhibited much higher levels of self-conﬁdence in every other geographical sphere, particularly in the

global context.

This ﬁnding appears to be in alignment with the fact that they were the most demographically diverse

group — with the most Asians and Hispanics/Latinx in their ranks -- and the most likely to consume

international news. Blues also consistently outpaced Reds in their sense of self-ecacy in every sphere

except for the home.

Setting aside the ideological groups, we also segmented all survey respondents based upon their level of

self-ecacy in making a dierence in their country. When we analyzed the entertainment preferences of

CONFIDENCE YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE

In your own home In your local

community

In your city In your state In your country In other countries

Cannot do this at all

Moderately

certain can do this

Highly certain can

do this

All groups tended to believe they could make a difference in their own homes, but Purples outpaced both groups

in believing they could help change things elsewhere.

“The wish-fulﬁllment fantasies on

display in Once Upon a Time may be

more appealing to people who have

modest ideas about their ability to

make a dierence on a national level.”

35 Gillig, TK., Rosenthal, E.L., Murphy, S.T., & Folb, K. L. (2017, August 2). More than a media moment: The inﬂuence of televised storylines on

viewers’ attitudes toward transgender people and policies. Sex Roles.

36 Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Englewood Clis, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

37 See Appendix C for list of Demographic and Psychographic items

these subgroups we discovered that many liked the same perennial favorites – including NCIS, The Big

Bang Theory and Criminal Minds but there were some statistically signiﬁcant dierences, as well.

Respondents with high self-ecacy levels were more likely to be fans of Empire, Pretty Little Liars and

Law & Order: SVU, while those with low self-ecacy said they enjoyed Once Upon a Time, The First 48 and

Orange is the New Black. Two

of these shows were particularly

polarizing: Once Upon a Time

was ranked low among those

with high ecacy and Pretty

Little Liars was distinctly

unpopular among those with

low ecacy. One potential

(tantalizing) explanation for this

is that people with high self-

conﬁdence about their ability to

aect the course of a nation are

drawn to the type of Machiavellian storylines that typify Pretty Little Liars and Empire. The wish-fulﬁllment

fantasies on display in Once Upon a Time may be more appealing to people who have modest ideas about

their ability to make a dierence on a national level.

Calls to Action

Strategists working for social change through pop culture should take into account levels of self-ecacy

among priority audiences when tailoring messages. Generally, those with high self-ecacy respond well to

messages that provide concrete information about how to get involved to work toward change.

Activists

who are working on global social justice campaigns could, for instance, craft more intense calls to action

(such as signing a petition, contacting a government representative or attending an event) when targeting

Purples. Reds would likely be a harder group to incite to action around global issues, and so more local

calls to action would probably be more successful. People with lower levels of self-ecacy may be better

motivated to take action by stories that feature people like themselves making a real dierence.

Knowing

speciﬁc entertainment preferences among these subgroups (such as a predilection for Once Upon a Time)

enables activists to make more informed decisions about which TV shows to approach with relevant

initiatives and campaigns.

Purples, in particular, represent an ideal target group for activists hoping to leverage the power of entertainment

for social change. Purples account for about one in ﬁve Americans – a giant audience segment in the current

highly-fragmented media landscape. Given their voracious appetite for entertainment TV, Purples are

easily reached through mainstream entertainment content, and several attributes of this group make them

ideal for social change campaigns, including their high self-ecacy, their respect for the educational value

of entertainment TV and their self-reported openness to learning about political and social issues from

entertainment programming. As a swing group, the Purples appear to be the most ideologically ﬂuid:

their lack of rigid allegiance to a single political party may signal the kind of open-mindedness that social

change activists require in order to move the needle in public sentiment toward social justice issues.

38 Bandura, A. (1977) Self-ecacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. Psychological Review. 84(2), 191-215. DOI:10.1037/0033-

295X.84.2.191 Accessed 3/15/19: http://culturalmeded.stanford.edu/pdf%20docs/Bandura1977%20SelfEcacy%20for%20Behavioral%20Change.pdf

39 Bandura, A. (1982). Self-ecacy mechanism in human agency. American Psychologist, 37(2), 122-147. DOI:10.1037/0003-066X.37.2.122 Accessed

3/15/19: https://www.uky.edu/~eushe2/Bandura/Bandura1982AP.pdf

“Those with high self-ecacy respond

well to messages that provide concrete

information about how to get involved

to work toward change.”

The primary goal of this research is to provide actionable insights to people using cultural strategies to

achieve social change. Here are some examples of how this research project can help artists and activists

in media, entertainment, journalism, advertising and philanthropy:

Understanding Your Audience

 Some audiences are easier to reach than others. Use this data to identify where audiences

receptive to your message are tuning in. Use the openness indicators to inform your strategy.

 Know your limits – you can’t reach everyone, and you can’t change everyone’s mind.

Understanding who might be too dicult (or too expensive) to reach will help you develop

realistic strategies.

 Knowing ahead of time whether there is more likely to be resistance to a social

justice storyline can be tremendously helpful to storytellers who hope to change hearts

and minds.

 Even "members of the choir" – those who may already share a progressive vision – need

to be cultivated and reminded about the important social consequences of discrimination

and inequality. If a TV show is associated with viewers who hold progressive views on

social justice topics, that should not stop social justice advocates from working with the

show; instead, it should inform the strategy for doing so.

Segmenting Your Audience

 Decoding the media habits of your target audience can help you locate them: like

commercial marketers, activists can be more eective if they know where their audience is

already tuning in. Understanding their entertainment preferences, in particular, can help

you devise storytelling strategies that will resonate with them.

 The key is ﬁnding out not only what your target audience is watching, but why. For

example, although Reds are infrequent TV watchers, they do watch NCIS which they say

provides them with an adrenaline boost. Prioritizing this element in future content could

help attract and retain a conservative audience, which can be dicult to reach through

entertainment TV.

 Use knowledge about values and entertainment preferences to deﬁne the target audiences

critical to the success of your campaign.

How To Use This Research

 Explore the media preferences of those who say your issue is not important to them. Put

your key issues on your audience’s radar by working with existing shows to introduce

compelling characters and stories that will raise awareness.

Locating Mass Audiences

 If your goal is to reach a very broad audience, consider working with shows like Criminal

Minds that appeal across ideological divides.

 We identiﬁed ﬁve shows that could be considered cultural touchstones: if your plan is

to develop content that brings divergent political groups together, study the distinctive

features of these shows, and consider what they might have in common.

Activating Your Audience

 Don’t shy away from issuing explicit calls to action to groups with high self-ecacy.

 Develop and mobilize engaging characters to provide behavior modeling to groups with

low self-ecacy. Use compelling storytelling to let them know they, too, can play a role in

improving the world.

 Regardless of your target audience, consider devising a Purple strategy. Given their high

self-ecacy and their voracious appetite for entertainment TV, a pop culture strategy would

likely beneﬁt from a focus on this ideological swing group, which is open to learning things

from entertainment content.

Conclusion

This research project conﬁrms that one of the most important things to know about someone is their taste:

what they chose to do during their leisure time, for their own personal pleasure. We discovered how people

allocate their attention, a valuable currency in our highly fragmented media landscape, but we have also

explored the stories and characters that engage dierent types of people, as well as how they experienced

that engagement – whether it was through laughter, tears or white-knuckle suspense.

Further understanding of the complex relationship between our leisure time passions and the values and

convictions that shape our understanding of the world should be a priority for those using pop culture

strategies for social change. Activists who hope to promote just and humane narratives about groups of

people historically excluded in American society can utilize this report to inform partnership strategies

with the entertainment industry, as well as savvy content development and distribution.

This report provides important overarching ﬁndings, but it includes only a few snapshots illustrating the

types of data analyses that can be conducted on this wide-ranging dataset. A glance at the Appendices will

reveal the breadth of social issues, news sources, networks, genres, viewing behaviors and demographic

data that can be mined to answer questions as varied as:

 What are the most popular genres among people who are concerned about health care?

 What TV shows are binge-watched by people who say they learn about social issues

through ﬁctional programming?

 What are the media diets of people under 30 who have high self-ecacy?

Any of the 37 social issues we tracked could be used as the focal point for a corresponding pattern of

entertainment preferences and psychographic, demographic and political proﬁles.

Alternately, the

dataset could be used to conduct a deep dive into the priorities, beliefs and other shared characteristics

unique to the fanbase of a particular show.

Next Steps

During Phase Two, we will use Phase One survey results and content coding to help select the set of shows,

locations and key scenes for event locking narrative nodes for the biometric ﬁeld study. Steps include:

 User-testing the full tech pipeline for the mobile biometric lab with multi-modal sensor

integration (biophysical, EEG, eye-tracking, facial recognition & GSR data).

40 See appendices for full lists of items and categories.

 Creating data models and a database for capturing dynamic biological signatures as well as

survey analysis and story coding.

 Designing and running the biometric ﬁeld study with ﬁve cultural touchstones in at

least three regions of the country that surfaced in Phase One survey results as high

concentration areas across the ideological spectrum (e.g., California, New York and Florida).

 Collecting and analyzing data to correlate self-reporting from survey analysis with

unconscious biological responses and story coding for drafting a full report on our ﬁndings.

 Generating predictive models based on neural networks to isolate narrative ingredients

more likely to lead to altruistic engagement with speciﬁc demographics/psychographic

proﬁles.

 Designing an interactive installation, entitled “This is Your Brain on Episodic TV” to render

data science and media eects research more accessible to lay audiences.

41 The University of Southern California’s Internal Review Board (IRB) reviewed the study for conduct on Human Subjects, and granted exempt status.

42 See Appendix A for list of Entertainment TV Shows.

43 Curated by panel provider, Cint, to align to census proportions.

44 Our survey also collected ZIP codes and other geographic location data which will be analyzed and included in our report on ﬁndings for Phase 2.

45 We contracted with a national panel provider to locate respondents from all 50 states, keeping gender, age and race/ethnicity in proportion with

census data. Most respondents completed the survey in 20 minutes.

46 See Appendix B for full list of Social and Political Issues investigated in the current study.

Methods

This study combined survey research on 50 TV shows with questions on ideological beliefs and voting

behaviors.

Selection of shows based on social media preferences was inspired by a 2016 New York

Times research project, which found that Americans’ TV viewing preferences show distinct patterns that

correspond with regional political views.

The Times ﬁndings closely aligned with insights from the Lear

Center’s prior research studies, in partnership with Zogby Analytics (2007, 2008), which explored how

Americans’ entertainment habits track with their political values. While both sets of research oer useful

insights into correlations between entertainment habits and political views, their methodologies were

quite dierent: the Times’ study combined aggregated datasets on the top “liked” shows on Facebook with

voting records by ZIP code, while the Lear Center surveyed a nationwide sample

to assess patterns of

dierences among individuals.

Thus, our study delves deeper into individual beliefs, attitudes and values

as well as their viewing preferences and behaviors. By utilizing the same list of 50 shows, we will be able to

make direct comparisons to the New York Times’ results in Phase Two.

The survey was conducted from August 20th - September 10th of 2018, with 3,096 adult participants

proportionally matched to the US population for age, gender, race/ethnicity, and geographically

representative of all 50 states.

At a 95% level of conﬁdence, our sample carries a margin of error of +/- 1.8%.

Diagnosing Ideology

Following a brief introduction about the purpose of the study and age veriﬁcation, participants were asked

to indicate which among a set of 28 paired statements came closest to their personal beliefs and how much

they agreed. To force respondents to “pick a side,” no midpoint was oered. Thus, they could strongly

or slightly agree with either side of diametrically opposed positions on key social and economic issues

widely debated in politics and the news media.

This provides a far more nuanced portrait of ideological

proclivities than political party registration or self-reported labels, such as “moderate” or “conservative.”

For 25 of these dialectical pairs, we have comparison data from a decade ago from a similar nationwide

survey (n=3,167). Both studies used an iterative clustering technique to discover distinct groups based on

respondents’ attitudes toward social, economic and political issues. In both instances, three groupings

(or clusters) were found to have distinct in-group similarities making it possible to assess longitudinal

changes in the beliefs and attitudes, as well as the demographic composition, of these groups over the

past decade.

47 See Appendices for full details.

48 List drawn from NY Times study which indicated Americans’ TV viewing preferences show distinct patterns that correspond with regional

political views. See Katz, Josh (2016, December 27). ‘Duck Dynasty” vs. “Modern Family”: 50 Maps of the U.S. Cultural Divide. The New York

Times: Upshot section. Accessed 3/15/19: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/12/26/upshot/duck-dynasty-vs-modern-family-television

-maps.htm?_r=0

49 Bartsch, Anne & Vieho, Reinhold. (2010). The Use of Media Entertainment and Emotional Gratiﬁcation. Procedia - Social and Behavioral

Sciences.5.2247-2255.10.1016/j.sbspro.2010.07.444.

50 K-means works by partitioning n number of participants into k clusters by minimizing the sum of squared distances between the data points and

their distance to the cluster with the nearest mean. In neither of our studies did we specify the number of clusters a priori; yet in each study we

derived three groups for which comparisons between studies reveal substantial similarities.

Other sections of the survey addressed myriad media and entertainment preferences, including descriptions

of what they liked about their favorite television shows and how often they watched them, as well as

psychographic and demographic questions.

Entertainment Preferences

Following the ideological items, participants were asked to indicate which of the 50 shows

(Appendix A)

they have watched enough to have an opinion. In order to increase engagement and recall, cover images

for each show were provided. For each of the shows selected, participants were asked to indicate how much

they disliked or liked them on a 100-point sliding scale. For their highest-rated show in each genre, a series

of follow-up questions probed their viewing habits and what they liked and experienced while watching

each show (Appendix H). Follow-up questions were asked about the shows they liked and disliked most.

To investigate broader entertainment preferences and habits, participants were asked how much they liked

each of 17 ﬁlm and television genres (Appendix E) on a 5-point scale; other items asked which networks

(Appendix F) they watched most often, how often they watched the news, and which news sources

(Appendix G) they preferred; how many hours they typically spent watching entertainment TV shows each

week; and what viewing platforms (Appendix H) they use. A shortened version of Bartsch’s (2012) Uses and

Gratiﬁcations instrument

was used to investigate why respondents enjoy their favorite shows. Openness

to dierent types of programming and viewing experiences were assessed on a scale from never to very

often, and respondents were asked to indicate what action(s) they had ever taken in response to learning

something from a ﬁctional movie or TV show.

Psychographics, Demographics & Politics

Overall life satisfaction and happiness were investigated using a series of questions with four-point

response scales, and respondents were asked questions determining levels of self-ecacy in various

contexts, from local to global. Basic demographic data was collected as well as information about political

identiﬁcation and behavior, including political party, basic ideology, voting and priority issues (Appendix C).

Data Analysis

Data was downloaded from Qualtrics into SAS for cluster analysis.

Once clusters were iterated, a variable

was created to allow segmentation and comparisons between groups. Comparative analyses were conducted

by the research team using SAS, SPSS and Excel.

Appendix A: Entertainment TV Shows

TV Show (Network) Category

106 & Park (BET) Factual

16 and Pregnant (MTV) Reality

Adventure Time (Cartoon Network) Animated

America’s Funniest Home Videos (ABC) Reality Comedy

American Dad! (TBS) Animated

American Horror Story (FX) Fantasy / Horror

Bad Girls Club (Oxygen) Reality

Bones (Fox) Dramatic

Cake Boss (TLC) Reality

Criminal Minds (CBS) Dramatic

Dancing with the Stars (ABC) Reality Competition

Deadliest Catch (Discovery) Reality

Duck Dynasty (A&E) Reality

Empire (Fox) Dramatic

Family Guy (Fox) Animated

Fast n’ Loud (Discovery) Reality

Game of Thrones (HBO) Fantasy / Horror

Grey’s Anatomy (ABC) Dramatic

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (FX) Comedy

Keeping Up with the Kardashians (E!) Reality

Law & Order: SVU (NBC) Dramatic

Love & Hip Hop (VH1) Reality

Modern Family (ABC) Comedy

MythBusters (Discovery) Factual

NCIS (CBS) Dramatic

Once Upon a Time (ABC) Fantasy / Horror

Orange is the New Black (Netﬂix) Dramatic

Pawn Stars (History) Reality

Appendix

Pretty Little Liars (Freeform) Dramatic

Real Housewives of Atlanta (Bravo) Reality

Ridiculousness (MTV) Reality Comedy

Rob Dyrdek’s Fantasy Factory (MTV) Reality

Saturday Night Live (NBC) Late Night Show

Scandal (ABC) Dramatic

So You Think You Can Dance (Fox) Reality Competition

South Park (Comedy Central) Animated

SpongeBob SquarePants (Nickelodeon) Animated

Supernatural (The CW) Fantasy / Horror

Teen Mom (MTV) Reality

The Big Bang Theory (CBS) Comedy

The Daily Show with Trevor Noah (Comedy Central) Late Night Show

The First 48 (A&E) Factual

The Simpsons (Fox) Animated

The Tom and Jerry Show (Cartoon Network) Animated

The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon (NBC) Late Night Show

The Vampire Diaries (The CW) Fantasy / Horror

The Voice (NBC) Reality Competition

The Walking Dead (AMC) Fantasy / Horror

Tosh.0 (Comedy Central) Reality Comedy

Wipeout (ABC) Reality Competition

Appendix B: Social and Political Issues

Abortion Armative Action

Budget deﬁcit Civil Rights

Constitutional issues Crime / Violence

Diplomacy / Foreign policy Drug addiction / Opioid epidemic

Education / Schools Environmental protection

Equality Free trade

Freedom Gender equality

Government regulations Government spending

Gun control Health care / Insurance / Prescription drug prices

Home prices / Gentriﬁcation / Homelessness Immigration

International relations Islam

Jobs / Unemployment LGBTQ+ rights

Morality / Values Police

Race relations / Discrimination Religion

Social Security Taxes

Technology Terrorism / Security

Utility rates / Gas prices War on Terror

Welfare / Child care

Appendix C: Demographics and Psychographics

Demographics: Psychographics:

Age Happiness

Gender Openness

Race / Ethnicity Satisfaction

Education Self-Ecacy

Income Spirituality

Religion

State

ZIP code

Voting habit

Appendix D: What They Like / Dislike About TV Shows and Emotional Responses to TV Shows

What they like / dislike: Emotional responses:

Characters Amusement

Educational value Anger

Emotional impact Contempt

Humor Disgust

Story/Plot Fear

Style/Tone Guilt

Suspense Hope

Joy

Sadness

Shame

Surprise

Appendix E: Film and Television Genres

Action Adventure Drama Science & Nature

Arts Educational Sci Fi & Fantasy

Business Game Show Soap Opera

Children Horror Sports

Comedy Mystery & Thriller Talk Shows

Documentary Reality

Appendix F: Networks

ABC Fox News NBC

AMC FX Nickelodeon

CBS Hallmark TBS

CNN HBO Telemundo

CW HGTV TNT

Discovery History Univision

Disney Investigation Discovery USA

ESPN Ion

Fox MSNBC

Appendix G: News Sources

National newspapers Breitbart News Network

Local newspapers CNN

International newspapers Drudge Report

Spanish-language newspapers Fox News

Radio Hungton Post

Local TV news MSNBC

Network TV news New York Times

Cable TV news NPR News

Comedy news programs USA Today

News websites Wall Street Journal

Blogs

Social media

Appendix H: Viewing Behaviors - How, Why and Where They Watch

How they watch: Why they watch: Where they watch:

Binge-watching Emotional release Regular broadcast

Live viewing Escapism Cable

Social viewing Inspiration Satellite

Second-screening Laughter Streaming device

Time-shifting Learn about others’ lives Streaming subscription

Viewing frequency Passive viewing Other streaming service

Relaxation Pay-per-view

Reduce loneliness Free online

Self-reﬂection

Vicarious experience

mediaimpactproject.org

learcenter.orgfutureperfectlab.com