Hollywood Values
Public opinion and foreign policy: The effects of celebrity endorsements
Craig Frizzell
Social Science Journal, forthcoming
Abstract:
Celebrities often use their popularity to advance international causes, but do they have an effect on public opinion regarding foreign policy? This study uses an experimental method to test whether a statement by Bono of the rock band U2 regarding a fictional foreign policy crisis influences public opinion more than a traditional political elite. Experimental participants were less likely to support the specific position advocated and less likely to be interested in following the crisis in the news when the statement came from Bono, though the results are dependent on party identification and how the scenario was framed.
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Marriage Choices of Movie Stars: Does Spouse's Education Matter?
Gustaf Bruze
Journal of Human Capital, Spring 2011, Pages 1-28
Abstract:
Marital sorting on education is an important but poorly understood source of inequality. This paper analyzes a group of men and women who do not meet their spouses in school, are not sorted by education in the workplace, and whose earnings are not correlated with their years of education. Nevertheless, movie actors marry spouses with an education similar to their own. These findings suggest that male and female preferences alone induce considerable sorting on education in marriage and that men and women have very strong preferences for nonfinancial partner traits correlated with years of education.
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Bye, Bye, Miss American Pie? The Supply of New Recorded Music Since Napster
Joel Waldfogel
NBER Working Paper, March 2011
Abstract:
In the decade since Napster, file-sharing has undermined the protection that copyright affords recorded music, reducing recorded music sales. What matters for consumers, however, is not sellers' revenue but the surplus they derive from new music. The legal monopoly created by copyright is justified by its encouragement of the creation of new works, but there is little evidence on this relationship. The file-sharing era can be viewed as a large-scale experiment allowing us to check whether events since Napster have stemmed the flow of new works. We assemble a novel dataset on the number of high quality works released annually, since 1960, derived from retrospective critical assessments of music such best-of-the-decade lists. This allows a comparison of the quantity of new albums since Napster to 1) its pre-Napster level, 2) pre-Napster trends, and 3) a possible control, the volume of new songs since the iTunes Music Store's revitalization of the single. We find no evidence that changes since Napster have affected the quantity of new recorded music or artists coming to market. We reconcile stable quantities in the face of decreased demand with reduced costs of bringing works to market and a growing role of independent labels.
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Laramie Taylor & Tiffany Setters
Sex Roles, forthcoming
Abstract:
The impact of exposure to media representations of aggressive, attractive, female protagonists on audiences' gender role expectations for women was explored through a laboratory experiment with 122 undergraduates from a large university on the west coast of the United States. Participants viewed a segment of a major Hollywood motion picture that featured a female protagonist who was either highly attractive or less attractive and either highly aggressive or not aggressive. Viewing clips featuring a female protagonist who was both aggressive and stereotypically attractive led to greater endorsement of stereotypically feminine and stereotypically masculine gender role expectations for women. The effect on endorsement of stereotypically masculine expectations was partially mediated by the perception that the protagonist was a good role model for women. Although women endorsed both feminine and masculine gender role expectations for women more strongly than men, the effects of exposure to aggressive, attractive, female protagonists were similar for both male and female participants. Results are discussed in terms of gender stereotype activation and superwoman expectations for women.
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The Role of Actors' Race in White Audiences' Selective Exposure to Movies
Andrew Weaver
Journal of Communication, April 2011, Pages 369-385
Abstract:
Movie producers are often reluctant to cast more than a few minority actors in otherwise race-neutral movies for fear that the White audience will largely avoid such films. Two experiments were conducted to test the idea that the racial makeup of a cast could influence White audiences' selective exposure to movies. Results revealed that actors' race does influence selective exposure in certain contexts. For nonromantic movies, participants' racial attitudes moderated the relationship between race and selective exposure. For romantic movies, regardless of racial attitudes, White participants showed significantly less interest in seeing movies with mostly Black casts than in seeing movies with mostly White casts. These findings are discussed in light of both social identity theory and social cognitive theory.
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Nicole Martins & Kristen Harrison
Communication Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
A longitudinal panel survey of 396 White and Black preadolescent boys and girls was conducted to assess the long-term effects of television consumption on global self-esteem. The results revealed television exposure, after controlling for age, body satisfaction, and baseline self-esteem, was significantly related to children's self-esteem. Specifically, television exposure predicted a decrease in self-esteem for White and Black girls and Black boys, and an increase in self-esteem among White boys. The findings are discussed in terms of cultivation theory and social identity theory.
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Jacob Turner
Sex Roles, February 2011, Pages 173-191
Abstract:
This content analysis used two studies to examine sexual behaviors and sex role portrayals in music videos televised in the United States. The first study included 120 videos recorded from MTV, MTV2, VH-1, BET, and CMT and revealed African American videos were significantly more likely to portray sexual content and female characters in provocative clothing than White videos. The second study analyzed 20 videos from BET's late-night program, Un:Cut. Results revealed Un:Cut videos depicted seven times as many sexual acts and featured significantly more discouraged sexual behaviors than videos from the five major music video channels. Findings from these studies clarify that race is an important factor when gender roles and sexual content are examined in music videos.
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Television Commercial Violence: Potential Effects on Children
Deanne Brocato et al.
Journal of Advertising, Winter 2010, Pages 95-108
Abstract:
Past research has demonstrated that a significant amount of television ads targeted at children have violent content (Shanahan, Hermans, and Hyman 2003). However, little is known about the potentially harmful effects of television commercial violence. To shed light on this important issue, the present research discusses results of multiple focus groups (with children ages 8 to 12 years old and with the parents of these children) and an experimental study. Although parents and children who participated in the focus groups appeared to have few concerns with the potential negative effects of violence in television advertising, the experimental findings indicate that children may be adversely affected by it. Specifically, when exposed to ads with violent content in the focal experiment, subjects (ages 8 to 12) were more apt to generate aggressive cognitions (than when exposed to ads without violent content).
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Brian Primack et al.
Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, April 2011, Pages 360-365
Objective: To use ecological momentary assessment techniques to measure the association of major depressive disorder (MDD) with media use.
Design: Data were collected using an ecological momentary assessment protocol with cellular telephone-based brief interviews.
Setting: Participants received as many as 60 telephone calls from a trained staff member during 5 extended weekends in an 8-week period.
Participants: One hundred six adolescent participants who were part of a larger neurobehavioral study of depression in Pittsburgh from January 1, 2003, through December 31, 2008.
Main Exposure: At each call, participants were asked whether they were using the following 5 types of media: television or movies, music, video games, Internet, and print media, such as magazines, newspapers, and books.
Main Outcome Measures: We developed multivariable models to determine the independent association of each type of media use with MDD, controlling for sociodemographic variables.
Results: Of the 106 participants, 46 were diagnosed as having MDD. In multivariable models controlling for age, sex, and race, each increasing quartile of audio use was associated with an 80% increase in the odds of having MDD (odds ratio, 1.8; 95% confidence interval, 1.1-2.8; P = .01 for trend). Conversely, each increasing quartile of print media use was associated with a 50% decrease in the odds of having MDD (odds ratio, 0.5; 95% confidence interval, 0.3-0.9; P = .009 for trend).
Conclusions: Major depressive disorder is positively associated with popular music exposure and negatively associated with reading print media such as books. Further research elucidating the directionality and strength of these relationships may help advance understanding of the relationships between media use and MDD.
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Heroism: A conceptual analysis and differentiation between heroic action and altruism
Zeno Franco, Kathy Blau & Philip Zimbardo
Review of General Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Heroism represents the ideal of citizens transforming civic virtue into the highest form of civic action, accepting either physical peril or social sacrifice. While implicit theories of heroism abound, surprisingly little theoretical or empirical work has been done to better understand the phenomenon. Toward this goal, we summarize our efforts to systematically develop a taxonomy of heroic subtypes as a starting point for theory building. Next we explore three apparent paradoxes that surround heroism - the dueling impulses to elevate and negate heroic actors; the contrast between the public ascription of heroic status versus the interior decision to act heroically; and apparent similarities between altruism, bystander intervention and heroism that mask important differences between these phenomena. We assert that these seeming contradictions point to an unrecognized relationship between insufficient justification and the ascription of heroic status, providing more explanatory power than risk-type alone. The results of an empirical study are briefly presented to provide preliminary support to these arguments. Finally, several areas for future research and theoretical activity are briefly considered. These include the possibility that extension neglect may play a central role in public's view of nonprototypical heroes; a critique of the positive psychology view that heroism is always a virtuous, prosocial activity; problems associated with retrospective study of heroes; the suggestion that injury or death (particularly in social sacrifice heroes) serves to resolve dissonance in favor of the heroic actor; and a consideration of how to foster heroic imagination.
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Do Marketing Media Have Life Cycles? The Case of Product Placement in Movies
Ekaterina Karniouchina, Can Uslay & Grigori Erenburg
Journal of Marketing, May 2011, Pages 27-48
Abstract:
This article examines the economic worth of product placement in movies over a time span of 40 years (1968-2007). The authors find an inverted U-shaped relationship between the year of the movie release and the returns associated with product placements. In addition, a similar inverted U-shaped relationship characterizes the economic worth of tie-in campaigns associated with product placements. These findings are consistent with the habituation-tedium theory used to explain the inverted U-shaped pattern in response to novel advertisements and suggest that the same mechanism could be influencing the response to an entire marketing medium. Overall, the results reinforce the notion that marketers find it increasingly difficult to get their message across using traditional media and underscore the need for the marketing industry to reinvent itself when new tactics lose their luster. The authors conclude with a discussion of additional empirical regularities.
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The Chinese Ugly Betty: TV cloning and local modernity
Anthony Fung & Xiaoxiao Zhang
International Journal of Cultural Studies, May 2011, Pages 265-276
Abstract:
This article examines the themes inherent in the serial Ugly Wudi, a Chinese version of the Ugly Betty. By comparing the Chinese version with its American counterpart, conducting interviews with producers of Ugly Wudi and audience focus groups, this article analyses the modifications made by the producers in Ugly Wudi. After conducting in-depth interviews with the producers, examining audience reactions and analysing the context of the show, the authors argue that the modifications in the Chinese version are deliberately made to suit the local understanding and acceptance of modern television dramas. Unlike Ugly Betty, Ugly Wudi is positioned within a more politically restrictive but rapidly liberalizing economic climate. Thus Ugly Wudi bears the marks of attempts to merge the demands of market forces with those of the paternalistic state, as its producers seek to embrace the global popular aesthetics of modern television dramas.
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The Value of Fast Fashion: Quick Response, Enhanced Design, and Strategic Consumer Behavior
Gérard Cachon & Robert Swinney
Management Science, April 2011, Pages 778-795
Abstract:
A fast fashion system combines quick response production capabilities with enhanced product design capabilities to both design "hot" products that capture the latest consumer trends and exploit minimal production lead times to match supply with uncertain demand. We develop a model of such a system and compare its performance to three alternative systems: quick-response-only systems, enhanced-design-only systems, and traditional systems (which lack both enhanced design and quick response capabilities). In particular, we focus on the impact of each of the four systems on "strategic" or forward-looking consumer purchasing behavior, i.e., the intentional delay in purchasing an item at the full price to obtain it during an end-of-season clearance. We find that enhanced design helps to mitigate strategic behavior by offering consumers a product they value more, making them less willing to risk waiting for a clearance sale and possibly experiencing a stockout. Quick response mitigates strategic behavior through a different mechanism: by better matching supply to demand, it reduces the chance of a clearance sale. Most importantly, we find that although it is possible for quick response and enhanced design to be either complements or substitutes, the complementarity effect tends to dominate. Hence, when both quick response and enhanced design are combined in a fast fashion system, the firm typically enjoys a greater incremental increase in profit than the sum of the increases resulting from employing either system in isolation. Furthermore, complementarity is strongest when customers are very strategic. We conclude that fast fashion systems can be of significant value, particularly when consumers exhibit strategic behavior.
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Media Multitasking Behavior: Concurrent Television and Computer Usage
Adam Brasel & James Gips
Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, forthcoming
Abstract:
Changes in the media landscape have made simultaneous usage of the computer and television increasingly commonplace, but little research has explored how individuals navigate this media multitasking environment. Prior work suggests that self-insight may be limited in media consumption and multitasking environments, reinforcing a rising need for direct observational research. A laboratory experiment recorded both younger and older individuals as they used a computer and television concurrently, multitasking across television and Internet content. Results show that individuals are attending primarily to the computer during media multitasking. Although gazes last longer on the computer when compared to the television, the overall distribution of gazes is strongly skewed toward very short gazes only a few seconds in duration. People switched between media at an extreme rate, averaging more than 4 switches per min and 120 switches over the 27.5-minute study exposure. Participants had little insight into their switching activity and recalled their switching behavior at an average of only 12 percent of their actual switching rate revealed in the objective data. Younger individuals switched more often than older individuals, but other individual differences such as stated multitasking preference and polychronicity had little effect on switching patterns or gaze duration. This overall pattern of results highlights the importance of exploring new media environments, such as the current drive toward media multitasking, and reinforces that self-monitoring, post hoc surveying, and lay theory may offer only limited insight into how individuals interact with media.
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Personification in Advertising: Using a Visual Metaphor to Trigger Anthropomorphism
Marjorie Delbaere, Edward McQuarrie & Barbara Phillips
Journal of Advertising, Spring 2011, Pages 121-130
Abstract:
All forms of personification draw on anthropomorphism, the propensity to attribute human characteristics to objects. In an experiment, we show that visual personification - pictures in an ad that metaphorically represent a product as engaged in some kind of human behavior - can trigger anthropomorphism. Such personification, when embedded in an ad, appears to lead to more positive emotions, more positive attributions of brand personality, and greater brand liking. Implications for advertisers are discussed.
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The Impact of Price Discrimination on Revenue: Evidence from the Concert Industry
Pascal Courty & Mario Pagliero
Review of Economics and Statistics, forthcoming
Abstract:
Concert tickets can either be sold at the same price or at different prices reflecting different seating categories. Price discrimination generates about 5 percent greater revenues than single-price ticketing. The return to price discrimination is higher in markets with greater demand heterogeneity, as predicted by price discrimination theory. The return to an increase from three to four concert seat categories is roughly half that of an increase from one to two.
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Cultural variation in the correlates of flashbulb memories: An investigation in five countries
Sarah Kulkofsky et al.
Memory, Spring 2011, Pages 233-240
Abstract:
Flashbulb memory (FBM) refers to the vivid memory for the context of learning about a public news event. Past research has identified a number of factors that influence the formation of FBM, such as the importance of the event, the experience of intense emotions, and the amount of post-event rehearsal. Although such factors may be universal in predicting FBM formation across cultures, they may differentially impact FBM given different cultural belief systems and practices. In the present study we investigated the moderating effect of culture for various predictors of FBM in five countries: China, Germany, Turkey, the UK, and the USA. Results indicated that the effects of national importance and rehearsal of the reception context were consistent across cultures. In contrast, culture moderated the effects of personal importance, emotionality, surprise, and event rehearsal. In all cases the effects of these variables were significantly smaller in the Chinese sample.
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Brenda Chan & Wang Xueli
International Journal of Cultural Studies, May 2011, Pages 291-305
Abstract:
In recent years, there has been a phenomenal rise in the popularity of South Korean television dramas, pop music, movies, fashion and celebrities in East and Southeast Asia. Korean television dramas are a significant component of this cultural diffusion known as the ‘Korean Wave'. Through focus group interviews with female viewers in Singapore, this study seeks to explore how Singaporean women make sense of Korean TV dramas (K-dramas) as female subjects living in the gender hierarchy of their society, and how K-dramas become resources for reflexivity for them.