ABSTRACT

Habits, tastes, and enduring dispositions are obviously important predictors of entertainment choices. Although some viewers have affinities for themes featuring love and romance, other viewers long for the thrills that accompany action adventure or suspense. With these more stable entertainment preferences in mind, it is also apparent that entertainment choices vary within individuals, with any given viewer preferring one type of genre or media offering at one time and opting for a different genre at another. Indeed, one can easily imagine phrases that viewers frequently voice that capture this type of variability, including comments such as, “I feel like a good mystery tonight,” or “I’m in the mood for a comedy.”