ABSTRACT
While watching a good movie—and sometimes even hours later—thoughts, feelings, and discussions circle around the plot of the film. Obviously, we are involved, taken away, or even “caught” by good entertainment. Involvement and entertainment therefore appear to be related concepts. It is surprising, however, that involvement usually is not seen in terms of its relation to entertainment. Involvement is probably one of the most successful concepts of communication research and media psychology, but it originated in the context of a different research domain, the social judgment theory (Sherif & Cantril, 1947). Soon, variants of it came up in other areas of research, which led to lively research activities. Today, involvement is considered to play an important role in media usage and its effect. But there is a drawback to its success: Scholars have to cope with a confusing heterogeneity of definitions and operationalizations of involvement.
