M B Oliver
Dados Biográficos
| ID | 67482 |
|---|---|
| NOME | M B Oliver |
| PRENOMES | M B |
| SOBRENOME | Oliver |
| ASSINATURA | OLIVER M B |
| AFILIAÇÕES | Pennsylvania State University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-2559-8219 |
| VERIFICADO | Sim |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 60 |
| TOTAL DE CITAÇÕES | 762 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 59 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 1 |
| PRIMEIRO ANO DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 1992 |
| ANO MAIS RECENTE DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2025 |
| ÍNDICE H | 10 |
It strikes a chord within me
Research demonstrates how entertainment can promote self-exploration and coping through portrayals that resonate with audiences on concrete, biographical levels (i.e., social resonance). We contend that entertainment can also foster resonance through abstract content and themes that celebrate aspects of an individual's global meaning system (i.e., existential resonance). We first tested this idea through a thematic analysis of personal essays (n …
Psychological insight as an effect of inspiring narratives
This article presents the results of two experiments in which participants were exposed to audiovisual narratives (Study 1, N = 245) and to short written narratives (Study 2, N = 360) with high or low inspiring potential so as to validate a measurement instrument to assess psychological insight (Psychological Insight Self-Report Scale). Insight is defined as a reception process involving sudden discovery and the sensation of experiencing a state …
Awesome, Awful
Pro-environmental media content, such as nature documentary programming, often features awe-inducing scenes of Earth’s natural beauty, and exposure to this kind of content has been shown to increase persuasive outcomes. Yet environmental messaging is increasingly likely to portray the tragic impacts of human activities on these natural wonders alongside content about Earth’s beauty. How might emotional responses evolve during exposure to sequence…
Beyond the denial of death
We show that art can be harnessed to promote a more balanced relationship with death, and greater appreciation of life. The art installation provided individuals with concrete, and more encompassing simulations of what death could be like. By placing death in this bigger perspective, the art installation encouraged conscious death reflection. Such a connected perspective is often lacking, but direly needed, in healthcare and in larger society
Reflecting on 50 years of theory inHuman Communication Research
This essay is an introduction to the special issue on "Rethinking and Expanding Communication Theories on HCR's 50th Anniversary." We begin by arguing that communication research has expanded substantially since Human Communication Research's inaugural issue. However, in light of changes in communication technologies, political discourse, means of engaging in interpersonal communication, and awareness of the importance of diversity and inclusion,…
Media Effects Research in Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly
This article presents an analysis of media effects articles published in JMCQ from 1954 to 2020. Although the primary focus of our sample of articles focused on news, a wealth of additional topics were also examined, including attitude change, media selection, and sharing of media content. While some of this body of scholarship reflects more “traditional” conceptualizations of media effects research, others point to a broader conceptualization th…
Inspired to mask up
Although mask-wearing can curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and protect others, the attitudes and behaviors regarding wearing a mask during the COVID-19 pandemic appear to differ between partisan groups. This study aimed to investigate whether wearing a mask in public can be elicited by uplifting media messages through increasing universal orientation and prosocial motivation. In addition, we tested whether uplifting videos focusing on pat…
Exploring the impact of media use on wellbeing following a natural disaster
Media use can be beneficial in many ways, but little is known about how it might improve wellbeing outcomes following a traumatic natural disaster. Survivors ( n = 491) of deadly Hurricane Michael, which struck the Florida (USA) coastline in 2018, completed an online survey, reporting indicators of post-traumatic growth (PTG) and stress (PTSS). A serial mediation model explored how hurricane-related stressors were related to both outcomes, as med…
Inspiration on social media
The conditions under which social media use impacts well-being and mental health are complex. The current 10-day longitudinal quasi-experiment (student sample, N = 111) applied an entertainment theory lens to explore the effects of active posting and engaging with hedonic or inspiring Facebook content (vs. passive browsing) on young people’s eudaimonic well-being (levels of connectedness to humanity, love, compassion, presence of meaning) and men…
Moving political opponents closer
Dislike of political opponents has increased over the past years in the US. This paper presents a preregistered study investigating the effect of kama muta (being moved by sudden closeness) on increasing warmth, social closeness, and trust toward political opponents through including them in a common American identity. Eight hundred forty-one U.S. Americans watched either a moving or a neutral video about the US or a different theme in a full-fac…
He does not look like video games made him do it
Awe and Stereotypes
Previous research has shown the harmful effects of stereotypical messages on viewers, including increased negative attitudes toward outgroup members. In contrast, positive or counter-stereotypical portrayals can lead to less prejudiced attitudes toward outgroup members; however, these kinds of portrayals are not always easy to come by. As a result, alternative methods for combating the effects of stereotypical messages are necessary. The current …
Self-transcendent emotions and social media
Although a great deal of research has examined the potential negative effects of Facebook, studies also show that Facebook use can lead to various positive effects. This study builds on this positive effects scholarship: together, the two studies presented herein aim to provide an understanding of the inspirational content available on Facebook and the way social media users in the United States encounter, recall, and interact with this content. …
A Penchant for the Immoral
This study adds to existing research on liking of anti-heroes by demonstrating the importance of perceived interaction and identification on character liking. Our first experiment used a televised series (House of Cards) as the narrative context, and the second study employed a written narrative. In both experiments, versions featuring the main character speaking directly to the viewer/reader resulted in heightened feelings of perceived interacti…
Inspired by the Paralympics
Theories of eudaimonic entertainment and destigmatization concur to suggest that empathic feelings elicited by portrayals of Paralympic athletes can increase audience interest in para-sports and can lead to prosocial attitude change toward persons with disabilities in general. Three experiments were conducted to examine this dual, mutually reinforcing function of empathy in promoting public awareness and destigmatization. Participants watched tel…
Self-transcendent Media Experiences
Interest in the meaningful sides of media entertainment has blossomed over the last decade, with numerous scholars examining how certain media content can enhance social good and well-being. Because social scientific work in this area is relatively new and is rapidly evolving, numerous conceptualizations of meaningful media experiences have been introduced. In this paper we argue for the importance of recognizing a unique form of media experience…
Meaningful entertainment experiences and self-transcendence
Previous research reported that meaningful entertainment experiences are associated with elevation, mixed affect, physical indicators, and moral motivations. The importance of values, particularly altruistic values and self-transcendence, was thought to play a central role. Although the importance of values has been found to vary across cultures, little research so far has examined cultural variations in the response towards meaningful entertainm…
Mediated Wisdom of Experience Revisited
This experiment, using excerpts from three Hollywood films, indicates that eudaimonic (meaningful) narratives increase willingness to accept delayed rewards (i.e., reduce delay discounting) and acceptance of death, mediated by the effect of eudaimonic narratives on perceived closeness to future self. Our findings provide support for the argument, and its derivation from socio-emotional selectivity theory, that the vicarious experience of life's t…
YouTube for Good
Despite the increased attention to eudaimonic media experiences, to date scholars have paid little attention to the specific portrayals responsible for those experiences. Study 1 of this project reports the first systematic content analysis of self-transcendent media—a particular type of eudaimonic media—using a sample of 100 “inspirational” YouTube videos. The presence of 20 specific elicitors associated with self-transcendent emotions was exami…
Profiling the Audience for Self-Transcendent Media
This article reports the findings from a national survey of self-transcendent (or inspiring) media audience members in the United States. Exposure to self-transcendent content is socially significant because, theoretically, it can orient users toward matters beyond themselves, ultimately promoting connections with others and altruistic behaviors. However, to date, little is known about the daily audiences for such fare. Four primary questions gui…
The Routledge Handbook of Media Use and Well-Being
Broadcasting one world
Research on non-hedonic entertainment suggests the experience of elevation as an important construct leading to beneficial outcomes such as prosocial motivation. This study builds on first findings in this realm by distinguishing between different meaningful media contents. In a 3 × 4 between-subjects online experiment, we varied type of video (beauty of the earth, unity of humankind, portrayals of human kindness, and funny control videos) and co…
Tragic and poignant entertainment
Video games as meaningful entertainment experiences
We conducted an experiment to examine individuals’ perceptions of enjoyable and meaningful video games and the game characteristics and dimensions of need satisfaction associated with enjoyment and appreciation. Participants (N = 512) were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 groups that asked them to recall a game that they found either particularly fun or particularly meaningful, and to then rate their perceptions of the game that they recalled. Enjoyme…
The relationship between elevation, connectedness, and compassionate love in meaningful films
Expanding on the research of meaningful entertainment media and its effects, this study investigated the relationship between experiences related to elevation responses to film. Whereas research thus far has focused primarily on portrayals of altruism to elicit elevation, the results of this study show that portrayals of connectedness, love, and kindness in meaningful films are also able to elicit feelings of elevation. Moreover, elevation mediat…
Gender differences in sexuality
This meta-analysis surveyed 177 usable sources that reported data on gender differences on 21 different measures of sexual attitudes and behaviors. The largest gender difference was in incidence of masturbation: Men had the greater incidence (d = .96). There was also a large gender difference in attitudes toward casual sex: Males had considerably more permissive attitudes (d = .81). There were no gender differences in attitudes toward homosexuali…
Appreciation as Audience Response
This article elaborates upon the notion of media enjoyment in the context of film viewing by proposing a complementary type of gratification that we conceptualize as appreciation. Three studies were conducted to tap into the multidimensionality of viewers' entertainment gratifications with a special focus on the domain of more serious, poignant, and pensive media experiences typically associated with genres such as drama, history, documentary, or…
Exploring the Paradox of the Enjoyment of Sad Films
The concept of met emotions (appraisals of emotional reactions) was used in three studies designed to explore the enjoyment of sad films and to develop a scale that would reflect such gratifications. Study 1 showed that sad reactions in response to this type of entertainment were positively related to enjoyment and that females reported stronger reactions both in terms of enjoyment and in terms of sad responses than males. The Sad-Film Scale (SFS…
Elevation in Response to Entertainment Portrayals of Moral Virtue
Media psychologists have long puzzled over how individuals can experience enjoyment from entertainment such as tragedies that often elicit profound feelings of sadness. The present research examines the idea that a focus on "meaningful" entertainment and affective responses identified as "elevation" may provide a framework for understanding many examples of sad or dramatic entertainment. The results of this study suggest that many types of meanin…
African American men as “criminal and dangerous”
Portrayals of Sexual Violence in Popular Hindi Films, 1997–99
The 2008 Presidential Election, 2.0
Although Facebook is primarily known for building and maintaining relationships, the 2008 presidential election highlighted this social networking website as a viable tool for political communication. In fact, during primary season until Election Day in 2008, Facebook users created more than 1,000 Facebook group pages that focused on Barack Obama and John McCain. Using quantitative content analysis, the primary purpose of this study was to assess…
Effects of Sexual Permissiveness on Desirability of Partner as a Function of Low and High Commitment to Relationship
Mary Beth Oliver, Constantine Sedikides, Effects of Sexual Permissiveness on Desirability of Partner as a Function of Low and High Commitment to Relationship, Social Psychology Quarterly, Vol. 55, No. 3 (Sep., 1992), pp. 321-333
Video games as meaningful entertainment experiences
We conducted an experiment to examine individuals’ perceptions of enjoyable and meaningful video games and the game characteristics and dimensions of need satisfaction associated with enjoyment and appreciation. Participants (N = 512) were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 groups that asked them to recall a game that they found either particularly fun or particularly meaningful, and to then rate their perceptions of the game that they recalled. Enjoyme…
The relationship between elevation, connectedness, and compassionate love in meaningful films
Expanding on the research of meaningful entertainment media and its effects, this study investigated the relationship between experiences related to elevation responses to film. Whereas research thus far has focused primarily on portrayals of altruism to elicit elevation, the results of this study show that portrayals of connectedness, love, and kindness in meaningful films are also able to elicit feelings of elevation. Moreover, elevation mediat…
Using Elections as Teachable Moments
The recommitment of public education to its civic roots has revived discussion on how to engage younger generations of citizens in electoral politics and civic life. This randomized trial of 1,670 high school students in 80 social studies classrooms evaluates the impact of an election‐based civics program on students’ civic knowledge, skills, and dispositions over the course of a semester. Analyses of these data reveal significant effects of the …
Self-transcendent emotions and social media
Although a great deal of research has examined the potential negative effects of Facebook, studies also show that Facebook use can lead to various positive effects. This study builds on this positive effects scholarship: together, the two studies presented herein aim to provide an understanding of the inspirational content available on Facebook and the way social media users in the United States encounter, recall, and interact with this content. …
A Penchant for the Immoral
This study adds to existing research on liking of anti-heroes by demonstrating the importance of perceived interaction and identification on character liking. Our first experiment used a televised series (House of Cards) as the narrative context, and the second study employed a written narrative. In both experiments, versions featuring the main character speaking directly to the viewer/reader resulted in heightened feelings of perceived interacti…
Broadcasting one world
Research on non-hedonic entertainment suggests the experience of elevation as an important construct leading to beneficial outcomes such as prosocial motivation. This study builds on first findings in this realm by distinguishing between different meaningful media contents. In a 3 × 4 between-subjects online experiment, we varied type of video (beauty of the earth, unity of humankind, portrayals of human kindness, and funny control videos) and co…
Media‐Induced Elevation as a Means of Enhancing Feelings of Intergroup Connectedness
The majority of research on media counter‐stereotyping of race/ethnicity has tended to employ positive portrayals or counter‐stereotypical exemplars as a primary strategy in eliciting positive attitudes among White participants. In contrast, this article reports the results of an experiment on the unique role of affective responses to media messages as a mechanism in inducing greater feelings of connectedness with a diversity of racial/ethnic gro…
Mediated Wisdom of Experience Revisited
This experiment, using excerpts from three Hollywood films, indicates that eudaimonic (meaningful) narratives increase willingness to accept delayed rewards (i.e., reduce delay discounting) and acceptance of death, mediated by the effect of eudaimonic narratives on perceived closeness to future self. Our findings provide support for the argument, and its derivation from socio-emotional selectivity theory, that the vicarious experience of life's t…
Profiling the Audience for Self-Transcendent Media
This article reports the findings from a national survey of self-transcendent (or inspiring) media audience members in the United States. Exposure to self-transcendent content is socially significant because, theoretically, it can orient users toward matters beyond themselves, ultimately promoting connections with others and altruistic behaviors. However, to date, little is known about the daily audiences for such fare. Four primary questions gui…
Development of Gender Differences in Children's Responses to Animated Entertainment
Perceptions of Moral Violations and Personality Traits Among Heroes and Villains
This study investigates disposition-formation processes in entertainment by predicting perceptions of media heroes and villains by their behavior in specific moral domains. Participants rated self-selected heroes and villains from television and film along the moral domains of care, fairness, loyalty, authority, and purity (Haidt & Joseph, 2007 Haidt, J. & Joseph, C. (2007). The moral mind: How 5 sets of innate moral intuitions guide the developm…
The Impact of Sex and Gender Role Self-Perception on Affective Reactions to Different Types of Film
Entertainment We Watch and Entertainment We Appreciate
An analysis of 582 film titles spanning the years from 1980 to 2010 was conducted to examine the attributes and characteristics that predicted both viewership (e.g., box-office revenues) and critical acclaim (e.g., awards, audience ratings). Overall, viewership was highest for action/adventure films and lowest for dramas. In contrast, acclaim was highest for more dramatic fare, and for films that featured dark, contemplative, and emotional themes…
Exploring the Effects of Television Viewing on Perceived Life Quality
American television programs have been criticized for being filled with images endorsing capitalist consumerism and for being weighted toward the upper middle classes. This study proposed that heavy viewing of these distorted representations may culminate in decreases in viewers' life satisfaction. A path model investigated this supposition, based on material value and social comparison perspectives. Surveys were administered to 225 adults in a n…
Elevation (sometimes) increases altruism
It strikes a chord within me
Research demonstrates how entertainment can promote self-exploration and coping through portrayals that resonate with audiences on concrete, biographical levels (i.e., social resonance). We contend that entertainment can also foster resonance through abstract content and themes that celebrate aspects of an individual's global meaning system (i.e., existential resonance). We first tested this idea through a thematic analysis of personal essays (n …
Reflecting on 50 years of theory inHuman Communication Research
This essay is an introduction to the special issue on "Rethinking and Expanding Communication Theories on HCR's 50th Anniversary." We begin by arguing that communication research has expanded substantially since Human Communication Research's inaugural issue. However, in light of changes in communication technologies, political discourse, means of engaging in interpersonal communication, and awareness of the importance of diversity and inclusion,…
Effects of Sexual Permissiveness on Desirability of Partner as a Function of Low and High Commitment to Relationship
Mary Beth Oliver, Constantine Sedikides, Effects of Sexual Permissiveness on Desirability of Partner as a Function of Low and High Commitment to Relationship, Social Psychology Quarterly, Vol. 55, No. 3 (Sep., 1992), pp. 321-333
Gender differences in sexuality
This meta-analysis surveyed 177 usable sources that reported data on gender differences on 21 different measures of sexual attitudes and behaviors. The largest gender difference was in incidence of masturbation: Men had the greater incidence (d = .96). There was also a large gender difference in attitudes toward casual sex: Males had considerably more permissive attitudes (d = .81). There were no gender differences in attitudes toward homosexuali…
Exploring the Paradox of the Enjoyment of Sad Films
The concept of met emotions (appraisals of emotional reactions) was used in three studies designed to explore the enjoyment of sad films and to develop a scale that would reflect such gratifications. Study 1 showed that sad reactions in response to this type of entertainment were positively related to enjoyment and that females reported stronger reactions both in terms of enjoyment and in terms of sad responses than males. The Sad-Film Scale (SFS…
Portrayals of crime, race, and aggression in “reality‐based” police shows
A content analysis of “reality‐based” police shows (e.g., Cops.) was conducted to explore portrayals of crime, race, and aggression. Violent crime was overrepresented in the programs as was the percentage of crimes that were portrayed as solved. White characters were more likely to be portrayed as police officers than criminal suspects, whereas black and Hispanic characters were more likely to be portrayed as criminal suspects than police officer…
Perceived benefits and costs of romantic relationships for women and men
This investigation examined the perceived benefits and costs of romantic (i.e., reciprocal dating) relationships. In Study 1, subjects provided open‐ended reports regarding the benefits and costs associated with romantic involvement. Different groups of subjects ranked (Study 2) and rated (Study 3) these benefits and costs for importance. Companionship, happiness, and feeling loved or loving another were among the most important benefits accompan…
Gender differences in attitudes toward homosexuality
Gender differences in attitudes toward homosexuality
The Impact of Sex and Gender Role Self-Perception on Affective Reactions to Different Types of Film
Caucasian viewers' memory of Black and White criminal suspects in the news
Caucasian Viewers' Memory of Black and White Criminal Suspects in the News
This experiment was conducted to examine Caucasian viewers' identification memory of Black and White criminal suspects featured in a newscast. Viewers watched a news story about a murder that featured a wanted poster of either an African American or a Caucasian suspect. Immediately after viewing and again 3 months later, participants identified a series of photographs, indicating the extent to which they believed each one to be the same suspect p…
Development of Gender Differences in Children's Responses to Animated Entertainment
African American men as “criminal and dangerous”
Judging a movie by its cover
Portrayals of Sexual Violence in Popular Hindi Films, 1997–99
The Face of Crime
This study examined news readers' memories of race-related facial features of an individual pictured in the news. Participants were presented with a series of news stories, including one of four different versions of the news story of interest: nonstereotyped, stereotyped/noncrime, nonviolent crime, violent crime. Each of the four versions contained a photograph of an individual who was the focus of the story, with the same photograph appearing a…
The Face of Crime
This study examined news readers' memories of race-related facial features of an individual pictured in the news. Participants were presented with a series of news stories, including one of four different versions of the news story of interest: nonstereotyped, stereotyped/noncrime, nonviolent crime, violent crime. Each of the four versions contained a photograph of an individual who was the focus of the story, with the same photograph appearing a…
Exploring the Concept of Media Enjoyment
Tender Affective States as Predictors of Entertainment Preference
Journal Article Tender Affective States as Predictors of Entertainment Preference Get access Mary Beth Oliver Mary Beth Oliver 1Department of Film/Video & Media Studies, Penn State University, University Park, PA 16802 Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of Communication, Volume 58, Issue 1, March 2008, Pages 40–61, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2007.00373.x Published: 12 March 2008
Using Elections as Teachable Moments
The recommitment of public education to its civic roots has revived discussion on how to engage younger generations of citizens in electoral politics and civic life. This randomized trial of 1,670 high school students in 80 social studies classrooms evaluates the impact of an election‐based civics program on students’ civic knowledge, skills, and dispositions over the course of a semester. Analyses of these data reveal significant effects of the …
Appreciation as Audience Response
This article elaborates upon the notion of media enjoyment in the context of film viewing by proposing a complementary type of gratification that we conceptualize as appreciation. Three studies were conducted to tap into the multidimensionality of viewers' entertainment gratifications with a special focus on the domain of more serious, poignant, and pensive media experiences typically associated with genres such as drama, history, documentary, or…
Exploring the Role of Meaningful Experiences in Users' Appreciation of “Good Movies”
This article extends current theorizing in media psychology on audience responses to cinema by examining individuals' perceptions of meaningfulness. Specifically, it presents the results of a study designed to expand upon research on psychological and subjective well-being to experiences and memories of films that are perceived as particularly meaningful by viewers. Characteristics and themes of such films are examined and identified, as well as …
The 2008 Presidential Election, 2.0
Although Facebook is primarily known for building and maintaining relationships, the 2008 presidential election highlighted this social networking website as a viable tool for political communication. In fact, during primary season until Election Day in 2008, Facebook users created more than 1,000 Facebook group pages that focused on Barack Obama and John McCain. Using quantitative content analysis, the primary purpose of this study was to assess…
Exploring the Effects of Television Viewing on Perceived Life Quality
American television programs have been criticized for being filled with images endorsing capitalist consumerism and for being weighted toward the upper middle classes. This study proposed that heavy viewing of these distorted representations may culminate in decreases in viewers' life satisfaction. A path model investigated this supposition, based on material value and social comparison perspectives. Surveys were administered to 225 adults in a n…
Appreciation of Entertainment
The purpose of this article is to examine the experience of appreciation to media entertainment as a unique audience response that can be differentiated from enjoyment. To those ends, the first section provides a conceptualization of appreciation in which we outline how we are using the term and how it is distinct from questions of emotional valence. The second section discusses the types of entertainment portrayals and depictions that we believe…
Entertainment as Pleasurable and Meaningful
The purpose of this research is to broaden the conceptualization of entertainment selection to identify not only pleasure-seeking (hedonic concerns) as a motivator, but to also recognize that individuals may choose media as a means of “truth-seeking” (eudaimonic concerns). This article conceptualized and developed measures to illustrate that entertainment can be used as a means of experiencing not only enjoyment, but also as a means of grappling …
Psychology (54 obras) · Media Influence and Health (38 obras) · Social Psychology (31 obras) · Sociology (30 obras) · Social Psychology (23 obras) · Media, Gender, and Advertising (18 obras) · Entertainment (16 obras) · Art (15 obras) · Political science (15 obras) · Computer Science (13 obras)