Psychological Escapism: Predicting the Amount of Television Viewing by Need

Germans spend an average of more than 3 hours watching television each day. Among them, there are many who turn on their TV sets for less than 1.5 hours a day, and others who do this for more than 8 hours a day. What accounts for these differences? The central thesis in this paper is that individuals may be distinguished by their attitude toward thinking and that differences in their need for cognition explain the differences in their time spent with TV. The lower viewers ’ need for cognition is, the less pleasant they feel when they have nothing to do because there is nothing left to do but think. The easiest way for individuals to escape this pres-sure to think is by watching TV. Thus, individuals will watch more TV when they have a lower need for cognition. Results of a survey study show that the concept of escapism proves to be useful in explaining TV use when it takes over a psychologi-cal perspective as well as a sociological one. In 1998, Germans over the age of 13 spent an average of 3 hours and 20 minutes watching television each day (Darschin, 1999, p. 154). This average represents a distribution of individual values with considerable variation: For example, ther