Self-Centeredness As A Response To Narratives With Few Self-Transcendent Elicitors

Recently scholars argued to broaden the concept of eudaimonic entertainment experiences and introduced two conceptualizations: 1. self-focused experiences, including mixed affect, contemplation and need satisfaction, and 2. other-focused experiences, including self-transcendent emotions and prosociality. The goal of the study was to investigate how the two dimensions of meaningful media experiences (self-focused vs. other-focused) are elicited from inspiring films that contain self-transcendent elicitors and explore the connection and differentiation between the two. Results of a Qualtrics experiment (N = 328) revealed that films with a large amount of transcendent portrayals lead to greater experiences of mixed affect and less self-centeredness than films with a small amount of transcendent portrayals. No difference between films was found for inspiration, elevation, contemplation, and need satisfaction. Implications for the understanding of the conceptualization of complex eudaimonic entertainment experiences are discussed