PSYCHOLOGICAL DETERMINANTS OF FILM GENRE PREFERENCES

Abstract

Although watching films is often perceived as a simple, everyday activity, it is shaped by a range of psychological factors. The aim of this study was to examine the role of motivation, affective states, and selected demographic characteristics in shaping both subjective and genre-based film preferences. The sample consisted of 257 participants of both genders (50.6% genders), aged 20 to 60 (M=31.16; SD=10.16), with different educational backgrounds (37.4% secondary education, 14% post-secondary, and 46.8% bachelor, master’s, or doctoral degree). The following instruments were used: The Film Genre Preference Scale (FGPS), the Hedonic and Eudaimonic Motivation Scale (HED/EUD), the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), and the Sensation Seeking Scale (SSS-V), with only the dimension of Thrill and Adventure Seeking (TAS) retained due to low reliability of the other subscales. In addition to descriptive statistics and correlations among the variables, the hierarchical regression analysis was applied. Predictors included socio-demographic variables (gender, age, education), hedonic and eudaimonic motivation, positive and negative affect, and sensation seeking, while the criterion variables were subjective and genre-based film preferences. The results indicate significant correlations between subjective preferences and preferences based on expert genre classification. Gender and eudaimonic motivation emerged as the most consistent predictors. The hierarchical regression analysis showed that all models were statistically significant, with a moderate level of explained variance, whereby socio-demographic, motivational, and affective predictors proved more stable than sensation seeking as a personality characteristic. The findings suggest that film preferences arise from complex interactions between socio-demographic and psychological characteristics. The results may have practical applications in understanding and shaping cultural and educational attitudes, while future research should include broader age samples and a more diverse categorisation of genres.