Personality Traits, Television Viewing, and the Cultivation Effect

This research investigates the impact of 3 personality traits—trait anxiety, sensation seeking, and psychoticism—on cultivation effects regarding perceptions of violence. A survey measuring violence prevalence estimates, personality traits, television consumption, and genre preferences was completed by 427 undergraduates. Results indicate that low trait–anxious individuals, and to a lesser extent high sensation seekers, are more susceptible to cultivation regarding personal vulnerability to crime whereas those low in psychoticism are susceptible to cultivation regarding societal violence perceptions. The worldview offered by these traits, as opposed to TV genre consumption or resonance, seems to best explain these effects.

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