Dynamics of Entertainment and Affect in a Super Bowl Audience

Entertainment was modeled as a nested temporal process using ecological momentary assessments. In natural viewing conditions, participants watched a Super Bowl game on television and answered a brief questionnaire via the Internet at the beginning of commercial breaks. Multilevel data analytic techniques were employed to analyze the longitudinal data from these assessments. After controlling for individual differences, such as gender, fandom, and team support, affect played a critical role. Average positive affect, averaged over the course of the game, and situational positive affect during specific moments in the game had a significant impact on entertainment, suggesting a baseline level of entertainment that is associated with the ritual of watching the event and added situational entertainment that is tied to the events in the game. Interestingly, situational negative affect was also significant and seemed to work in concert with positive affect.

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