The Impact of Sex and Gender RoleSelf-Perception on Affective Reactions toDifferent Types of Film
1
Mary Beth Oliver
2
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Stephanie Lee Sargent
University of Alabama
James B. Weaver
‚
III
Auburn University
To what extent do differences in biological sex and psychological gender identityinfluence affective reactions to different genres of film? In order to addressthis question
‚
this investigation examined the impact of sex and gender roleself-perceptions on viewers
’
responses to neutral
‚
melodramatic
‚
and violent film segments. Working with a predominantly Caucasian population (93%Caucasian) at a southeastern university
‚
the results emphasize the importanceof sex and gender role self-perceptions on viewers
’
affective responses to mediaentertainment. The implications of these findings are discussed.
From the moment of birth
‚
a child
’
s world is organized along gender-relatedlines. The blue- vs. pink-colored blankets used to swaddle infants
‚
the nurs-ery rhymes that describe what boys and girls are made of
‚
and the sex-basedsegregation in elementary classrooms are but a few of the hundreds of be-haviors that underline the importance of gender as a classification scheme.Given the pervasiveness of gender differentiation
‚
it comes as no surprisethat the media also participate in dividing up the world in ways that both
Sex Roles
‚
Vol. 38
‚
Nos. 1/2
‚
1998
45
0360
¯
0025/98/0100
¯
0045$15.00/0
Ó
1998 Plenum Publishing Corporation1
An earlier draft of this work was presented before the November 1995 conference of theSpeech Communication Association
‚
San Antonio
‚
Texas.
2
To whom correspondence should be addressed at Department of Communication Studies
‚
Virginia Tech
‚
Blacksburg
‚
VA 24061-0311.
reflect and perpetuate stereotypes of gender (see Davis
‚
1990; Frueh &McGhee
‚
1975; Gerbner
‚
Gross
‚
Morgan
‚
& Signorielli
‚
1986; Thompson& Zerbinos
‚
1995). Although a substantial amount of media research hasexplored the content of gender-stereotyped portrayals and their effects onviewers
‚
it is important that researchers also consider the role of viewers
’
responses to and enjoyment of such content because (1) entertainment fareis often targeted specifically to male vs. female audiences; and (2) differ-ential viewing of media entertainment may serve to exacerbate sex rolestereotyping and behavior differences. Consequently
‚
the purpose of thepresent study is to extend previous research on gender and the media byexploring the roles that both biological sex and psychological gender roles(communal and agentic traits) play in viewers
’
affective responses to mediaentertainment.
Responses to Media Entertainment
The appeal of media entertainment is easily demonstrated in terms of the sheer amount of time it consumes in the lives of most individuals. Re-cent appraisals of leisure activities estimate that Americans spend almosthalf of their free time
‚
more than 20 hours per week
‚
devoted to mediaconsumption including television
‚
magazines
‚
books
‚
radio
‚
and film (Jef-fres
‚
1994). Although it is clear that media offerings are enjoyed by manypeople
‚
it is much more difficult to assess the specific
types
of media of-ferings that are enjoyed and the specific viewer characteristics that predictresponses. Viewers
’
responses to media entertainment likely reflect a com-plex combination of personality traits
‚
social situations
‚
and media-contentcharacteristics. Given the seemingly infinite number of factors affectingviewers
’
responses
‚
it is clearly a very difficult task to explain why oneviewer screams in terror during a horror film while the next shrugs in in-difference
‚
or why one viewer sobs uncontrollably during a tear-jerker whileanother yawns from boredom.Research on responses to entertainment has explored a variety of per-sonality
‚
social
‚
and content factors thought to be predictive of viewers
’
reactions. For example
‚
Weaver (1991a; also see Weaver
‚
Brosius
‚
and Mun-dorf
‚
1993) studied personality characteristics such as neuroticism
‚
psychoti-cism
‚
and extraversion
‚
and reported that these variables successfullypredicted many media preferences. Zillmann
‚
Weaver
‚
Mundorf
‚
and Aust(1986) explored social and gender role variables and reported that the emo-tional responses of one
’
s opposite-sex viewing partner have strong effectson one
’
s own responses to frightening films. Similarly
‚
Mundorf
‚
Weaver
‚
and Zillmann (1989) found strong effects on the estimation of an oppo-
46Oliver et al.
site-sex target
’
s reactions to horror films as a function of both the raters
’
sex and their gender role characteristics (for a review of this literature
‚
seeZillmann & Weaver
‚
1996). Finally
‚
Tamborini
‚
Stiff
‚
and Zillmann (1987)explored the effects of content characteristics on viewers
’
responses tographic horror films
‚
and reported that the gender of the characters af-fected viewers
’
preferences.Despite the fact that research has employed divergent approaches andhas explored numerous variables
‚
the one variable that has likely been ex-amined most frequently is the sex of the viewer. Examples of sex differencesin responses to entertainment are consistent and numerous. Richards andSheridan (1987)
‚
for instance
‚
examined the appeal of different movie gen-res using a sample of over 550 male and female movie goers. They foundthat women gave the highest priority to romance
‚
history
‚
and love storythemes while men preferred presentations focusing on action
‚
crime
‚
andsex. Interestingly
‚
the respondents
’
rationalization for their film preferencesprovided via interviews highlighted the importance of gender considerationsin many viewers
’
decisions. Generally
‚
men responded that it was very
“
natural
”
for them to prefer action-packed films over romantic ones simplybecause they were of the
“
masculine
”
gender. In contrast
‚
women re-sponded that they preferred love stories because such films touched andmoved their hearts
‚
thus bringing out their
“
feminine
”
traits. Similarly
‚
other studies have reported that females evidence greater fear and less en- joyment of frightening films than do males (Cantor & Reilly
‚
1982; Sparks
‚
1986; Tamborini & Stiff
‚
1987). On the other hand
‚
males report less in-volvement
‚
interest
‚
emotional responsiveness
‚
and enjoyment of sad filmsor tear-jerkers than do females (see Oliver
‚
1993). The fact that sex playssuch a robust and recurrent role in viewers
’
responses to media entertain-ment makes it a variable worthy of further exploration.
Sex Differences in Emotion and Empathy
Stereotypes of sex often include the belief that females are generallymore emotional than are males (Antill
‚
1987; Birnbaum
‚
Nosanchuk
‚
&Croll
‚
1980; Broverman
‚
Vogel
‚
Broverman
‚
Clarkson
‚
& Rosenkrantz
‚
1972;Frieze
‚
Parsons
‚
Johnson
‚
Ruble
‚
& Zellman
‚
1978). Although self-reportsof emotion are frequently consistent with these beliefs
‚
the type of emotionin question plays an important role in the direction of the difference. Thatis
‚
females tend to report more intense feelings of sadness and fear (andsometimes joy) than do males
‚
while males tend to report more intensefeelings of anger (Allen & Haccoun
‚
1976; Lombardo
‚
Cretser
‚
Lombardo
‚
& Mathis
‚
1983; Shields
‚
1987; Staley & O
’
Donnell
‚
1984). In a recent lit-
Affective Reactions to Film47
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Reactions to Diff Types of Media
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