The Psychology of Disposition-Based Theories of Media Enjoyment

As the other chapters in this volume attest, the enjoyment of media entertainment is indeed a complex phenomenon. Seeking to understand “why we like what we like” is a goal shared by social scientists and media content providers alike. In this quest, one thing has become abundantly clear: Enjoyment-perhaps not in all, but surely in many ways-is an individuallevel phenomenon, with personality traits and subjective evaluations playing key roles. One leading explanation of the media-enjoyment process centers on how individuals evaluate and form affiliations with media characters and how enjoyment is impacted by what happens with and to those characters. Collectively these explanations have been referred to in several ways: disposition theory, disposition theories, affective disposition theory, and disposition-based theories.