Master Thesis
Personality traits and viral video preferences:
The mediating role of enjoyment within sharing of viral videos.
Name: Kyriaki Laiou-Simcha Graduate School of Communication Master’s programme Communication Science
Student ID-card number: 11359463 Supervisor: Dr. Jeroen S. Lemmens Date of completion: 02/02/2018
Abstract
A cross-sectional study was conducted in order to explore the link between personal characteristics and enjoyment of viral videos. Furthermore, the mediating role of enjoyment leading to viral video sharing is investigated. The survey was administered to 269 respondents from which underage individuals (n=3) and individuals who did not finish the survey (n=77) were excluded, resulting in a final sample of 189 individuals. The sample consisted of female (71.4%) and male participants, with an average age of 32.85 years old. Participants were asked to view and evaluate cat videos, fail videos and urban climbing viral videos after they had completed a questionnaire measuring various personality characteristics. Multiple analyses were conducted in order to investigate whether anxiety, empathy, sensation seeking, animal affinity and fear of heights play a critical role in enjoyment of a viral video, as well as its sharing. Additionally, the role of gender was investigated. Results differ per viral video category and reveal a significant relationship between viral video enjoyment and personality characteristics. Moreover, the findings demonstrate the mediating role of enjoyment within viral video sharing.
Introduction
From the “Ice Bucket Challenge” and “Gangnam Style” to the “Harlem Shake”, multiple viral videos have occasionally appeared at our screens. Videos like the “Gangnam Style”, which become popular via Internet sharing, are known as viral videos (Broxton et al., 2013). There is evidence that viral videos can deeply affect different aspects of society, such as politics and marketing (Jiang et al., 2014). For instance, during the United States’ general election of 2008, Barack Obama uploaded more than 1.800 videos in order to communicate his messages on a viral level (Wallsten, 2010). Indeed, the pro-Obama video “Yes we can” went viral, attracting 10 million views within a couple of weeks (Jiang et al., 2014). But also in the online marketing field there are several examples of firms that have benefited from the digital media and their ability to create viral trends. Old Spice’s YouTube campaign “The Man Your Man Can Smell Like” managed to become a viral sensation and raised brand equity (Reiss, 2010). As a viral video can reach millions of viewers all around the globe, it is a topic of great societal impact (Jiang et al., 2014). Therefore, it is both interesting and relevant to investigate these videos scientifically.
YouTube has created a new kind of entertainment culture where users can comment, share and like a video or even generate their own content as a response. In contrast to traditional media, users can now define the popularity of the content. Due to the fact that viral videos have changed the way individuals experience entertainment, while reaching diverse and wide audiences, viral videos are a subject of interest among researchers. Nevertheless, each study is focused on a different aspect of viral videos due to the various elements within a viral video. For instance, West (2011) explored the underlying mechanisms that lead videos to become viral
and found out that a wide range of factors as a brief title, short duration and musical qualities determine the success of a video. On the other hand, the studies by Hilderbrand (2007) and Southgate et al. (2010) concentrated on creativity and presentation and revealed that both of them are additional significant factors that could also predict a video’s popularity. Other studies have emphasized the sharing aspect of YouTube viral videos. For example, Broxton et al. (2013) compared highly social videos to less social videos. Their study claims that there are different patterns of sharing among viral videos, with highly social videos peaking faster and more abruptly than less social videos.
Even though there are several relevant studies, since the topic is extremely broad, some aspects of it are still understudied. Differentiating from previous studies the objective of this study is to focus on viewers’ personal characteristics and how or if they predict the success of viral videos by its sharing. Some individuals are by nature more prone to taking risks, some are anxious and stressed, while others are very empathetic towards others and that differences may have an impact on viral video preferences. To our knowledge, no existing study addresses personality characteristics as a predictor of viral video enjoyment and sharing. As mentioned, viral videos can only go viral through sharing in social media or online platforms (Broxton et al., 2013). For this reason, the sharing aspect of a video is another key point of our research, as a viral video would never become viral if not for the million times that it is shared. Nov et al. (2010) suggested that the feeling of enjoyment could potentially motivate users to share content with their peers. Additionally, according to Jonah Berger (2011) arousal is the key stimulus behind sharing. He suggests that high arousal emotions such as anger, fear, or humor drive people to share information.
Thus, we will explore whereas enjoyment mediates the effect of personality traits on sharing. That being said, it is important to investigate if viral videos with specific content are more or less enjoyable to certain individuals due to their personality traits. If a video category is, for example, less enjoyable for people with more anxiety, it can be recommended that anxious people avoid this content.
RQ1: Do personality traits predict the enjoyment and sharing of specific videos online?
According to Reniers et al. (2011), females showed significantly higher levels of empathy than males, while, in a recent study (Remes et al., 2016) women were twice as likely to have anxiety, compared to men. Furthermore, women were found to be more affectively empathetic than men and engaged in greater prosocial attitude (Christov-Moore et al., 2014). Concerning cognitive empathy, men showed more utilitarian behavior and higher cognitive control. Literature does not provide conclusive answers in regards to animal affinity and gender, however there is evidence that females have greater affinity for animal rights than men. Thus, the current study will further investigate if there is a difference in characteristics between females and males and whether gender is a predictor for viral video enjoyment.
Theoretical Framework
Empirical evidence suggests that individual characteristics may play a role in media selection. For example, studies claim that young people usually seek out particular media outlets to reduce negative affect (Dillman-Carpentier et al., 2008; Knobloch & Zillmann, 2002). Moreover, studies on young individuals argue that adolescents who need identity development, emotion regulation, and relaxation, use music as a coping tool (North, Hargreaves et al., 2000). The study by Rentfrow et al. (2011) investigated if individual differences are associated with specific preference of various types of entertainment (television, books, music etc.) and found out that apart from age, gender, or education, psychological dispositions can also play a part in entertainment preferences. It is to our knowledge that no study so far has inquired into personality characteristics and viral videos. In this paper we will try to fill the gap that currently exists and contribute to the field of Communication by providing further valuable knowledge on how personality may have and impact on viral video preferences.
For this survey three types of viral videos were chosen: cat videos, fail videos and urban climbing videos. These categories were selected, as all of them are very popular genres within YouTube. The New York Times described cat content as a fundamental element of Internet (Willis, 2014). According to popular press, FailArmy, one of the most popular YouTube channels, which share fail content, attracted one billion views in 2015 (Humphrey, 2016). Urban climbing videos belong to another quite popular genre of YouTube. Even the colossal channel of CNN took a closer look to this topic and published an article on four builderers whose video of climbing a Hong Kong skyscraper attracted over a million views (McKirdy, 2014). As will be explained later on, certain videos, like cat videos, may prove to be a
cost-effective and easily accessible tool to increase levels of emotional well-being (Morrison, 2007). Fail videos, that usually cause laughter, can also be implemented as a therapeutic tool, as humor can help individuals to cope with stress (Luke, 1992). But even thrilling content may bring beneficial outcomes for its viewers. According to Zillman’s (1971) excitation transfer paradigm, viewers experience emotions of fear and dread just like the protagonists of a movie or play. Nevertheless, usually when there is a positive outcome of the story, with the resolution of the scary scenario, the audience is feeling relief and enjoyment.
The Implementation of Uses and Gratifications Theory
Empirical findings can be better interpreted by implementing the uses and gratifications theory, which argues that users actively seek media that can satisfy specific needs (Blumler & Katz, 1974). This audience-centered approach can potentially explain why users with particular characteristics prefer or avoid ad hoc media outlets and content. The current cross-sectional research looks into three different types of viral video content: cat, fail and urban climbing viral videos.
Cat videos. Marshall (2014) suggests that there are more than 2 million cat
videos on YouTube and most of them fall under the comedy genre, with titles like “Cat memes,” “Cute Cats.” and “Cat vs. Cucumber”. While this genre seems to conquer the Internet, there are not enough findings on why cat videos are so popular. Research indicates that time spent with real pets can improve mood and well-being across a variety of populations (Nimer & Lundahl, 2007) while it can also reduce depression, anxiety, and loneliness (Morrison, 2007). The media equation argues that
media people typically react to mediated content as if it was happening in real life (Reeves & Nass, 1996). Therefore, mediated exposure to cats could result in similar outcomes found in pet therapy studies, perhaps to a lesser degree due to the absence of real cats (Myrick, 2015). If viewing online cats reduces anxiety, such videos could potentially serve as a low-cost and easily accessible intervention to improve emotional wellbeing. As mentioned, Morrison’s research (2007) suggests a positive relationship between spending time with pets and reduction of anxiety. Using the uses and gratifications theory we can hypothesize that individuals are not passive consumers and rather make use of the media to satisfy specific needs. Thus, people who like and watch cat videos can potentially become less anxious and experience more well-being. Moreover, previous research (Myrick, 2015) suggests that greater and more frequent exposure to Internet cats is positively and significantly associated with fondness of cats. Thus, it is believed that people who like cats, will prefer cat videos as well.
SQ1: Which personality traits predict the enjoyment and sharing of cat videos online?
Fail videos. Since there is not an official definition of fail videos in any
academic article, popular websites define fail videos as visualizations of unfortunate events happening to random people or even animals (“The psychology of FAIL videos”, 2010). The unlucky individuals portrayed in these fail-videos have an experience that even though can be painful, is usually without severe consequences. There are many explanations on why we may laugh when we see someone falling down. In 1651, Thomas Hobbes using the Superiority theory claimed that we laugh at
people’s infirmity, as we feel elevated and superior compared to them. Another possible explanation is the incongruity of the event that makes it so irresistibly funny. Kant & Pluhar (1987) tried to analyze the role of incongruity in humor, suggesting that it is the deviation from normality and the absurdity that creates a feeling of excitement that leads to laughter.
According to McGraw & Warren (2010)something humorous can occur even from potentially negative situations, when they are of course in a playful context and do not visualize life-threatening scenarios. In that case, individuals rather than experience sadness or fear, they usually laugh. Moreover, they argue that these situations are perceived as funny when the viewers distance themselves from the victims and do not feel empathy towards them. Thus, it is believed that empathy may play a significant role in finding a situation either funny or unfortunate. According to the uses and gratifications theory, it is unlikely a highly empathetic individual to prefer content that is painful and insensitive as this content contrasts with their needs. It needs to be noted that plenty of researchers make a distinction between affective and cognitive empathy (Decety & Jackson, 2006; Gini et al., 2007; Jolliffe & Farrington, 2006; Lawrence et al., 2004; Rankin et al., 2005; Young, et al., 2008). Cognitive empathy describes the conscious drive that one has and helps us to understand the emotional state of others, while affective empathy involves the ability of someone to be sensitive and indirectly experience the feelings and emotions of others (Reniers et al., 2011). Even though there is a strong relationship between the cognitive and affective scales, there is a distinction between them and we need to investigate both in order to have a rounded view of the subject and examine whereas this difference affects enjoyment of viral videos and sharing.
SQ2: Which personality traits predict the enjoyment and sharing of fail videos online?
Urban climbing videos. Urban climbing or buildering is considered to be one
of the most extreme and dangerous sports. Builderers climb outside of tall buildings or skyscrapers and perform their stunts, usually while somebody is filming them (Day, 2017). Despite the growing popularity of the sport, little research has been done on buildering itself and its effects on the performers or its viewers. According to Day (2017) performers of buildering are flirting with the limits by facing their fears on purpose and risking everything only depending on rehearsed skill (Lyng, 2004). Through exceeding the limits, urban climbers achieve personal satisfaction (Day, 2017). As the urban climbers rarely use safety ropes and perform their tricks on top of high buildings, videos of urban climbing can be perceived as scary and thrilling.
Previous studies suggest that individuals who are attracted by scary content are more likely to have these commonly shared traits: sensation-seeking (Aluja-Fabregat & Torrubia-Beltri, 1998), above-average aggression (Zuckerman, & Litle, 1986) and maleness (Harris et al., 2000). Using the uses and gratifications theory in the context of urban climbing video viewing, we can potentially explain why individuals who enjoy thrilling experiences in their life, also have the need to view thrilling content.
SQ3: Which personality traits predict the enjoyment and sharing of urban climbing videos online?
The purpose of this study is to advance understanding of viral videos. Specifically, this research concentrates on the mediating role of enjoyment within sharing of viral videos. As mentioned, empirical evidence suggests that certain personality traits may be responsible for choosing particular content (Dillman-Carpentier et al., 2008; Knobloch & Zillmann, 2002; North et al., 2000; Rentfrow, Goldberg et al., 2011; Yang & Qian, 2011). As we’ve seen from campaigns as “The Man Your Man Can Smell (Reiss, 2010), creating a video that goes viral can boost brand equity in a dramatically short amount of time. Marketeers can take advantage of new, relevant findings in order to design an effecting viral marketing. Furthermore, in the age of personalization technology, it is crucial to address the personal needs of consumers (Matloka & Buhalis, 2010) by creating links between personality traits and content. By offering the right video choice to the right individual, companies, educational institutes, even governments, can establish the optimal marketing strategy and be much more effective.
Method
Sample
The design chosen is an online survey. From the overall 269 respondents, individuals under 18 (n=3) and those who did not finish the survey (n=77) were excluded, resulting in a new valid sample (N=189). The sample consisted of participants belonging to various age groups with an average of M=32.85, SD=13.49, with the younger participant being 18 years old and the oldest 80. On average, the majority of the participants were females (71.4%) and had obtained or was currently obtaining a Master’s degree (40.7%). The number of respondents with a Bachelor degree was
similar (40.2%), while the rest of the respondents represented the 19% of the overall sample (Secondary school/high-school, Other, PhD).
Procedure
In order to check that the videos represented each of their genres and are of equal quality, a pretest was conducted. The participants (n=25) were shown three videos per category (cat, fail and urban climbing videos) and rated them on a scale from 1-10. These nine clips were evaluated on levels of enjoyment and sharing intention. The participants also judged all the clips according to how cute, exciting and funny they thought the videos were on a 10-point Likert scale. The chosen sets of videos, 2 per each type, were well-matched on all scales but, overall, the rating of all 9 videos did not significantly differ.
Table 1
Mean and Standard Deviation of Selected Videos Enjoyment Genre Characteristics* Videos M SD M SD Cat Video A 6.24 2.54 6.80 2.50 Cat Video B 6.28 2.42 6.80 2.52 Fail Video A 6.08 1.10 5.76 2.57 Fail Video B 6.29 1.68 6.44 2.02 Climbing Video A 5.88 2.44 6.92 2.24 Climbing Video B 5.84 5.84 6.56 2.35
Excluded Cat Video 6.60 2.08 7.00 2.36
Excluded Fail Video 5.24 1.81 4.92 2.40
Excluded Climbing Video 4.92 2.26 5.60 2.83
Note. Cute for Cat videos, Funny for Fail videos, Exciting for Urban Climbing videos
After analyzing the results of the pretest, the survey was conducted and distributed to different social media channels, utilizing the snowballing technique. Firstly, the individuals were informed about the purpose of the study, the procedure, the duration and the contact details of the researcher. As confidentiality is central to ethical research, any information that was provided remained completely anonymous. By selecting “Yes” to the statement “I agree to participate in this study” the participants could start the survey, however they were informed that they were free to stop at any time. The respondents had to answer different scales that measured their levels of anxiety, empathy, sensation seeking, animal affinity and fear of heights.
Some demographic information was also requested. They rated the 2 videos per type on a scale from 0-10.
Usually, when applicable, a researcher may select to randomize a block of questions to reduce response bias. Bias can occur due to question order and happens when respondents give different answers to later questions frequently because of fatigue or boredom. By randomizing the flow of video exposure the question order bias may not be eliminated at an individual level, nevertheless the risk is significantly reduced when we focus on all results.
Measures
Anxiety. Anxiety is the feeling of mental and physical discomfort,
anticipation, unease or fearful concern (Shri, 2010). Nowadays, disorders caused by anxiety are among the most frequent problems that can affect one’s wellbeing (Kessler et al., 2005a, 2005b; Olatunji et al., 2007; Kessler & Wang, 2008). Participants responded to the Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-Item Scale, using a 5-point scale (from 1 = “Never” to 5 = “Always”). The participants had to answer how often, during the last two weeks, they have been bothered by specific problems (Example 1: “Feeling nervous, anxious, or on edge”; Example 2: “Becoming easily annoyed or irritable”). This anxiety scale proved to be reliable, as the Cronbach’s alpha showed good internal consistency, α = .85, Μ= 23.66, SD= 9.13.
Cognitive Empathy. Cognitive empathy, which is responsible for our ability
to understand the emotional states of other individuals (Reniers et al., 2011), was measured using a 7-point Likert subscale, ranging from “Strongly disagree” to “Strongly agree” (Example 1: “I can tell if someone is masking their true emotion.” ;
Example 2: “Before criticizing somebody, I try to imagine how I would feel if I was in their place.”). The scale consisted of 6 items. The QCAE has been consecutively verified by the study of Reniers et al. (2011). The scale is considered reasonably reliable with a Cronbach’s aplha of α = .72, Μ= 37.59, SD= 5.32.
Affective Empathy. Αffective empathy describes the ability of being sensitive
and vicariously experience the emotions of other individuals (Reniers et al., 2011). The affective empathy scale, as well as the cognitive empathy scale, is part of the QCAE (Example 1: “It worries me when others are worrying and panicky.” ; Example 2 “People I am with have a strong influence on my mood.”). The 9-item Likert scale ranged from “Strongly disagree” to “Strongly agree” and the Cronbach’s alpha showed good internal consistency α = .74 (Μ= 42.93, SD= 6.70) after items “4” and “5” were removed.
Sensation Seeking. Sensation-seeking is a personality trait and describes the
desire of seeking novel or intense experiences, no matter the risk involved (Zuckerman, 1994). The Sensation Seeking Scale is commonly used in psychology for measuring sensation seeking. For this survey a briefer version of 8-items was utilized. Hoyle et al. (2002) constructed and tested the BSSS and found out that the scale is a reflection of the original sensation seeking scale. Participants were asked to evaluate some statements, on a 7-Likert scale, ranging from “Strongly disagree” to “Strongly agree” (Example 1: “I like wild parties”; “I like to do frightening things”). The BSSS proved to be reliable, as the Cronbach’s alpha showed reasonable internal consistency, α = .77, Μ= 32.05, SD= 9.60.
Fear of Heights. The scale that measured participants’ fear of heights
“Do you try to avoid exposure to heights?”. The two variables were strongly correlated, r = .51, p = .000. We consider as acrophobic the participants that answered “Yes” to both questions.
Animal affinity & Cat affinity. Two items measured likeness of animals and
likeness of cats, respectively: “I like animals” and “I like cats”. The participants agreed or disagreed with the statements answering a 7-point Likert scale ranging from “Strongly disagree” to “Strongly agree”.
Enjoyment and Sharing Scale. The concepts were measured after the video
exposure by two items on a 10-point Likert scale : “How much did you enjoy the video? and “Would you share this video?”.
Viral Videos. According to Jiang et al. (2014) viral videos tend to have short
title, short duration and appear on hundreds of blogs, websites or social media profiles. The chosen videos for the survey exceeded 9-17 million views and they were relatively recent, published before 2014. In order to minimize the duration of the videos, they were trimmed to approximately 30 seconds each.
Data Analysis
Since the research is exploratory it includes a variety of correlations between each of the personal characteristics and enjoyment of the different types of videos for the purpose of revealing if and to which extend each of these characteristics correlate. Additionally, a series of t-test analyses were conducted to investigate the role of gender. As a next step, a series of correlations were conducted to reveal if there is a relationship between personality traits. After exploring the main effects from the correlational test, a PROCESS regression analysis (Hayes, 2013) was conducted in
order to identify whether there is an underlying mechanism between personality traits and viral video sharing. Thus, we include to our analysis a potential mediator, the enjoyment of viral videos.
Results
Main Effects
In order to conduct an exploratory data analysis, multiple correlations among variables were conducted. This allows us to see which pairs have a positive or negative, significant correlation and investigate relationships between variables that literature does not indicate that are associated. Among others, our analysis shows various associations between personality traits and cat video, fail video and urban climbing video enjoyment. Those results are depicted in the correlation matrix “Table 2”.
Table 2
Correlations between Personality Traits, Enjoyment and Sharing per Genre
Enjoyment Sharing
Cat Fail Climbing Cat Fail Climbing
Anxiety -.03 -.19** -.19** .00 -.07 -.04 Animal Affinity .36*** .08 -.05 .26*** .05 -.04 Cat Affinity .49*** .08 -.01 .34*** .04 -.02 Cognitive Empathy .13 -.11 -.05 .16 -.14 .05 Affective Empathy .01 -.17** -.01 .09 -.04 .13 Fear of Heights .05 -.06 -.23** .14 .02 .02 Sensation Seeking -.05 .17** .31*** -.08 .13 .18*
Note. *p ≤ .05, **p ≤ .01, ***p ≤ .001. N=189 for all analyses
First, the correlations between personality traits and enjoyment of viral cat videos were explored. Anxiety proved to be insignificant, nevertheless, as expected, cat affinity, r = . 49, p <.001, and animal affinity, r = .36, p <.001, are strong significant predictors of cat videos enjoyment.
Regarding viral fail videos, there is a significant correlation between anxiety and enjoyment of fail videos, r = -. 19, p = .010. This result suggests that the more
anxiety one has, the less he or she is likely to enjoy fail videos and vice versa. Interestingly, the two different types of empathy did not have the same impact on enjoyment of fail videos. Being more cognitively empathetic plays no significant role on fail videos enjoyment, however, someone who is more affectively empathetic, is less likely to enjoy fail videos and vice versa, r = -. 17, p = .02. On the other hand, the more a person seeks sensations, the more he is likely to enjoy a fail video, r = . 17, p = .02.
Lastly, the correlation between personality characteristics and viral urban climbing videos is investigated. There is a significant correlation between anxiety and enjoyment of urban climbing videos, r = -. 19, p = . 008, thus more anxious people may not find relevant content enjoyable. Regarding the urban climbing videos there were also some interesting results. Sensation seeking proved to be a moderate and significant predictor of enjoyment of climbing videos r = . 31, p <.001. Finally, people with greater fear of heights were less likely to enjoy this kind of videos r = -. 23, p = .00.
The correlation between animal, r = . 26, p <.001, and cat affinity, r = . 34, p <.001, with cat video sharing, as well as the association between sensation seeking, r = . 18, p =.02, and urban climbing video sharing raises suspicion that a mediating relationships exists. Thus, later on, mediation analysis will be conducted in order to check for alternate explanations for the direct effect.
T-test on gender differences. In order to explore gender differences, a t-test
was conducted. As mentioned, literature indicates that there are several differences among sexes, regarding their personality traits. These indications provide confidence
to investigate gender differences as part of our research. Moreover, as no study has been yet conducted on viral videos and gender differences, our findings may provide new insight on viral video preferences.
Table 3
Results of t-test and Descriptive Statistics for Gender Differences
Male Female M SD M SD p t d Anxiety 2.98 1.02 3.53 1.36 .003 -3.07 .46 Affective Empathy 5.71 0.96 6.29 0.91 .000 -3.92 .62 Animal Affinity 5.69 1.37 6.11 1.24 .040 -2.07 32 Sensation Seeking 4.42 1.22 3.83 1.15 .002 -3.16 .50 Fail video enjoyment 5.69 2.02 4.43 2.45 .000 3.65 .56 Urban climbing video
enjoyment
5.07 2.53 3.63 2.21 .000 3.88 .61
Note. See Appendix D for Mean Differences and Confidence Intervals
As presented on Table 4, on average, female respondents were found to have higher levels of anxiety, than male respondents did. Additionally, women were found to be more empathetic and showed higher fondness of animals, nevertheless, compared to women, men were found to be more sensation seekers. Regarding viral video enjoyment, female respondents found fail videos less enjoyable compared to male respondents, with this difference representing a medium-sized effect. On
average, women found urban climbing videos less enjoyable than male participants. This difference between genders was significant and also represented a medium-sized effect.
Indirect Effects
Table 2 demonstrates several interesting correlations amongst variables. As expected, animal and cat affinity correlated positively with cat video enjoyment. Sensation seeking, fear of heights and anxiety proved to be significant predictors for urban climbing viral video enjoyment, while affective empathy, anxiety and sensation seeking predicted enjoyment of fail viral vireos. Previous findings mention that enjoyment may be a key factor for sharing content (Nov et al., 2010), which suggests the possibility of a mediating effect in our study as well. Thus, a PROCESS analysis was conducted in order to have a better understanding of the relationships between variables. PROCESS (Hayes, 2013) was used with 1,000 bootstrap samples to estimate the bias corrected bootstrap confidence intervals (BCBCI), model 4. This method was used for all mediation analyses.
Cat video sharing. The mediation model with cat video sharing as dependent
variable was examined (n = 189). The model was significant (F (2, 186)=131.32, p < 001, R2=.55) and as expected, cat video enjoyment functioned as a full mediator between animal affinity and cat video sharing (indirect effect = .67, SE = 0.15, 95% BCBCI [0.41, 0.99]). Cat video enjoyment increased cat video sharing and an increase in the levels of cat video enjoyment resulted in a higher video sharing potential (b = .95, t(187)=15.62 p < .001). Thus, the relationship of animal affinity and cat video sharing is fully mediated by the level of enjoyment of the cat video,
while the direct effect becomes insignificant when we test cat enjoyment as a mediator in the direct relationship, b= -.00, t(187)= -.03, p = .98. When tested for the relationship between cat affinity, cat video sharing and cat video enjoyment, the results proved to be, again as expected, with cat video enjoyment serving as a full mediator, indirect effect = .58, SE = 0.12, 95% BCBCI [0.35, 0.82]. The mediation model was significant (F (2, 186)=23.55, p < 001, R2=.11) and cat affinity increased cat video sharing for every level of cat video enjoyment (b=.58, t(187)= 2.77, p = .01).
Fail video Sharing. The correlation between anxiety and fail sharing is
explored to reveal a potential mediation. The mediation model, with fail video enjoyment as the mediator, anxiety as independent variable and fail video sharing as dependent proved to be insignificant (b= 1.12, t(187)= -.84, p =.40). The same analysis was conducted using sensation seeking (b= .26, t(187)= 1.90, p =.06) and affective empathy (b= -.11, t(187)= -.71, p =.48) as independent variables and was also insignificant.
Urban climbing video Sharing. The mediation model with urban climbing
video sharing as dependent variable and sensation seeking and anxiety as independent variables was examined. The relationship between sensation seeking and urban climbing video sharing was found to be mediated by urban climbing video enjoyment, nevertheless anxiety proved to be insignificant (b= -.06, t(187)= -.49, p =.62). Urban climbing video enjoyment functioned as a full mediator between sensation seeking and urban climbing video sharing (indirect effect = .36, SE = 0.09, 95% BCBCI [0.20, 0.56]. Urban climbing video enjoyment increased urban climbing video sharing and
an increase in the levels of urban climbing video enjoyment resulted in a higher video sharing potential (b = .30, t(187)=2.19 p =.03).
Discussion
The exploratory study provided new insight on people’s personality characteristics and their viral video preferences. The study confirms that some personality traits predict the online sharing of specific viral videos when mediated by enjoyment. Even though the effect sizes of our results are generally moderate, if interpreted correctly they can advance our understanding of three types of viral videos.
Our first part of the study concentrated on exploring whether personality traits are associated with specific viral video preferences. Surprisingly, people with greater anxiety levels did not find greater enjoyment in watching cat viral videos that according to literature might have helped them to release stress (Myrick, 2015). As expected, the ones who experienced higher enjoyment were the individuals who love animals more or cats in particular. That means, that animal and cat lovers not only like animals but also enjoy watching relevant content. Thus, this personality trait of theirs affect their viral videos preferences.
Another type of viral video that provided interesting results was fail videos. There was a negative correlation between fail viral videos and anxiety. Individuals who were more anxious seemed to enjoy fail videos less, probably because the content contributed to additional tension. Findings of the current study on empathy partially agree with previous findings suggesting that empathetic people might not take pleasure of watching a misfortune happening to another person (McGraw & Warren, 2010). Nonetheless, the two different types of empathy had a different effect
on enjoyment of fail videos. Participants who were more affectively empathetic did not perceive fail videos that entertaining, however cognitive empathy did not play a significant role. In like matter, sensation seeking is another factor that positively correlated with enjoyment of fail videos. This finding was unexpected as literature did not give an indication that there is a relationship between sensation seeking and fail video enjoyment. Why people who go after sensations enjoy more fail videos may be related to the sentiment of guilt. Lihoreau (2011) state that taking pleasure of the misfortune of others (schadenfreude) is a guilty pleasure. As this behavior is socially unwanted (Smith et al., 2009), when people engage to it they might feel that they are doing something risky and adventurous. Certainly, future research should demonstrate whether indeed there is a relationship between schadenfreude, guilt and sensation seeking.
The final video category that was investigated was urban climbing viral videos. Anxiety was negative correlated with enjoyment of urban climbing videos. This result is corroborates the content analysis of YouTube comments that was conducted during the study, indicating that media of this kind created anxiety and tension to the viewers. The thrilling content portrayed in the videos repelled individuals with fear of heights but attracted people with a sensation seeking personality. This finding is in line with literature, which argues that scary content is more enjoyable for those with the trait of sensation seeking (Aluja-Fabregat & Torrubia-Beltri, 1998). In the future, studies should include in the analysis the trait of aggression (Zuckerman, & Litle, 1986) in order to test whether it also plays an additional role in the enjoyment of this content.
Our findings on gender differences were fully in line with literature, in regard to empathy, sensation seeking, anxiety and animal affinity. However, our study revealed that gender could be an additional predictor for viral video enjoyment. Men showed greater enjoyment when watching fail videos and urban climbing videos, while both sexes equally liked cat viral videos. This difference in preference is somewhat expected, as females were found to be more anxious and less sensation seekers, traits that have correlated, respectively, negatively and positively with both fail video and urban climbing enjoyment.
Our main question branches out in three sub-questions, one for each video type, and seeks if personality traits can predict the sharing of viral videos online. For two out of three viral video types our results corroborate previous findings, which suggest that enjoyment can lead to content sharing (Nov et al., 2010). A series of correlations between personality traits and video sharing revealed significant relationships for cat videos and urban climbing videos. However, there was suspicion for an indirect effect, since the variables did not appear to have a definite connection. A mediating variable between animal affinity and cat video sharing was detected. Our analysis showed that this relationship was mediated by cat video enjoyment. This means that enjoyment of cat video enjoyment is the main reason for cat video sharing. The same relationship was also detected for urban climbing videos, where sensation seeking resulted to more enjoyment of urban climbing video, but enjoyment was the dominant reason of urban climbing video sharing. An interesting point of our study is that fail video enjoyment directly resulted to fail video sharing (p < .001), without a mediating relationship being present.
Some limitations of this paper would be that the cross-sectional design implemented in the study does not determine causal relationships. Thus, all our results are correlational and do not provide definite proof of causality. In addition, our analysis is limited to only three viral video categories. Finally, even if we consider the sample sufficient, the results cannot be generalized and there is no absolute certainty that our sample is truly representative of the whole population or at another time. A larger sample size will allow researchers to produce more definite and reliable results. As has been noted, some of the personality traits lead to greater potential of viral video sharing. Research should examine more in depth if the high arousal nature of these particular characteristics resulted in a higher video sharing potential and make a comparison to characteristics that lead to low arousal emotions. Furthermore, future research should include more personality traits and additional viral video categories. Lastly, as this study has been conducted using a cross-sectional design, it is crucial to further examine the topic using an experimental design.
Conclusion
Despite the fact that going viral has been proved to bring great benefits to companies and institutes, the numbers of researches on sharing and viral video is still limited. Nielsen states that 64% of marketeers agree on the upcoming domination of content marketing by online videos (Trimble, 2015). Success stories like Volkswagen's “Darth Vader kid”, with more than 50 million views on YouTube (Gass & Seiter, 2015), indicate that viral videos can be an integrated advertising strategy. Certainly, not all viral video branding strategies are equally successful and lead to a boost of sales. This research provides new insight on viral videos and their sharing potential.
By offering the most suitable video to consumers the probability of the content being shared increases. For example a company targeting males can use thrilling and exciting content in order to engage audience and grow brand equity through sharing. On the other hand the same strategy would not work for females. In summary, video marketing would be much more effective if individual personality characteristics are taken into account.
References
Akiskal, H. S. (1985). Anxiety: Definition, relationship to depression, and proposal for an integrative model. In Tuma, A. H., & Maser, J. D. (Eds.). (1985). Anxiety and the anxiety disorders. (pp. 787-797). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Aluja-Fabregat, A., & Torrubia-Beltri, R. (1998). Viewing of mass media violence, perception of violence, personality and academic achievement. Personality and Individual Differences, 25(5), 973-989.
Blumler, J. G., & Katz, E. (1974). The Uses of Mass Communications: Current Perspectives on Gratifications Research. Sage Annual Reviews of Communication Research Volume III.
Broxton, T., Interian, Y., Vaver, J., & Wattenhofer, M. (2013). Catching a viral video. Journal of Intelligent Information Systems, 40(2), 241-259.
Christov-Moore, L., Simpson, E. A., Coudé, G., Grigaityte, K., Iacoboni, M., & Ferrari, P. F. (2014). Empathy: Gender effects in brain and behavior. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 46, 604-627.
Day, A. (2017). Buildering: barely even a thing. The Journal of Public Space, 2(1), 147-152.
Gass, R. H., & Seiter, J. S. (2015). Persuasion: Social influence and compliance gaining. Routledge: New York, NY
Hamprey, M. (2015, April 1). FailArmy Advances Past 10M YouTube Subscribers: A Chat With Jonathan Skogmo. Forbes. Retrieved from
https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelhumphrey/2016/04/01/failarmy-
advances-past-10m-youtube-subscribers-a-chat-with-jonathan-skogmo/#5308c6ad19f2
Harris, R. J., Hoekstra, S. J., Scott, C. L., Sanborn, F. W., Karafa, J. A., & Brandenburg, J. D. (2000). Young men's and women's different
autobiographical memories of the experience of seeing frightening movies on a date. Media Psychology, 2(3), 245-268.
Hobbes, T. (2010). Leviathan, or the Matter Forme and Power of a Common Wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civil. University Press : London
Hoyle, R. H., Stephenson, M. T., Palmgreen, P., Lorch, E. P., & Donohew, R. L. (2002). Reliability and validity of a brief measure of sensation seeking. Personality and individual differences, 32(3), 401-414.
Lee, C. S., & Ma, L. (2012). News sharing in social media: The effect of
gratifications and prior experience. Computers in human behavior, 28(2), 331-339.
Lihoreau, T. (2011). Schadenfreude: The Little Book of Black Delights. Elliott & Thompson: New York, NY
Matloka, J., & Buhalis, D. (2010). Destination marketing through user personalised content (UPC). Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2010, 519-530.
Marshall, C. (2014, October 29). Cat videos on YouTube: 2 million uploads, 25 billion views. ReelSEO. Retrieved from: http://tubularinsights.com/2-million-cat-videos-youtube/
McGraw, A. P., & Warren, C. (2010). Benign violations: Making immoral behavior funny. Psychological Science, 21(8), 1141-1149.
McKirdy, E. (2014, October 19). On the Roofs climbers scale new heights. CNN. Retrieved from: https://edition.cnn.com/2014/10/17/world/asia/on-the-roofs-climber/index.html
Myrick, J. G. (2015). Emotion regulation, procrastination, and watching cat videos online: Who watches Internet cats, why, and to what effect?. Computers in human behavior, 52, 168-176.
O’Neil, M. (2010, November 24). The Psychology Of FAIL Videos. Adweek. Retrieved from: http://www.adweek.com/digital/fail-videos/
Peek, C. W., Dunham, C. C., & Dietz, B. E. (1997). Gender, relational role
orientation, and affinity for animal rights. Sex Roles, 37(11-12), 905-920. Remes, O., Brayne, C., Linde, R., & Lafortune, L. (2016). A systematic review of
reviews on the prevalence of anxiety disorders in adult populations. Brain and behavior, 6(7).
Reniers, R. L., Corcoran, R., Drake, R., Shryane, N. M., & Völlm, B. A. (2011). The QCAE: A questionnaire of cognitive and affective empathy. Journal of personality assessment, 93(1), 84-95.
Rentfrow, P. J., Goldberg, L. R., & Zilca, R. (2011). Listening, watching, and
reading: The structure and correlates of entertainment preferences. Journal of personality, 79(2), 223-258.
Shri, R. (2010). Anxiety: causes and management. International Journal of Behavioral Science (IJBS), 5(1).
Smith, R. H., Powell, C. A., Combs, D. J., & Schurtz, D. R. (2009). Exploring the when and why of schadenfreude. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 3(4), 530-546.
Spitzer, R. L., Kroenke, K., Williams, J. B., & Löwe, B. (2006). A brief measure for assessing generalized anxiety disorder: the GAD-7. Archives of internal medicine, 166(10), 1092-1097.
St. John, W. (2002, August 24). Sorrow So Sweet. A Guilty Pleasure in Another's Woe. New York Times. Retrieved from
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/24/arts/sorrow-so-sweet-a-guilty-pleasure-in-another-s-woe.html
Trimble, C. (2015, July 30). Why online video is the future of content marketing. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/small-business-network/2014/jan/14/video-content-marketing-media-online
Wallsten, K. (2010). “Yes we can”: How online viewership, blog discussion,
campaign statements, and mainstream media coverage produced a viral video phenomenon. Journal of Information Technology & Politics, 7(2-3), 163-181. West, T. (2011). Going viral: Factors that lead videos to become internet phenomena.
Willis, D. (2014, July 22). What the Internet Can See From Your Cat Pictures. The New York Times. Retrieved from
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/23/upshot/what-the-internet-can-see-from-your-cat-pictures.html
Yang, W., & Qian, Z. (2011). Understanding the Characteristics of Category-Specific YouTube Videos. Entstanden im Rahmen eines Informatikseminars an der kanadischen. Simon Fraser University.
Jiang, L., Miao, Y., Yang, Y., Lan, Z., & Hauptmann, A. G. (2014, April). Viral video style: A closer look at viral videos on youtube. In Proceedings of
International Conference on Multimedia Retrieval (p. 193). ACM. Zillmann, D. (1971). Excitation transfer in communication-mediated aggressive
behavior. Journal of experimental social psychology, 7(4), 419-434.
Zuckerman, M., & Litle, P. (1986). Personality and curiosity about morbid and sexual events. Personality and Individual Differences, 7(1), 49-56.
Zuckerman, M. (1994). Behavioral expressions and biosocial bases of sensation seeking. Cambridge university press: Cambridge
Appendix A Full Survey
Block 0 Block Options Q28
Thank you for your interest in this study! This survey is conducted by Kyriaki Laiou-Simcha and is part of the student's Master thesis for the Master’s degree in Communication Science at the University of Amsterdam. The study is designed to learn more about individual preferences and viral videos. It is important that you answer the questions truthfully and it is recommended to complete it using a computer or laptop. The entire survey will take about 8 minutes. Any information that you provide will remain completely anonymous. We will not collect your name or any other personally identifiable
information and you are free to stop at any time. If you have any questions now or later, you may contact Kyriaki Laiou-Simcha – via email at rika.laiousimcha@student.uva.nl
Thank you for your time and interest.
Q29
I agree to participate in this study
Yes
No
Socialdemographics Block Options Q31
What is your gender?
Male
Female
Other
Q33
How old are you?
Q35
What is the highest educational level you have obtained or that you are currently obtaining?
No schooling completed
Primary / elementary school
Secondary school / high school
Bachelor's degree
Master's degree
PhD
Other
Q38
Please indicate your social setting:
Working Studying Unemployed Retired Internet Consumption Block Options
Q35
How often do you watch videos online?
Several times a day
Once a day
3–5 times a week
1–2 times a week
Once every few weeks
Less than once every few weeks
Q45
Have you used the Internet to do any of the following activities? (You can select more than one answer)
Send or read email
Instant messaging with friends
Listen to music or watch video clips
Play games
Work on research for your school or job
Pay bills or online-banking
Take a class online
Buy something
Other
Empathy Block Options Q37
Please answer how much you agree or disagree with the following statements:
Strongly Disagree Strongly Agree I can easily
work out what another person might want to talk about. I can tell if someone is masking their true emotion. I can sense if I am intruding,
Strongly Disagree Strongly Agree even if the other person does not tell me. Before criticizing somebody, I try to imagine how I would feel if I was in their place. When I am upset at someone, I usually try to “put myself in his shoes” for a while. I always try to consider the other fellow’s feelings before I do something. I am happy when I am with a cheerful group and sad when the others are glum. It worries me when others are worrying and panicky. People I am with have a strong influence on my mood. I usually stay emotionally detached when watching a film. I am usually objective when I watch a film or play,
Strongly Disagree Strongly Agree and I don’t often get completely caught up in it. I often get deeply involved with the feelings of a character in a film, play, or novel. I often get emotionally involved with my friends’ problems. Friends talk to me about their problems as they say that I am very understanding. It affects me very much when one of my friends seems upset.
Brief Sensation-Seeking Scale Block Options
Q38
Please answer how much you agree or disagree with the following statements:
Strongly
Disagree
Strongly Agree I would like to explore
strange places.
I get restless when I spend
too much time at home.
I like to do frightening
things.
I like wild parties.
I would like to take off on a trip with no pre-planned
routes or timetables.
I prefer friends who are
Strongly
Disagree
Strongly Agree I would like to try bungee
jumping.
I would love to have new and exciting experiences,
even if they are illegal.
Animal affinity Block Options Q39
Please answer how much you agree or disagree with the following statement:
Strongly Disagree Strongly Agree I love animals. I love cats. I love dogs. I love reptiles. Fear of heights Block Options Q41
Do you feel a very strong fear when exposed to heights?
Yes
No
Q42
Do you try to avoid exposure to heights?
Yes
No
Anxiety Block Options Q43
Over the last two weeks, how often have you been bothered by the following problems?
Never Rarely Sometimes
Most of the time Always Feeling nervous, anxious, or on edge Not being able to stop or
Never Rarely Sometimes
Most of the time Always control worrying Worrying too much about different things Trouble relaxing Being so restless that it is hard to sit still Becoming easily annoyed or irritable Feeling afraid as if something awful might happen Climbing A Block Options Q7
Please answer these questions regarding the video you just saw Q8
How much did you enjoy the video?
Not at all 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Very much
Q9
Please rate the video regarding the following characteristics:
Not at all 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Very much Cute Exciting Funny Q50
Definitely not 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Definitely Climbing B Block Options Q7
Please answer these questions regarding the video you just saw Q8
How much did you enjoy the video?
Not at all 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Very much
Q9
Please rate the video regarding the following characteristics:
Not at all 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Very much Cute Exciting Funny Q48
Would you share this video?
Definitely not 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Definitely Cats A Block Options Q10
Please answer these questions regarding the video you just saw Q11
How much did you enjoy the video?
Not at all 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Very much
Q12
Please rate the video regarding the following characteristics:
Not at all 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Very much Cute Exciting Funny
Q47
Would you share this video?
Definitely not 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Definitely Cats B Block Options Q18
Please answer these questions regarding the video you just saw Q19
How much did you enjoy the video?
Not at all 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Very much
Q20
Please rate the video regarding the following characteristics:
Not at all 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Very much Cute Exciting Funny Q49
Would you share this video?
Definitely not 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Definitely Fail A Block Options Q21
Please answer these questions regarding the video you just saw Q22
How much did you enjoy the video?
Not at all 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Very much
Q23
Please rate the video regarding the following characteristics:
Not at all 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Very much Cute
Not at all 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Very much Exciting Funny Q51
Would you share this video?
Definitely not 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Definitely Fail B Block Options Q27
Please answer these questions regarding the video you just saw Q28
How much you enjoyed the video?
Not at all 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Very much
Q29
Please rate the video regarding the following characteristics:
Not at all 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Very much Cute Exciting Funny Q52
Would you share this video?
Definitely not 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Definitely Thank you Block Options Q53
Thank you for taking the time to complete this survey! The information that you have provided is
truly valuable and it is guaranteed that it will stay anonymous. For further questions or comments please contact Kyriaki Laiou-Simcha – via email at rika.laiousimcha@student.uva.nl
Click next to end survey!
Videos used in the survey
For the study six videos were utilized, with each category containing two videos. Cat video A: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhmthsU45wE
Cat video B: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFPxI7h8LMk
Fail video A: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDrNIT4-_wQ
Fail video B: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqAU6lh7PZs
Urban climbing video A: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZI0h3K6R-0
Urban climbing video B: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esNNyzmH3wo
Appendic C Abbreviations List BSSS: Brief Sensation Seeking Scale
QCAE: Questionnaire of Cognitive and Affective Empathy
Appendic D Tables
Table 4
Mean Differences and Confidence Intervals for Gender
Mean Difference 95% CI for Mean Difference
Anxiety -.559 -.918, -.199
Affective Empathy -.586, -.880, -.291
Animal Affinity -.426 -.832, -.020
Sensation Seeking .595 .223, .967
Fail video enjoyment 1.261 .576, 1.956
Urban climbing video enjoyment
