Effect of Audience Personality Traits on Reality Show Watching Motives

VARSHA JAIN¹ & SUBHADIP ROY²
¹Mudra Institute of Communication, Ahmedabad, India
²Indian Institute of Management, Udaipur, India

Abstract
The relationship between viewer personality and reality show watching has been a point of discussion among media researchers but has been rarely tested. The authors in the present study explore: (i) Reality Show Watching Motives (RSWM) of viewers, (ii) further investigates the impact of viewer personality on RSWM in a developing nation context. The authors followed mixed method approach to this end. A qualitative approach was applied to investigate consumer perceptions about reality shows and generate RSWM items. This was followed by a large scale survey to relate viewer personality to RSWM. Structural equation modelling was applied to generate findings in the quantitative phase. Five RSWM dimensions emerged from the qualitative and quantitative analysis. Consumer personality was found to have a significant impact on RSWM dimensions. However, there was variation on the effect of individual personality dimensions on individual RSWM dimensions. The study has theoretical and managerial implications.

Keywords: Reality show, reality show watching motive, viewer personality, mixed methods, structural equation modeling, India

References

Aaker, J. (1999). The Malleable Self: The Role of Self-Expression in Persuasion. Journal Of Marketing Research, 36(1), 45-57. doi:10.2307/3151914
Acton, G. (2003). Measurement of Impulsivity in a Hierarchical Model of Personality Traits: Implications for Substance Use. Subst Use Misuse, 38(1), 67-83. doi:10.1081/ja-120016566
Andrejevic, M. (2003). Reality TV: The work of being watched. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield
Publishers.
Barton, K. (2009). Reality Television Programming and Diverging Gratifications: The Influence of Content on Gratifications Obtained. J. Of Broadcasting & Elec. Media, 53(3), 460-476. doi:10.1080/08838150903102659
Baumgartner, H. (2002). Toward a Personology of the Consumer. Journal Of Consumer Research, 29(2), 286-292. doi:10.1086/341578
Bollen, K. (1989). Structural equations with latent variables. New York: Wiley.
Cantor, N. (1990). From thought to behavior: “Having” and “doing” in the study of personality and cognition.American Psychologist, 45(6), 735-750. doi:10.1037//0003-066x.45.6.735
Caplan, S. (2003). Preference for Online Social Interaction: A Theory of Problematic Internet Use and Psychosocial Well-Being. Communication Research, 30(6), 625-648. doi:10.1177/0093650203257842
Chadda, R., & Deb, K. (2013). Indian family systems, collectivistic society and psychotherapy. Indian Journal Of Psychiatry, 55(6), S299-S309. doi:10.4103/0019-5545.105555
CostaPT and McCraeRR1992Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R) and NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) professional manual.Psychological Assessment Resources Odessa: FL.
Crook SF, Worrell TR, Westerman D, Davis JS, Moyer EJ and Clarke SH 2004 Personality Characteristics Associated with Watching Reality Programming. paper presented at Annual Meeting of the International Communication Association, New Orleans, Sheraton, New Orleans: International Communication Association: 1-31.
Davis RK and Lombardi TP 1996 The quality of life of rural high school special education graduates: A follow-up study. In: Rural goals 2000: Building programs that work [Microfiche]. Available: ERIC Document: ED394765
Desai, S. (2011). KBC & the rescue of reality. Times Of India Blogs. Retrieved 21 November 2014, from http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Citycitybangbang/kbc-the-rescue-of-reality/
Dixit M and Raman M 2012 A Comparative Analysis of The Indian And The Western Audience For TV Reality Shows. International Journal of Sales and Marketing Management 1 (1) [online] http://www.iaset.us/view_archives.php?year=2012&jid=33&jtype=2.
Emmons, A. (1989). The Personal Striving Approach to Personality. In L. Pervin, Goal Concepts in Personality and Social Psychology (1st ed., pp. 87-126). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum Assoc Inc.
Eysenck, H., & Eysenck, M. (1985). Personality and individual differences. New York [u.a.]: Plenum Pr.
Fornell, C., & Larcker, D. (1981). Evaluating Structural Equation Models with Unobservable Variables and Measurement Error. Journal Of Marketing Research, 18(1), 39-50. doi:10.2307/3151312
Gefen, D., Straub, D., & Boudreau, C. (2000). Structural Equation Modeling and Regression: Guidelines For Research Practice. Communications Of The Association For Information Systems, 1(7), 1-80.
Goldberg, L., Johnson, J., Eber, H., Hogan, R., Ashton, M., Cloninger, C., & Gough, H. (2006). The international personality item pool and the future of public-domain personality measures. Journal Of Research In Personality, 40(1), 84-96. doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2005.08.007
Gustafsson, J., & Balke, G. (1993). General and Specific Abilities as Predictors of School Achievement. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 28(4), 407-434. doi:10.1207/s15327906mbr2804_2
Hofstede, G. (2014). India – Geert Hofstede. Geert-hofstede.com. Retrieved 21 November 2014, from http://geert-hofstede.com/india.html
Howard PJ and Howard JM 1995The Big Five Quickstart: An Introduction to the Five-Factor Model of Personality for Human Resource Professionals. Available: ERIC Document: ED384754
John, O., & Srivastava, S. (1999). The Big Five trait taxonomy: History, measurement, and theoretical perspectives. In L. Pervin & O. John, Handbook of personality: Theory and Research (1st ed., pp. 102-138). New York: Guilford Press.
John OP, Donahue EM, and Kentle RL.(1991). The Big Five Inventory – Versions 4a and 54. Berkeley, CA: University of California, Berkeley, Institute of Personality and Social Research.
Kassarjian, H. (1971). Personality and Consumer Behavior: A Review. Journal Of Marketing Research,8(4), 409-418. doi:10.2307/3150229
Little, B. (1996). Free Traits, Personal Projects and Idio-Tapes: Three Tiers for Personality Psychology.Psychological Inquiry, 7(4), 340-344. doi:10.1207/s15327965pli0704_6
Little, R. (1989). Personal Projects Analysis: Trivial Pursuits, Magnificent Obsessions, and the Search for Coherence. In M. Buss & N. Cantor, Personality Psychology: Recent Trends and Emerging Directions (1st ed., pp. 15-31). New York: Springer.
Maddi, S. (1996). Personality theories. Prospect Heights, Ill.: Waveland Press.
McAdams, D. (1996). Personality, Modernity, and the Storied Self: A Contemporary Framework for Studying Persons. Psychological Inquiry, 7(4), 295-321. doi:10.1207/s15327965pli0704_1
McAdams, P. (2001). The Person: An Integrated Introduction to Personality Psychology. Fort Worth: Harcourt College Publishers.
McCrae, R., & John, O. (1992). An Introduction to the Five-Factor Model and Its Applications. Journal Of Personality, 60(2), 175-215. doi:10.1111/j.1467-6494.1992.tb00970.x
McCrae, R., Costa, P., & McCrae, R. (1990). Personality in adulthood. New York: Guilford Press.
McQuail, D. (1994). McQuail’s reader in mass communication theory. London: Sage Publications.
Mead, J.(2006). Survivor and other reality TV gameshows: the uses and gratifications perspective on a reality sub-genre. Masters Degree.University of Wisconsin – Whitewater.
Mooradian, T., & Olver, J. (1997). ?I can’t get no satisfaction:? The impact of personality and emotion on postpurchase processes. Psychology And Marketing, 14(4), 379-393. doi:10.1002/(sici)1520-6793(199707)14:4<379::aid-mar5>3.0.co;2-6
Mooradian, T., & Olver, J. (1996). Shopping motives and the five Factor model: An integration and preliminary study. Psychological Reports, 78(2), 579-592. doi:10.2466/pr0.1996.78.2.579
Mowen, J. (2000). The 3M model of motivation and personality. Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Nabi, R. (2007). Determining Dimensions of Reality: A Concept Mapping of the Reality TV Landscape. Journal Of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 51(2), 371-390. doi:10.1080/08838150701307111
Nabi, R., Biely, E., Morgan, S., & Stitt, C. (2003). Reality-Based Television Programming and the Psychology of Its Appeal. Media Psychology, 5(4), 303-330. doi:10.1207/s1532785xmep0504_01
Nabi, R., Stitt, C., Halford, J., & Finnerty, K. (2006). Emotional and Cognitive Predictors of the Enjoyment of Reality-Based and Fictional Television Programming: An Elaboration of the Uses and Gratifications Perspective. Media Psychology, 8(4), 421-447. doi:10.1207/s1532785xmep0804_5
Ojha, A. (2011). Reality shows take centre stage on TV. Livemint.com. Retrieved 21 November 2014, from http://www.livemint.com/2011/07/28103739/Reality-shows-take-centre-stag.html
Oliver, M., & Armstrong, G. (1995). Predictors of Viewing and Enjoyment of Reality-Based and Fictional Crime Shows. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 72(3), 559-570. doi:10.1177/107769909507200307
Ouellette, L., & Murray, S. (2004). Introduction. In S. Murray & L. Ouellette, Reality TV: Remaking television culture (1st ed., pp. 1-16). New York: New York University.
Panja, D. (2011). Markathon: Digging into the reality of Reality Shows: A Booming Marketing Platform.Iims-markathon.blogspot.in. Retrieved 21 November 2014, from http://iims-markathon.blogspot.in/2011/11/ digging-into-reality-of-reality-shows.html
Papacharissi, Z., & Mendelson, A. (2007). An Exploratory Study of Reality Appeal: Uses and Gratifications of Reality TV Shows. Journal Of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 51(2), 355-370. doi:10.1080/08838150701307152
Punathambekar, A. (2009). Television, participatory culture, and politics: the case of Indian Idol.Flowtv.org. Retrieved 21 November 2014, from http://flowtv.org/2009/08/television-participatory-culture-and-politics-the-case-of-indian-idol-aswin-punathambekar-the-university-of-michigan/
Ray, R. (2009). Making it: Reality Television and Middle Class Aspirations in India. Retrieved 21 November 2014, from http://orias.berkeley.edu/summer2009/Ray.pdf
Reiss, S., & Wiltz, J. (2004). Why People Watch Reality TV. Media Psychology, 6(4), 363-378. doi:10.1207/s1532785xmep0604_3
Rindskopf, D., & Rose, T. (1988). Some Theory and Applications of Confirmatory Second-Order Factor Analysis. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 23(1), 51-67. doi:10.1207/s15327906mbr2301_3
Rubin, M. (2002). The uses-and-gratifications perspective of media effects. In J. Bryant & D. Zillmann, Media Effects: Advances in Theory and Research (1st ed., pp. 525-548). Marwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Publishers.
Shahjehan, A., Qureshi, J., Zeb, F., & Saifullah, K. (2012). The effect of personality on impulsive and compulsive buying behaviors. African Journal of Business Management, 6(6), 2187-2194. doi:10.5897/ajbm11.2275
Siddiqui, K. (2012). Personality influences on customer satisfaction. Interdisciplinary Journal Of Contemporary Research In Business, 2(10), 363-372. doi:10.5897/ajbm11.1945
Steel, P., Schmidt, J., & Shultz, J. (2008). Refining the relationship between personality and subjective well-being. Psychological Bulletin, 134(1), 138-161. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.134.1.138
Tiffany, K. (2006). Reality Show Participants: Employees or Independent Contractors? Employee Relations Law Journal, 32(1), 15-38.
Verplanken, B., & Herabadi, A. (2001). Individual differences in impulse buying tendency: feeling and no thinking. Eur. J. Pers., 15(S1), S71-S83. doi:10.1002/per.42

Dr. Subhadip Roy is a faculty in the Marketing Area at the Indian Institute of Management, Udaipur, Rajasthan, India. His research area is advertising and brand management with focus of qualitative and quantitative research.
Dr. Varsha Jain is an assistant professor in Integrated Marketing Communication and Chair, Dissertation at the Mudra Institute of Communication, Ahmedabad (MICA). She won gold medals as Young Outstanding Management Researcher: 2013 and Outstanding Woman Management Researcher: 2012 by the Association of Indian Management Scholars International. Her research areas are mobile and digital marketing, luxury branding and digital natives.