Making Sense of Violence: Perceived Meaningfulness as a Predictor of Audience Interest in Violent Media Content

Research on audience interest in violent media content is extended to include individuals' appreciation of certain types of violent portrayals as a meaningful and valuable reflection of reality. A sample of 482 German and U.S. adults aged 18-82 watched movie trailers that varied in pretest ratings of gore and meaningfulness, but were equivalent in suspense. As hypothesized, perceived levels of gore and meaningfulness interacted to predict individuals' reported likelihood of watching the full movie, such that a negative influence of gore on viewing likelihood was compensated at high levels of meaningfulness. These findings suggest that, in addition to other motivations such as suspense, some types of violent and even gory content might be sought as an opportunity for meaning-making.