Personality Traits and Fans' Motives for Attention to Fictional Narratives

Fans of fictional narratives are highly involved with and attentive to media texts. The present study investigated personality traits likely to influence the motivations that drive fans of fictional narratives to attend to their preferred texts and engage with other fans, drawing on Oliver and Raney's two-factor model of media enjoyment. In a survey of self-identified fans of fictional narratives or series (n = 401), respondents completed measures of the Big-5 personality traits, fan community involvement, cognitive flexibility, and hedonic and eudaimonic motives for viewing fan media content. Eudaimonic motives were associated with trait openness and cognitive flexibility. Hedonic motives were associated with conscientiousness and cognitive flexibility, but negatively associated with emotional stability.