Egoism Versus Altruism in Television Content for Young Audiences

Abstract

The model of intuitive morality and exemplars is an organizational framework that was created to incorporate theories of basic human motivations with both micro- and macrolevel media research. Thus far, literature has integrated a framework of basic moral intuitions (here labeled altruistic motivations) with the model but has yet to integrate a framework of basic egoistic motivations. The current study integrates frameworks for both altruistic and egoistic motivations with the model in order to examine depictions of motivational incongruities (e.g., moral dilemmas) in television content for young audiences. Findings suggest that the frequency of depicted motivational incongruities increases as audience target-age increases. In addition, findings show that most motivational incongruities involve both egoistic motives versus altruistic ones, rather than just egoistic or altruistic motives alone. Discussion centers on implications for research on media and morality as well as entertainment theory.