Feels like Coming Home: Effects of Heimat Associations in Television Programs on Social Identity, Sense of Heimat, and Eudaimonic Entertainment Experience

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ABSTRACT Television programs with an emphasis on regional and familiar aspects related to individuals’ cultural social identity can evoke Heimat associations and convey a sense of Heimat. Following a preliminary study (N = 100) to develop an instrument to measure the sense of Heimat, a first experiment (N = 169) found significant effects of Heimat associations in a television program on television viewers’ Heimat-related social identity and, in turn, their sense of Heimat and eudaimonic entertainment experience. A second experiment in another region with a different sample (N = 147) replicated these findings.