Wise Beyond Their Years: Testing the Mediated Wisdom of Experience Framework with Children

Abstract

ABSTRACT The mediated wisdom of experience (MWOE) framework posits that eudaimonic entertainment can produce outcomes associated with emotional maturity (e.g. delayed gratification). However, this framework has only been tested with adults. In the current experiment, parents and their 8- to 12-year-old children (N = 230) watched scenes from a popular Pixar movie that featured high or low levels of eudaimonic content (i.e. a bittersweet farewell vs. a humorous interaction). Afterward, they discussed emotional or superficial aspects of the scene (e.g. how characters felt vs. their favorite character). Results indicated that watching the high eudaimonic scene elicited children’s mixed emotions, which indirectly enhanced their delayed gratification. However, the significance of these effects depended on how mixed emotions were calculated. Age and conversation condition did not moderate any effects. These results hint at the utility of MWOE for investigating childhood entertainment experiences and highlight important issues with measuring mixed emotions in young audiences.