Threat and Television Viewing in the United States, 1960-1990

We examined people's television viewing choices to determine whether, during times of societal threat, people watch light programming to escape from self, or meaningful programming to explore their fears. Consistent with previous research (Doty, Peterson, & Winter, 1991; Sales, 1973), societal threat was defined as increases in unemployment, consumer price index, prime interest rate, bombings, crime, work stoppages, suicide, homicide, and divorce. The 20 highest rated television programs for each year from 1960 to 1990 were rated in terms of meaningfulness of content, realism of characters, and complexity of plot and compared to the indicators of societal threat. Results indicate that during times of societal threat people choose meaningful television programming that confronts serious issues.