Eudaimonic media for social good: the influence of meaningful media experiences on connectedness and health persuasion

Abstract Emerging research suggests that entertainment media consumption may elicit meaningful emotions that can be leveraged for social good. This study combines theories of eudaimonic media and social identity to test the outward-focused mechanism explaining how meaningful media experiences might influence health persuasion outcomes. Two experiments were conducted to examine the efficacy of meaningful media experiences in changing vaccine-hesitant individuals’ vaccination attitudes and intentions in the context of entertainment social media consumption and incidental exposure to vaccination messages embedded in user comments. Results showed that viewing meaningful music videos was associated with elevation, ingroup identification, and universal orientation. Elevation and ingroup identification mediated the association between media consumption and vaccination attitudes and intentions. Results offered theoretical and practical insights concerning the outward-focused mechanism underlying the impact of media-induced elevation on health persuasion.