Engaging Media Content and Fluid Intelligence: Is There a Correlation?

In this study of students at a master¿s degree-granting public university, Dr. Zerovnik looked for possible relationships between media preferences for simple or more complex media content and practical intelligence (also known as non-verbal intelligence or ¿street smarts¿), as well as various demographic and cultural factors. The author expected to find that people who scored higher on the Raven¿s Progressive Matrices assessment tool for pattern-matching ability would also prefer more complicated story lines, and do so in a linear fashion. The results failed to confirm this hypothesis, although there is some suggestion that there may be a curvilinear, inverted ¿U¿ shape relationship that goes up from the lower to middle ranges, then eases off at the highest ranges. The research also revealed various confounds related to the degree of audience identification with actors (¿sexiness¿ and similar age). The results suggest avenues for further research in finding out why people make media content and media delivery vehicle choices.