The importance of suspense and surprise in entertainment demand: Evidence from Wimbledon

Paolo Bizzozero, Raphael Flepp and Egon Franck

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2016, vol. 130, issue C, 47-63

Abstract: This paper empirically examines how suspense and surprise affect the demand for entertainment. We use a tennis tournament, the Wimbledon Championships, as a natural laboratory. This setting allows us to both operationalize suspense and surprise by using the audience's beliefs regarding the outcome of the match and observe the demand for live entertainment using TV audience figures. Our match fixed effects estimates of 8563 minute-by-minute observations from 80 men's singles matches between 2009 and 2014 show that both suspense and surprise are drivers of media entertainment demand. In general, surprise seems to be more important in this regard than suspense, and both factors matter more during a match's later moments. We discuss important implications for the design of entertainment content to maximize entertainment demand.

Keywords: Suspense; Surprise; Entertainment; TV audience; Betting odds; Tennis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D83 L82 L83 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

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Working Paper: The Importance of Suspense and Surprise in Entertainment Demand: Evidence from Wimbledon (2016)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:130:y:2016:i:c:p:47-63

DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2016.07.006

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