Cinema is good for you: the effects of cinema attendance on self reported anxiety or depression and ‘happiness’

SC Noah Uhrig

No 2005-14, ISER Working Paper Series from Institute for Social and Economic Research

Abstract: I analyse the effects of cinema attendance on psychological well-being and happiness. The type of visual stimulation unique to film provokes an emotive response holding therapeutic properties. The collective and controlled experience of this emotive response promotes well-being generally. This analysis differs from most research into the effect of leisure on happiness, anxiety or depression, and well-being because it focuses on the effects of sensory stimulation and its resulting emotion inducing properties as opposed to leisure pursuits involving physical conditioning. This work differs further by systematically comparing 10 different leisure activities against cinema attendance in their relative affects on happiness and self-reported anxiety and depression. Using data from wave 12 of the British Household Panel Study, I find that cinema attendance has strong positive effects on happiness and stable negative effects on self-reporting of anxiety or depression, even when controlling for various socio-demographic and economic factors. This research confirms, therefore, that cinema is a unique leisure activity with beneficial properties for well-being.

Date: 2005-08-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe and nep-soc
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Published

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/fi ... ers/iser/2005-14.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ese:iserwp:2005-14

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
Publications Office, Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester, Essex CO4 3SQ UK
https://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/publications/

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in ISER Working Paper Series from Institute for Social and Economic Research Publications Office, Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester, Essex CO4 3SQ UK. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Jonathan Nears ().