If you're a fan of Tommy Wiseau, Uwe Boll or Adam Sandler's magnificent disasterpiece The Cobbler, fret not. There's nothing wrong with you. In fact, according to a new study you're probably just smarter than everyone else.
Researchers have just published a piece called "Enjoying trash films: Underlying features, viewing stances, and experiential response dimensions" in the Poetics journal [via The Independent]. The report suggests smarter people enjoy watching dumber movies.
Keyvan Sarkhosh, a postdoctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics in Frankfurt, Germany, writes the following:
At first glance it seems paradoxical that someone should deliberately watch badly made, embarrassing and sometimes even disturbing films, and take pleasure in them.... To such viewers, trash films appear as an interesting and welcome deviation from the mainstream fare. We are dealing here with an audience with above-average education, which one could describe as 'cultural omnivores'. Such viewers are interested in a broad spectrum of art and media across the traditional boundaries of high and popular culture.
So there you have it — there's a reason you find yourself binge-watching Paul Blart and Joe Dirt sequels. You're an intellectual.
Researchers have just published a piece called "Enjoying trash films: Underlying features, viewing stances, and experiential response dimensions" in the Poetics journal [via The Independent]. The report suggests smarter people enjoy watching dumber movies.
Keyvan Sarkhosh, a postdoctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics in Frankfurt, Germany, writes the following:
At first glance it seems paradoxical that someone should deliberately watch badly made, embarrassing and sometimes even disturbing films, and take pleasure in them.... To such viewers, trash films appear as an interesting and welcome deviation from the mainstream fare. We are dealing here with an audience with above-average education, which one could describe as 'cultural omnivores'. Such viewers are interested in a broad spectrum of art and media across the traditional boundaries of high and popular culture.
So there you have it — there's a reason you find yourself binge-watching Paul Blart and Joe Dirt sequels. You're an intellectual.
