Lauren Taylor on “The Good Guys: How Character Strengths Drive Kids’ Entertainment Wins”

This interview with the first author of the Character Strengths Report highlights the findings of the study and further work that can stem from this research.

Every year, as our children grow and change, entertainment media takes on a larger role in their development. With children having more access than ever before to consume television, film, and other alternative media on a daily basis, it has become important to filter developmentally appropriate content from potentially harmful content. Media that teaches positive values and aids with growth and maturity not only has the power to change lives but can have remarkable effects on the entertainment industry itself. 

The CSS report “The Good Guys: How Character Strengths Drive Kids’ Entertainment Wins” (Character Strengths Report) explores these concepts through Common Sense Media’s tagging system for content, which focuses on developmental appropriateness across age groups. The report, led by CSS Fellow Lauren Taylor, highlights how the presence or lack of character strengths in media relates to how kids and their parents perceive the content, and ultimately if the film succeeds. By comparing films lacking and presenting character strengths, results show that those displaying traits like teamwork and courage are more successful as measured by box office performance metrics. 

Character Strengths Are Universal

Taylor and her team assessed the following character strengths in their research: communication, compassion, self-control, curiosity, empathy, gratitude, humility, integrity, perseverance, courage, and teamwork. The last two were most prevalent and the study reveals that the magnitude of their positive impact can be felt internationally, regardless of culture. Taylor says, “It shows the universality of emotions and that these skills are important no matter what and span across all human beings.”  

What About Teen Audiences? 

Not only does the report find that media representing character strengths and positive values correlate to higher box office success domestically and internationally, but it also highlights where change needs to happen. “We answered the goal of the project, but I’m also really excited about the fact that we identified where character strengths are lacking in film and that teens are being left behind compared to the child audience,” Taylor says. “I have a passion for teen audiences and helping them, especially with teen mental health problems, and I’m excited to continue to explore that with these findings.” 

By looking at the frequency of certain strengths like courage and teamwork, but the infrequency of other equally valuable traits, Taylor discovered where media representation of character strengths needs to improve and why it's so important to do so. “Teenagers want more authentic content. They are rejecting storylines of what used to be popular, but the shift hasn’t been represented yet in film and television.” In an already flooded media landscape, there is a growing importance in listening to teens who speak up about what content is making them feel more accurately represented and understood and reflecting those comments in popular media. 

This highlights one of the bigger issues the report uncovered: the communication gap between content creators and teen audiences. Media has issues with misrepresenting teens and their values, something that adds to the failing line of understanding between storytellers and consumers. “Teenagers don't respond to content they feel is trying to send them a message or that is shoved down their throat,” says Taylor. Instead of working through this barrier, “content creators begin to think teenagers don't want to know how to, for example, display humility and integrity and self-control. This means audience members and content creators need to talk more.” 

An open line of communication will help better bridge the gap between studios and their audience and lead to the creation of work that is presented as authentic and genuine. Especially as technologies and the kids of this generation grow simultaneously, Taylor thinks these changes are worth the effort it will take to implement them. “There's a big shift between how I grew up and how kids grow up now so it’s important for researchers, content creators, and parents to realize media is not all good and it's not all bad.” 

This nuanced approach to media – such as highlighting character strengths for the benefit of consumers and creators – is exactly what the Center for Scholars & Storytellers aims to accomplish. “It’s a tricky balance to strike and nobody is going to get it perfect,” Taylor says. “But understanding the negative consequences that media can have and combatting that with some of the positive uses of it can go a very long way.”

Authentic Diversity in Movies Wins at the Box Office and with Kids

New research reinforces the value of authentic representation in film.

This post originally appeared on Common Sense on May 31, 2022.

Turns out that having diverse representations in our movies—real, authentic portrayals of people from a variety of backgrounds—is good for kids and the filmmaking industry. Recent research shows that films with more diverse casts are out-earning movies with less diversity. More diverse representations are also good for kids' emotional development and well-being.

Here's what the latest research reveals about where we're making progress with diversity in film, where we are not, and how the film industry's actions when it comes to more diversity and high-quality representation in movies impacts kids and families.

Films with more diverse casts drive higher movie ticket sales and revenue

The recently released Hollywood Diversity Report 2022: Part I was the ninth in a series of studies conducted by the Division of Social Sciences at UCLA. The study showed positive progress on diverse representation in film. In 2020, representation of people of color in front of the camera was proportional to the population for the first time—and this held true in 2021 as well, at 38.9% among film leads and 43.1 % for total actors in films.

Plus, bringing more diverse casts to the screen translated to financial results. The same report revealed that in 2021, films with casts that were 21% to 30% people of color enjoyed the highest median global box office receipts, while films with casts that were less than 11% people of color were the lowest performers, continuing a trend seen in the past four years.

Today's audiences seek out nuanced, high-quality portrayals of diverse characters

Films that scored higher on a measure of "authentically inclusive representation" (AIR) did better at the box office and received more acclaim from critics and audience members. The AIR 2.0: Driving Box Office Performance Through Authentically Inclusive Storytelling report from the UCLA Center for Scholars and Storytellers, Creative Artists Agency, and the Full Story Initiative found that large-budget films in 2021 performed better when they had more authentic representation. For every point increase in a film's AIR score, box office earnings increased by $18.8 million. High AIR films also scored 6% higher on Rotten Tomatoes audience scores and 22% higher on critics' scores.

The AIR 2.0 report's evaluation considered several factors. First, it looked at whether people from diverse backgrounds were on screen and behind the scenes, and if diversity was present, whether characters and stories genuinely reflected the cultures being portrayed instead of relying on stereotypes. Researchers also examined to what extent a film's representation increased the complexity of a general audience's understanding of that cultural group.

The influence and preferences of diverse audiences are driving these findings. The Hollywood Diversity Report 2022 also found that people of color accounted for the majority of domestic ticket sales for six of the top 10 films in 2021. Households of color accounted for a disproportionate share of the households viewing each of the top 10 films released on streaming platforms. And Black households gave their highest ratings to streaming films with greater than 50% minority cast share while White households gave films that were 21-30% minority their highest ratings.

Families prefer more diverse representation in films. Our own report, The Inclusion Imperative: Why Media Representation Matters for Kids' Ethnic-Racial Development, revealed that all parents prefer more diversity in the programming their kids watch.

The trend toward greater diversity in films is healthy for kids

More authentic diversity in media is a positive trend for kids' racial development. Ethnic-racial development starts early. Patterns suggest that even babies receive, notice, and organize information relevant to ethnicity-race. Over time, the portrayals a kid sees in the media can inform their sense of identity and where they fit in the world.

Among young people of color, watching favorable and authentic depictions of their own ethnic-racial group can have a positive impact on self-perceptions and views about their ethnic-racial group. In contrast, studies examining how media use influences Black children and adolescents have found that exposure to stereotypical media representations was related to lower self-esteem, satisfaction with one's appearance, confidence in one's own ability, feelings about their ethnic-racial group, and academic performance.

According to our study, Asian, Black, and Hispanic/Latino parents are much more likely to feel that the representation of their own ethnic-racial group in media is stereotypical than White parents do.

What makes a high-quality portrayal? Research informs how we rate diverse representation in media. My colleague Li Lai, senior director of content at Common Sense Media, puts it like this: "When we rate diverse representation in a film or show, we are looking for three-dimensional, whole characters who are more than their racial identity, gender expression, or sexual orientation. Even positive traits can be perceived as stereotypes. It's more helpful for kids to see multidimensional characters."

More diversity in front of and behind the camera will lead to more authentically inclusive portrayals

Encouragingly, roughly four out of five lead actors in 2021 were people of color. The Hollywood Diversity Report 2022 states that Black actors were 15.5% of film leads in 2021, just above proportional level (13.4%). Multiracial lead actors were proportional as well, at 10.3%. Yet the numbers for Hispanic/Latino, Asian, Native American, and Middle Eastern and North African leads were still underrepresentative in 2021 compared to their percentage in the general population.

When it comes to those behind the camera, representation has been much slower to shift, as reflected by the fact that writers and directors are still predominantly White males. The same report shows that only 30.2% of film directors and 32.3% of film writers were people of color.

The question of who's in control behind the camera can affect how authentically the characters are drawn in the script, who lands the audition, and how sensitively the characters are presented in the screenplay.

More diversity across the board is the only way to ensure films are more realistic and equitable in their representation. Given that the payoff is there for kids and for the business, we expect to see more movement toward diversity and authentic representation in all arenas of movie development and production. We look to the entertainment industry to continue to track progress and work to accelerate this trend.

It's not only good for the bottom line, it's important for the healthy development of kids.

Michael Robb

Senior Director of Research, Common Sense Media