Highly educated audiences prefer trash films.

PhysOrg is offering a tub of hot, buttered aesthetic vindication with its survey revealing that high education correlates with a love for awful movies:

However, with three sequels and a big fan community, a film like “Sharknado” is a perfect example for the success of trash films. “Apart from flying sharks, blood and guts are the main ingredients of this surprise trash hit”, says Keyvan Sarkhosh, postdoctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics. “At first glance it seems paradoxical that someone should deliberately watch badly made, embarrassing and sometimes even disturbing films, and take pleasure in them.” By means of an online survey among regular consumers of trash films, the authors were able to show how the typical features of trash films support a positive enjoyment.

The study, which has just been published in the journal “Poetics”, is the first major empirical investigation into trash films and their audience. Not only did the authors arrive at supporting established hypotheses and assumptions on ‘bad films’ in film and media theory, but also at providing new and surprising findings on trash fans and their attitude towards these films.

Indeed, that an appreciation of trash films is coupled with strong preferences for art cinema is one of the central findings of the study.

Moreover, the “delight in cheapness” is associated with an active exchange over the films watched.

[via Mr. Mills]