Abstract
OBJECTIVE: This exploratory study examines the influence of visual images from the media on viewers, specifically, the influence of popular film media on viewers’ preference for interior life–style design characteristics that are defined as exemplifying straight, clean lines and lack of adornment.
RESEARCH DESIGN: A pretest/post–test research design was used with 168 subjects. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) determined whether exposure to a popular film video significantly influenced the subjects’ preference for life–style design characteristics.
ANALYSIS: Analyses were conducted on the total sample (N = 168), low–exposure subjects (N = 75), and high–exposure subjects (N = 93), using 0.05 level of significance as an indicator. In addition, the influence of gender, community size, and age were tested.
KEY FINDINGS: Gender, age, and community size were shown to affect the influence of popular film media on preference, especially among women between the ages of 23 and 30. High–exposure viewers preferred life–style design characteristics, and low–exposure viewers preferred traditional design characteristics, which were defined as those that reflected or imitated historical styles.
CONCLUSION: This study suggests that the visual images in popular film media have a direct influence on viewers’ preference for interior design characteristics. Questions arise concerning the influence of popular film media on design education, on its economic effect on the design industry, and on its role in social and cultural issues.
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