Examining the Motivations of Walt Disney Heroes and Villains and Their Association with Audience Appeal and Future Film Production

Guided by the model of intuitive-motivation and exemplars, we content analyzed the population of N = 734 Walt Disney Studio film synopses to determine whether Disney’s heroes and villains were motivated by altruistic or egoistic values, and if these values were associated with films’ audience ratings, box-office performance, or the future production of similar value-laden films. Results revealed that heroes were most likely to be motivated by altruism, villains were most likely to be motivated by egoism, and films’ emphasis on altruism was associated with more positive audience ratings and greater box-office earnings. No clear relationship between motivations and future film production emerged. We discuss how the present results can inform future work investigating the relationship between audiences and Disney content.