USC Team Project, Fall 2025

Do People Undervalue Rewatching Films?

Extending Repeat-Experience Research for the Streaming Industry

Morgan and her USC team presenting their rewatching research poster

Bar chart showing change in enjoyment from view 1 to view 2 for experiencers and predictors — Study 1 Findings: Participants enjoyed rewatching the short film much more than predicted

Bar chart showing change in enjoyment by rewatchability condition — Study 2 Findings: A public star-rated rewatchability score does not impact the likelihood that viewers will rewatch a show/movie.

Background

Tasked with standing on the shoulders of giants, we took inspiration from O'Brien (2019), which found that people underestimate how much they'll enjoy repeating an experience. Our team investigated whether this “rewatching penalty” holds for short films and, if so, whether showing viewers a public rewatchability rating could correct their misprediction. We framed the research question to have direct relevance to how streaming platforms surface and promote existing content.

Methods

Study 1: Establishing the Misprediction Problem(N=25)We used a between-subjects design: participants watched a short film, then either predicted their enjoyment of rewatching it (Predictors) or simply rewatched it (Experiencers) after a distractor task, rating enjoyment via Likert scale at each stage.
Study 2: Test Whether Social Influence Can Shift Enjoyment Predictions(N=63)We extended this to real-world movies, randomly assigning participants to see a high, low, or no public “rewatchability score” before predicting their enjoyment of rewatching a film they'd just seen, testing whether social-proof cues could shift predicted enjoyment.
Analysis using SPSS.

So What?

People enjoyed the second viewing more than they predicted, and a public rewatchability score couldn't shift that belief, so we recommended streaming platforms remind viewers of their own past enjoyment instead of showing aggregate ratings.