Riani Kenyon is a caffeinated Zillennial who is hopelessly addicted to The Sims 4 and binge-watches her latest anime obsession when she’s not busy bopping to early 2000’s K-pop. Beyond being a nerd, she has worked on initiatives for the UN Academic Impact and the UK Model WHO, and also explored politics while interning at the House of Commons.


People are looking for a visceral reprieve from the permacrisis

Essential Escapism

 quickly broke viewership records for the streaming platform. Within three weeks of its debut, it surpassed a billion total hours viewed, with over 150 million households streaming the show. 

Netflix

 What was the key to clocking these hours? Binge-watching. Research from YouGov suggests that 42% of Americans binge at least half the time they’re watching TV, and with Netflix confirming that its ‘all-at-once’ release model drives “substantial engagement, especially for newer titles,” it seems there’s no shortage of viewers wanting to fully (and quickly) immerse themselves in TV narratives. 

YouGov

The Verge

“Recent changes in technology have made it so that media is accessible to us 24/7,” says Kaitlin Woolley, an associate professor of marketing and the co-author of 

‘Down a Rabbit Hole: How Prior Media Consumption Shapes Subsequent Media Consumption’

. “As a result, people are getting sucked in on different media channels, even if they do not want to.” Take 

 as an example, wherein passive news consumption via social media leaves people oversaturated with negativity.

However, this media over-consumption isn’t always a bad thing – 39% of Americans say they’re satisfied after binge-watching content. 

Media Play News

 And despite the long-held belief that Gen Zers have dwindling attention spaces, there’s evidence to suggest they’re the ones with an appetite for never-ending video content. 

YouTube

 Regardless of who’s watching or what’s being watched, what is it that makes people get lost in media rabbit holes? Canvas8 spoke to Woolley to find out how people can claim back control of their media habits.

Why is this topic important to understand?

Prior research makes two opposing predictions regarding the rabbit hole effect. On the one hand, research highlights that people like novelty – they seek new stimuli to entertain themselves and can quickly satiate when consuming the same thing repeatedly. This would suggest that viewing similar media may cause people to switch to something new (i.e. seek variety). Yet other research finds that people seek consistency – for example, they always buy the same fruit for a snack or the same brand of laundry detergent.

People frequently become ‘stuck’ in a rabbit hole when consuming media, watching several YouTube videos in the same category or viewing several thematically similar photos on Instagram in a row, finding it difficult to stop. We wanted to know what causes individuals to choose to consume additional media on a topic that is similar to (versus different from) what they just viewed so that we could offer recommendations to brands and consumers.

How did you go about conducting your study?

We conducted ten studies examining people’s media choices. First, we assigned people to watch either two nature video clips from YouTube or two music video clips from YouTube. We then gave people a choice of the next video they wanted to watch from two options: a nature video or a music video. We found that people chose a video similar to what they previously watched. This study established the rabbit hole effect by showing that consecutively viewing two similar videos causes people to be more likely to choose another similar video than a dissimilar video.

Following that study, we observed that if videos were labelled under the same topic, people were more likely to choose to watch another video, demonstrating that the rabbit hole effect occurs when a shared category is accessible. In another study, we assigned people to view episodes on Netflix consecutively or in an alternating order – for example, watching two episodes of 

 in a row (versus alternating between episodes from the two shows). We found that people were more likely to fall down a rabbit hole when viewing videos consecutively (versus in an alternating sequence).

We identified the rabbit hole effect – that consuming similar media consecutively causes people to choose additional similar media over both dissimilar media or completing a non-media task. People fall down a rabbit hole when the shared media topic is more accessible. Three factors increase media topic accessibility and contribute to the rabbit hole effect: when media is perceived as similar, viewed consecutively, and viewed repeatedly. When these factors co-occur, people become immersed in the topic and expect that future media to be more enjoyable.

Our findings point to the right balance in similarity between media content that leads to the rabbit hole effect. People don’t want to watch the same exact content on repeat – they do want some variety. But simultaneously, the media needs to be somewhat similar to what was previously viewed for the rabbit hole effect to occur.

Our research is the first to identify the factors contributing to the rabbit hole effect. We extended prior research, which was constrained to binge-watching TV. We found that the rabbit hole effect is more pervasive and can occur when viewing video clips from a shared topic on YouTube or TikTok, or when viewing photos on Instagram.

One of the biggest benefits of rabbit holes, as the research points out, is the fact that they allow people to become fully immersed in a story. With 55% of Americans turning to TV as a way to ease stress or anxiety – surpassing yoga (33%) or taking a bath (42%) – according to streaming service Philo, there’s a clear benefit to these rabbit holes. 

Fierce Video

 There’s an opportunity for brands to make it easier for viewers to find like-for-like content that contributes to this sense of release. “Companies such as Netflix or YouTube can encourage consumers to engage more with their media content by framing content as related – for example, framing past consumption under a shared topic, such as ‘comedies’ or ‘funny videos,’” says Woolley.

It’s become common knowledge that doomscrolling is bad for our health – a study published in Health Communication suggests that 43% of American participants showed signs of ‘moderately problematic’ or 'severely problematic’ news consumption. 

The Guardian

 This type of negative engagement with news media, whether online or off, has left some searching for an alternative space where they can exercise healthier digital habits. It's the rationale behind 

, which connects people online through values, and 

, which encourages high-schoolers to be nice about one another online. There’s an opportunity for brands to find new ways to build positive spaces that platform good news, foreground friendships (not just influencer ads), and engage in social activism. It’s partly why 

 – a social media app hinged on the notion of posting just once a day – has soared in popularity.

Whether it’s anti-haul videos on TikTok or the growing discourse around discriminatory algorithms, it’s clear people are mindful of how they’re being influenced by brands online. 

Huck

 Indeed, when asked about how they feel about their time online, roughly half of Gen Zers and Yers claim they pay attention to how platforms keep them engaged. 

American Press Institute

 This has cultivated a sense of paranoia and distrust around social media, with some prominent writers labelling this shift the ‘enshittification’ lifecycle. 

Wired

 To mitigate their digital overload, 79% of Gen Zers and Yers in the US say they set limits on the time they spend on media platforms. 

 is a tool that helps simplify Android home screens, freeing users from notifications that compete for their attention and providing them with imagery that relates to their interests.

of Americans binge at least half the time they’re watching TV

of Americans say they’re satisfied after binge-watching content

When asked about how they feel about their time online, roughly 

 of Gen Zers and Yers claim they pay attention to how platforms keep them engaged

Consuming similar media consecutively causes people to choose additional similar media over both dissimilar media or completing a non-media task

This rabbit hole effect goes beyond TV viewing habits, with social media algorithms immersing people in similar media through in-app recommendations

With young people, in particular, increasingly conscious of how much time they spend online, there’s a growing desire for media platforms to foster healthier habits

Kaitlin Woolley is an associate professor of marketing at the SC Johnson Cornell College of Business. She studies the psychological processes underlying consumer motivation and obstacles.

Global

Media and Entertainment

Behavioural Sciences

Binge-watching shows on Netflix or scrolling social media feeds can lead to hours of entertainment. But what’s so enticing about watching multiple cat videos on YouTube? Canvas8 spoke to Kaitlin Woolley, the co-author of the paper ‘Down a Rabbit Hole’, to understand the allure of media binges.

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