Do Personality Traits of Animation Characters Predict Their Likability?

Abstract

Background: In light of the popularity of animation movies, the present work conducted an analysis of the psychological factors that determine animation characters’ likability. The specific focus lied on people’s evaluation of the animation character’s personality traits. Methods: The qualitative analysis was effected by open interviews for animation fans and semi-structured interviews for experts. The quantitative analysis consisted of reliability analysis to validate the Likability scale, exploratory factor analysis for analyzing the factor structure of the item pool, and multiple linear regression analysis to compare the items in their quality to predict likability. Result: The present study conducted qualitative interviews with animation fans to generate 15 items for describing animation characters’ personality, and expert interviews to generate categories. This item pool was answered in an online survey by 79 participants. The quantitative analysis validated a newly constructed scale for likability; it found the four underlying psychological dimensions of amicability, stimulation, flaws and authenticity; it revealed the items interesting, friendly and funny as best predictors of likability. Conclusion: Results indicate that people like animation characters mostly because of the perceptions of interesting, friendly and funny. The most relevant underlying psychological factors to describe animation characters’ personality are amicability and stimulation. This insight can be applied to the design of AI-based user interfaces.