Watching one more episode and reading one more chapter: What entertainment contexts lead to retrospective imaginative involvement?

Research on retrospective-imaginative-involvement (RII) suggests individuals reflect on and play around with favorite narratives long after the story ends. We investigated different factors of entertainment consumption that could impact stories' memorability and audiences' RII. Findings provide evidence that TV shows and books consumed consecutively for longer durations were more memorable and more likely to be targets of RII. Audience members who tend to binge-watch and use narratives to escape were more likely to engage in RII. Likewise, leisure time increased RII whereas stress decreased RII. Overall, this study highlights how one's memory of a story (and the factors that shape memorability) impacts imagination and fantasy. Results suggest that the formation of robust mental models about narratives could be facilitated through binge-watching which might help people recover from daily stressors through retrospective imagination.