You Think You Know Your Taste—But Do You Know Your Type?

You scroll past a dozen titles. Reject the ones that feel too heavy, too quirky, too beige.

Then, without overthinking, you hit play.

You tell yourself it’s just what you’re “in the mood for.” But psychologists suggest your mood tends to reach for the same kinds of stories again and again.

A study published in the Journal of Personality by Peter Rentfrow, Lewis Goldberg, and Ran Zheng found that across music, movies, books, and TV, entertainment preferences fall into five broad dimensions.

These aren’t genres. They’re psychological signatures, each linked to traits like curiosity, openness, and social warmth.

Of course, these dimensions aren’t personality cages. You’re not stuck in one, and they’re not always distinct. You might bounce between them depending on your mood, your need, or whether your ex just liked someone else’s engagement post.

But even though a book or film might span more than one dimension, your queue still leaves clues.

So, I like to imagine each dimension as an inner character. Not a personality type, but a familiar pull. A version of you that surfaces when that kind of story feels right.

You don’t become the Dreamer, but sometimes the Dreamer in you wants the mic.

You’ll probably recognize yourself in more than one. So let’s start with the version of you that shows up when stillness isn’t cutting it.

The Edgewalker

“I seek peace in motion. When life feels flat, I pick stories with a pulse.”

This is you when you reach for spy thrillers, fantasy quests, dystopias, mysteries, or survival dramas. Anything that makes your heart rate sync up with the soundtrack.

This preference aligns with what the study calls the Thrilling Factor, made up of action-oriented genres like sci-fi, adventure, and crime. Interestingly, the studies didn’t find a consistent link with personality across samples for this one. Which suggests something kind of beautiful: sometimes you choose intensity not because it reflects who you are, but because it balances you out.

You’re not escaping. You’re recalibrating. Urgency becomes clarity. The only way forward is through the fire.

Then again, sometimes the thing you crave isn’t action, it’s closeness….

The Keeper

“I crave the emotional glue. Stories remind me what connection feels like.”

Think pop songs, rom-coms, family dramas, and sitcoms with ensemble hugs. This is the part of you that believes people can still choose each other and that forgiveness is a plot worth watching.

This Communal Factor is associated with traits like warmth, dependability, and emotional expressiveness. People drawn to this content tend to prefer low-conflict, relational narratives that emphasize social harmony and love. Many of these stories orbit around themes of found family, reconciliation, and healing.

You don’t need a twist ending. You need a moment where someone finally says what they mean and the other person actually listens.

You’re not sappy. These aren’t just easy watches. They’re emotional rituals.

You don’t watch them because they’re predictable. You watch them because they remind you what it feels like to belong.

But comfort isn’t the only kind of honesty. Some stories tell the truth in harder ways…

The Witness

“I stay where others turn away. Not to feel worse, but to better understand.”

This is you when your queue includes horror, intense dramas, grief narratives, revenge stories, or true crime. The ones your friends say they “don’t have the emotional capacity for right now.”

This Dark Factor is associated with high openness and social boldness, paired with lower agreeableness and conscientiousness. Translation: people with this preference are often willing to go emotionally deep and morally murky, even when it’s uncomfortable.

You’re not here for shock value. You’re here for emotional honesty. You’d rather feel something real than something easy.

These aren’t guilty pleasures. They’re acts of witness.

You look pain in the eye. Not because you enjoy it, but because you don’t believe in looking away.

And then there are stories that don’t provoke or soothe, they explain…

The Interpreter

“I turn content into questions. I don’t just consume, I construct.”