Researchers at K-State are trying to determine why and how people quote movies during everyday conversation.
    Richard Harris, K-State professor of psychology, examined these questions in a study, "Social Movie Quoting: What, Why and How?," which was published in the August edition of Ciencias Psicologicas.
    The study — the first of its kind — found that 100 percent of those surveyed had quoted a movie in conversation before.
    According to the study, lines were quoted almost accurately or completely accurately about 90 percent of the time.
    Those surveyed also said they most often quoted comedies, primarily to amuse themselves and others.
    Harris' subjects were college students in introductory-level psychology courses.
    Chris Garlow, junior in business administration, said he and his older sister often quoted movies when they were younger, just to make each other and their friends laugh.
    "I have latched onto that, and it has become ingrained in me," Garlow said. "It was a great way to express myself and have a good time and be goofy."
    Harris said he had the idea for the study after a research meeting revealed no one had investigated the behavior of quoting movies.
    So Harris, a cognitive psychologist who focuses on how people learn from the media, decided to study this behavior.
    "The first thing we did is a very qualitative study of asking people if they had quoted a movie in a conversation," Harris said. "It told us a couple things.
    "No one ever said, ‘We don't do that.' It also gave us some ideas for categories to use on a study that would be quantitative."
    Subsequent studies occurred in February 2006 and January 2007. Harris said recent movies were quoted most.
    In 2004, "Napoleon Dynamite," was the most commonly quoted movie. Harris said the movie did not appear as often in later studies.
    According to the study, the top three quoted movies, accounting for 24 percent of quoted lines, were "Dumb and Dumber," "Anchorman" and "Napoleon Dynamite."
    While Harris studied college students for all three of his research projects, he said he would like to study the same habits in older adults.
    He said studies that compare movie-quoting to other social behaviors are in the future.
    Subjects will receive four similar stories all ending with a different movie quote and will be asked questions like, "Do you like the people better?" and "Do you enjoy it more?"
    "When we quote movie lines in conversation, it's kind of a joke," Harris said. "We're going to try to compare those two a little more."