Survey seeks to find causes of critic-audience divisions

If you've ever found yourself disagreeing with a critic's opinion on a movie, new research could help you learn why.

The University of Waikato has begun its final audience survey on Sir Peter Jackson's Hobbit trilogy.

Audience Research Unit researcher Dr Carolyn Michelle says they're hoping to solve one of the big questions plaguing audiences worldwide.

"Audiences and critics often seem to have quite divergent responses. It's quite well known that critics often do react quite differently from mainstream audiences, so we're hoping our research will give some understanding of what that might be about."

Michelle says people's opinions about movies can be a big help in social campaigns.

"The information we're getting from our research will feed into giving a clearer sense of how to communicate messages in a way that encourage people to perhaps take on board some of these pro-social ideas about not smoking and so forth."

You can participate in the survey here.