Explaining the role of character development in the evaluation of morally ambiguous characters in entertainment media

Kleemans, Mariska; Eden, Allison; Daalmans, Serena; Ommen, Merel van; Weijers, Addy

doi:10.1016/j.poetic.2016.10.003

Cited by 29 publications

(27 citation statements)

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“…At a foundational level, ADT proposes that morally good characters will be liked and bad characters disliked (Zillmann & Cantor, 1976). Recent research has investigated the impact of characters who display different levels of morality, including pure heroes and villains (e.g., Eden, Oliver, Tamborini, Limperos, & Woolley, 2015;Grizzard, Huang, Fitzgerald, Ahn, & Chu, 2017), and morally ambiguous characters, or MACs (see Kleemans, Eden, Daalmans, van Ommen, & Weijers, 2017;Krakowiak, 2015;Tamborini et al, 2018). The prevalence and apparent popularity of MACs (Daalmans, Hijmans, & Wester, 2013) indicates that viewers do, in fact, like and enjoy them despite their imperfect morality.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…In response to this apparent contradiction, researchers have attempted to reveal mechanisms underlying viewers' enjoyment of MACs (see Kleemans et al, 2017). In one such study, Eden, Daalmans, & Johnson (2017) investigated how different character types, including MACs, are related to enjoyment and appreciation, using a typology of characters from the popular culture website tvtropes.com.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Indeed, one of the core contributions of was evidence supporting the notion that types of MACs vary significantly in their perceived morality across all moral domains. Importantly, researchers have noted that the term "morally ambiguous character" itself is lacking a unifying definition (Kleemans, et al, 2017;Tamborini et al, 2018).…”

Section: Morally Ambiguous Characters (Macs)mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Character morality, enjoyment, and appreciation: a replication of Eden, Daalmans, and Johnson (2017)

et al. 2021

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Character morality, enjoyment, and appreciation: A replication of Eden, Daalmans, and Johnson (2017) Koji Yoshimura Much research on media entertainment seeks to explain why viewers enjoy and appreciate a variety of media content. Affective disposition theory suggests that media enjoyment results from perceptions of the morality of characters and viewers' expectations for characters' narrative outcomes. However, research has struggled to explain how characters with varying morality (i.e., not perfectly good or bad) entertain viewers. This study replicates a previous study conducted by Eden, Daalmans, and Johnson (2017) that investigated different types of morally ambiguous characters, using a typology of character types based on an online, collaboratively sourced typology. Like the original study, this study found that character types varied in morality across moral domains, and that MACs were not more associated with variables related to self. However, unlike the original study, the present study found that morality was not significantly related to enjoyment or appreciation. Rather, according to the replicated analyses, value homophily was found to be significantly related to enjoyment, and both value homophily and self-expansion were significantly related to appreciation. Additionally, after collapsing the self-expansion, wishful identification, value homophily, and IOS variables into a single aggregate variable, the new combined variable was significantly related to both enjoyment and appreciation. The results of this study suggest that media viewers do not make very nuanced moral evaluations of media characters. Character types including heroes, villains, and different types of MACs were often not significantly different from one another in terms of perceived moral upholding. This may be explained by the schemas that viewers access, which guide their affective dispositions and moral disengagement. Implications for entertainment media research and are discussed.

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confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

Section: Morally Ambiguous Characters (Macs)mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Character morality, enjoyment, and appreciation: a replication of Eden, Daalmans, and Johnson (2017)

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“…In doing so, audiences are led ‘to appreciate truths about themselves and their world’, which ‘can bring about transformations that endure in some way once individuals return from the narrative world to their everyday reality’ (Green et al, 2004: 317–318). Transportation can be the result of audiences identifying with the heroes and protagonists of the film they are watching (Tal-Or and Cohen, 2010), and the morality associated with character development that audiences witness taking place (Kleemans et al, 2016).…”

Section: The Australian Audiencementioning

confidence: 99%

Chinese cinema and Australian audiences: an exploratory study

Talmacs

2020

Media International Australia

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Since Wanda’s acquisition of Hoyts Group in 2015, and Australia’s signing of the Film Co-production Treaty with China in 2008, Chinese cinema has gained access to mainstream Australian cinemas more than ever before. To date, these films have struggled to cross over into the mainstream (that is, attract non-diasporic audiences). Drawing on film screenings of a selection of both Chinese and Chinese-foreign co-productions recently theatrically released in major cities in Australia, this article finds Chinese and Chinese-foreign co-produced cinema will likely continue to lack appeal among non-Chinese Australian audiences. Concerningly, exposure to contemporary Chinese cinema was found to negatively impact willingness to watch Chinese cinema again, and in some cases, worsen impressions of China and Chinese society.

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“…Разрешающее воздействие снимает усвоенные внутренние запреты на определенные модели поведения. Формируемые телевидением модели могут ка-саться развязок различных ситуаций, гендерных ролей, самоэкспансии в ситуации и событиях, отличных от привычного, повседневного опыта [9], поведения в морально неоднозначных ситуа-циях [10] и т. д. и образовывать превалирующие комплексы убеждений, взглядов и ценностей.…”

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Analysis of the youth’s psychological response in relation to the frequency of watching extreme TV shows

Savina¹,

Баранова²

2018

ОСПП

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ANALYSIS OF THE YOUTH'S PSYCHOLOGICAL RESPONSE IN RELATION TO THE FREQUENCY OF WATCHING EXTREME TV SHOWS Summary:The study investigates the relation of psychological response to watching extreme TV shows with dominant emotional states, the level of anxiety and the vision of the world of young people. The study involved 71 students (26 males and 45 females). The research is based on such methods as an interview to determine typical response to watching extreme stories, the Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale, a technique for determining the dominant state of L.V. Kulikov. The frequency of watching extreme TV programs demonstrates a passive attitude toward life, anxiety, emotional instability, subjective dissatisfaction with life in highly anxious individuals. Most respondents note the negative impact of the media on the perception of the world if they watch a lot of criminal stories or news programs. Studying media impact on the respondents, the author revealed that they had negative emotions when watching such TV programs. It can damage their mental health, increase anxiety and sleep disorders, develop pre-neurotic and neurotic disorders. Keywords: extremity, media research, media impact, extreme stories, psychological trauma, violence, emotional states, cognitive response, anxiety.Введение. Современный мир, стремительно меняющийся, мульти-и поликультурный, во-влекает молодежь в экстремальность, в которой человек может выступать в различных ролях -как инициатор, жертва, очевидец или наблюдатель, зритель. Именно последняя группа стано-вится наиболее многочисленной благодаря широкому распространению и доступности интер-нета и телевидения. Событие, в том числе экстремальное, дано объективно, но это событие жизни данного конкретного человека, которое он осмысливает, переживает, действует в нем (или не действует), страдает (или радуется), т. е. оно связано с личностным смыслом данной ситуации [1, с. 82]. Критериями подобных событий являются необычность, новизна, трансординарность, переходы бытия/небытия в самых различных проявлениях, например природных и техногенных катастроф, бедствий, которые могут повлечь за собой человеческие жертвы, ущерб здоровью людей или окружающей среде, значительные материальные потери и нарушение условий жиз-недеятельности людей.

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Explaining the role of character development in the evaluation of morally ambiguous characters in entertainment media

Cited by 29 publications

References 29 publications

Character morality, enjoyment, and appreciation: a replication of Eden, Daalmans, and Johnson (2017)

Character morality, enjoyment, and appreciation: a replication of Eden, Daalmans, and Johnson (2017)

Chinese cinema and Australian audiences: an exploratory study

Analysis of the youth’s psychological response in relation to the frequency of watching extreme TV shows

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