Perceptions of Moral Violations and Personality Traits Among Heroes and Villains

Morality Predicts Enjoyment But Not Appreciation of Morally Ambiguous Characters

“…Whereas Eden et al (2011) and Tamborini et al (2010) examined morality as a unified concept, Krakowiak and Oliver (2012) and Eden et al (2015) give reason to believe that evaluations of morally ambiguous characters are multidimensional rather than one dimensional. As such, a morally ambiguous character may have both positive and negative moral traits, whereas a less morally ambiguous character (i.e., a prototypical hero or villain) would demonstrate moral consistency across a variety of domains, either being all good or all bad.…”

“…most past approaches to understanding characters have focused on heroes and villains (Eden et al, 2014;Eden et al, 2015;Hoffner & Buchanan, 2005;Tamborini, Grizzard, Eden, & Lewis, 2011). Yet, characters' morality is more complex than simple white hat-black hat conceptualizations of morality.…”

“…However, there has been debate about whether morally ambiguous characters vary along one continuum of morality (i.e., from good to bad) or if they vary along separate domains of morality (cf. Eden et al, 2015). Specifically, Eden et al (2015) found that heroes and villains upheld and violated different domains of morality, however only among pure heroes and villains.…”

“…Eden et al, 2015). Specifically, Eden et al (2015) found that heroes and villains upheld and violated different domains of morality, however only among pure heroes and villains. Therefore, the first goal of this study is to examine the role of moral domains in distinguishing perceptions of character types beyond hero and villain.…”

“…Media psychologists (Eden, Oliver, Tamborini, Limperos, & Woolley, 2015;Konijn & Hoorn, 2005;Raney, 2004;Sanders, 2010;Zillmann, 2000) have tried to explain the mechanisms steering how we perceive, respond to, and enjoy media characters. Most often, this research has examined viewer responses to particular characters in television and film.…”