The Dual Role of Morally Ambiguous Characters: Examining the Effect of Morality Salience on Narrative Responses

Krakowiak, K. Maja; Tsay-Vogel, Mina

doi:10.1111/hcre.12050

Cited by 33 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…For example, Superman—a quintessential superhero—should be more quickly categorized as “hero” than Deadpool—an antihero. Various permutations of this procedure could help determine whether antihero characters (and other morally ambiguous characters [MACs]) are a subordinate category of the basic category “hero” or whether these characters fit into their own basic category distinct from both heroes and villains (see Krakowiak & Oliver, 2012; see also Krakowiak & Tsay-Vogel, 2015).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Sensing Heroes and Villains: Character-Schema and the Disposition Formation Process

Grizzard

Huang

Fitzgerald

et al. 2017

Communication Research

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Character morality is an integral variable within disposition theories. Zillmann proposed that moral judgments of characters result from a viewer monitoring and approving/disapproving of a character's behaviors. Raney proposed a schemabased theoretical expansion of this model, wherein moral judgments of characters and disposition formation-facilitated by the activation of character-schema (e.g., hero/villain)-might occur prior to the observation of behavior. Three experimental studies were conducted to test Raney's hypotheses and to integrate them into Zillmann's original models. Study 1 indicates that visual cues associated with heroes and villains evoke character-consistent moral judgments absent character behaviors. Study 2 demonstrates that character-schema activation is magnified by the presence of an opposing character. Finally, Study 3 demonstrates that schema-based moral judgments can bias approbation of behaviors and subsequent moral judgments of characters. Theoretical implications and directions for future research are discussed.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There is a growing focus within narrative research on MACs, such as antiheroes (see Eden, Daalmans, & Johnson, 2016; Eden, Grizzard, & Lewis, 2011; Janicke & Raney, 2015; Krakowiak & Oliver, 2012; Krakowiak & Tsay-Vogel, 2013, 2015; Raney & Janicke, 2013). A combination of our approach with this past work might yield novel predictions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sensing Heroes and Villains: Character-Schema and the Disposition Formation Process

Grizzard

Huang

Fitzgerald

et al. 2017

Communication Research

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“…Justification of violence. The growing prevalence of morally ambiguous protagonists in entertainment narratives suggests the importance of examining violence from a moral perspective (Krakowiak & Tsay-Vogel, 2015). According to Bandura, Barbaranelli, Caprara, and Pastorelli (1996), individuals engage in moral disengagement to exert control over their moral self-regulation process.…”

Section: Violence On Tvmentioning

confidence: 99%

Online original TV series: Examining portrayals of violence in popular binge-watched programs and social reality perceptions.

Krongard

Tsay-Vogel

2020

Psychology of Popular Media

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Cultivation theory asserts that heavy exposure to universal themes on TV lead viewers to see the world in ways that parallel TV. This research applies cultivation theory to a contemporary context by considering portrayals of violence in online original TV series. In Study 1, a content analysis of commonly binge-watched online original TV programs revealed 5.9 violent instances per hour, generally characterized as explicit, serious, significant, graphic, and intentional. Moral justification of violence was rare; however, those who engaged in justified violence were frequently White perpetrators. While non-White females were more likely to be targets of sexual violence, non-White males were more likely to be perpetrators of sexual violence. Study 2 found that exposure to these commonly binge-watched online original TV programs was positively related to mean world perceptions and negatively related to kind world perceptions, suggesting that heavier viewers of these programs are more likely to view others as unkind and less likely to perceive them as altruistic. Implications for violence in online streaming TV are discussed. Public Policy Relevance Statement This two-part study aims to understand the representations of violence in contemporary digital TV as well as the viewers' perceptions of the real world. Study 1 revealed that the online original series sampled portrayed intense, graphic violence with problematic representations of race and gender. Findings of Study 2 suggest that viewers who spend more time consuming commonly binge-watched online original programming are more likely to see others in the world as mean and less likely to perceive them as altruistic.

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“…MACs are often described by what they are not: purely good or bad (e.g., Krakowiak & Tsay-Vogel, 2015). It is usually suggested that MACs are those characters who engage in both good and bad moral actions (Krakowiak & Oliver, 2012;Krakowiak & Tsay, 2011;Krakowiak & Tsay-Vogel, 2013, 2015Tsay & Krakowiak, 2011;Tsay-Vogel & Krakowiak, 2016), or those who enact both prosocial and antisocial behaviors (Krakowiak & Oliver, 2012;Tsay-Vogel & Krakowiak, 2016).…”

Section: Morally Ambiguous Characters (Macs)mentioning

confidence: 99%

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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The Dual Role of Morally Ambiguous Characters: Examining the Effect of Morality Salience on Narrative Responses

Cited by 33 publications

References 39 publications

Sensing Heroes and Villains: Character-Schema and the Disposition Formation Process

Sensing Heroes and Villains: Character-Schema and the Disposition Formation Process

Online original TV series: Examining portrayals of violence in popular binge-watched programs and social reality perceptions.

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

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