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... Perspective-taking influences identification with the character (Cohen & Tal-Or, 2017;Hoeken et al., 2016), which also is associated with drama enjoyment (Raney et al., 2009). Identification with a character refers to "an affinity toward the character that is so strong that we become absorbed in the text and come to an empathic understanding for the feelings of the character experiences, and for his or her motives and goals" (Cohen, 2013, p. 184). ...
To understand how viewers respond to two common movie plots (falling in love and cheating), this study considers the perspectives they might take. Study 1 tests which protagonists’ perspective viewers adopt when watching movies with falling-in-love versus betrayal plots. Study 2 then shows that viewers’ perspective orientation influences their affective experiences and enjoyment of betrayal movies but not falling-in-love movies. Study 3 explores the processes that lead to varying levels of enjoyment, attained by viewing movies with falling-in-love and cheating plots. A moderated mediation model reveals three processes: affective states resulting from goal attainment/failure, meaning derived through identification, and affective dispositions formed according to moral judgments. Viewers’ romantic beliefs moderate the second process, and their morality standards moderate the third.
... According to Eden et al. (2011), during the plot development process, heroes' and villains' behaviors consistently appear moral or immoral, respectively, but MAPs' actions shift between such descriptions. A notable stream of research compares viewers' responses to dramas with these three character types (Eden et al., 2011;Krakowiak & Oliver, 2012;Krakowiak & Tsay-Vogel, 2015;Raney et al., 2009;Shafer & Raney, 2013). Another approach explores whether viewers with different characteristics (e.g., propensity to morally disengage) respond to these characters differently (Janicke & Raney, 2015;Krakowiak, 2015) or whether MAPs' characteristics affect viewers' responses (Kleemans et al., 2017;Krakowiak & Tsay-Vogel, 2013). ...
... Prior literature often explores viewers' watching experiences in terms of enjoyment, hedonic gratification, fun, pleasure, or happiness (Oliver & Bartsch, 2010, 2011, or else their appreciation, eudaimonic gratification, and contemplation of life's meaning and purpose (Oliver & Bartsch, 2010, 2011. In studies that compare viewers' enjoyment of different plots, such as those featuring heroes, villains, and antiheroes (Raney et al., 2009;Shafer & Raney, 2013), inconsistent findings suggest both that dramas with MAPs evoke less enjoyment than those featuring heroes (Krakowiak & Tsay-Vogel, 2015) and that dramas portraying MAPs and heroes lead to similar degrees of enjoyment (Eden, Daalmans, & Johnson, 2017;Raney et al., 2009;Yoshimura et al., 2022). In studies of televised dramas, MAPs' character morality does not appear to prompt significant variance in enjoyment (Janicke & Raney, 2015). ...
... Prior literature often explores viewers' watching experiences in terms of enjoyment, hedonic gratification, fun, pleasure, or happiness (Oliver & Bartsch, 2010, 2011, or else their appreciation, eudaimonic gratification, and contemplation of life's meaning and purpose (Oliver & Bartsch, 2010, 2011. In studies that compare viewers' enjoyment of different plots, such as those featuring heroes, villains, and antiheroes (Raney et al., 2009;Shafer & Raney, 2013), inconsistent findings suggest both that dramas with MAPs evoke less enjoyment than those featuring heroes (Krakowiak & Tsay-Vogel, 2015) and that dramas portraying MAPs and heroes lead to similar degrees of enjoyment (Eden, Daalmans, & Johnson, 2017;Raney et al., 2009;Yoshimura et al., 2022). In studies of televised dramas, MAPs' character morality does not appear to prompt significant variance in enjoyment (Janicke & Raney, 2015). ...
Building on moral foundations theory, this article explores which combinations of moral ambiguity domains (care–harm, care–unfairness, fairness–harm, and fairness–unfairness) exhibited by morally ambiguous protagonists (MAPs) in movies evoke a stronger sense of moral conflict in viewers. It further explores viewers’ moral judgment process when they perceive moral conflicts in protagonists who demonstrate moral ambiguity. Study 1, using a measurement-of-mediation design, confirms a moral judgment process; perceived moral conflict encourages viewers to infer that the protagonists suffer a disturbed moral conscience when they find justification in MAPs’ motives for their behaviors. Such inferences lead to the approbation of their behaviors and then result in eudaimonic experiences and a sense of self-expansion. With a moderation-of-process design, Study 2 provides further evidence that behavioral approbation has a mediating role in viewers’ appreciation processes. Click the link for a free copy: https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/DDPGVAIMWZZ2E23EJHZZ/full?target=10.1080/15205436.2024.2347333
... Perhaps this seems obvious, given Jefferson was homophobic and cruel in the punishment condition and welcoming and kind in the reward condition. However, numerous studies suggest audiences can identify with anti-heroes, or characters who engage in bad behaviors (Janicke & Raney, 2018;Raney et al., 2009). Thus, it is encouraging that participants in this national sample were more likely to identify with the role model who engaged in inclusive (versus homophobic) behaviors. ...
... This means that when a viewer meets a character, their liking of said character will be dependent on the moral evaluation of the viewer. This phenomenon explains why viewers like morally good characters and why good characters are not liked the same by every viewer, since different viewers hold different morals and consequently form different opinions about the same character (Kohlberg, 1981;Raney et al., 2009). ...
... Viewers expect and hope for a negative outcome for said character. If this expectation is met, satisfaction from the viewer increases (Raney et al., 2009;Black et al., 2019). ...
... This gave a short overview of their story and morality to the participant. Afterwards, participants were asked a series of questions, such as their overall enjoyment of the trailer and the moral judgment of the characters, using 5-point scales (Konijn & Hoorn, 2005;Raney, 2009). ...
In What Way Does Gender Influence our Perception of Morally Ambiguous Characters?
By Agathe Boudry
Understanding the perception of Morally Ambiguous characters, is a topic that still holds a lot of mystery in grasping and identifying all the individual factors it is influenced by. This study takes a closer look at how various influences, such as gender and different facial traits, work on the perception of Morally Ambiguous Characters. Characters with more dominant/aggressive features were measured against other characters sporting a more neutral or gender non-conforming look in a narrative context. Findings of these tests resulted in a statistical difference in the affective disposition between the female characters, suggesting a negative bias towards dominant and masculine women. Other findings include future directions towards the research of Morally Ambiguous Characters and facial structure with different populations. The findings and indications of this research could be of use in various industries such as games and film, however they could also be applied in fields such as psychology, gender, and literature.
... For example, Oliver et al. (2019) suggest that perspective-taking 2 may trigger moral disengagement, which they offer as a potential explanation for why perspective-taking was associated with the liking of anti-heroes and enjoyment of anti-hero narratives in their studies. Raney et al. (2009) further suggest that identification (which includes a significant perspective-taking component) "may well be the mechanism through which moral disengagement occurs" in response to morally complex protagonists (p. 20). ...
... 20). Raney et al. (2009) further predict that this relationship may drive narrative enjoyment for narratives with morally complex protagonists. Tsay and Krakowiak (2011) similarly argue that identification facilitates moral disengagement, leading to narrative enjoyment (see also Sanders & Tsay-Vogel, 2016). ...
The role of moral disengagement in evaluating narrative character behaviors has been a source of scholarly investigation for some time. Despite a theoretical interest in the process, little work has experimentally manipulated content features related to the mechanisms proposed by Bandura in his selective moral disengagement model. This paper presents the results of an experiment that manipulates the presence/absence of a victim of an immoral protagonist’s actions in an audio-visual narrative. We measure various narrative engagement variables including perspective-taking, approbation of behavior, and character liking. Thus, our study design tests content cues corresponding to Bandura’s selective moral disengagement hypotheses and links them to variables specified in Zillmann’s affective disposition theory. Findings indicate that perspective-taking with the immoral protagonist is enhanced when the victim is absent. Perspective-taking then has downstream effects on other narrative processing variables, such as character judgments, desires for specific story outcomes, and punitiveness toward similar real-world behaviors. The design of the current study thus provides a roadmap for future research, and we discuss the value of carefully manipulating narrative cues in order to encourage or discourage moral disengagement in viewers.
... Audiences are motivated to identify with characters to enjoy the narrative experience (Slater et al., 2014). Further, researchers have proposed that in the context of morally complex characters, identification may facilitate narrative enjoyment and attitudinal change (Meier & Neubaum, 2019;Oliver et al., 2019;Raney et al., 2009;Tsay & Krakowiak, 2011). Because identification involves a merging of the self with the character, audiences who identify with a morally complex character may be particularly motivated to interpret the character's actions in a favorable light. ...
... Because identification involves a merging of the self with the character, audiences who identify with a morally complex character may be particularly motivated to interpret the character's actions in a favorable light. Thus, Oliver et al. (2019) and Raney et al. (2009) argue that identification with a character is likely to encourage moral biases in favor of the character, promoting disengagement from moral standards that might typically condemn the character's actions (i.e., moral disengagement; see Raney, 2004). 1 Though theory regarding engagement with morally complex characters has advanced considerably in recent years, research has focused nearly exclusively on the effects of schema-based moral bias formation toward engagement with morally complex protagonists, noting that people show a positive bias in their interpretations of the immoral actions of characters perceived as heroes/anti-heroes. Yet the observed popularity of morally complex antagonists who oppose the protagonist's goals in entertainment narratives-to include The Avengers' Loki and Hannibal's Hannibal Lecter -suggests that positive engagement with antagonists does occur. ...
This work investigates what factors prompt audience members to engage with morally complex antagonists and examines potential real-world attitudinal outcomes of such engagement. A two-part experimental study (n = 140) examines whether the revelation timing of a character’s immoral behavior in a fictional narrative (late reveal versus early reveal) and a person’s morality salience (vice salience versus virtue salience) impact identification with a morally complex antagonist. Further, real-world attitudinal outcomes of antagonist identification are examined. Results demonstrated that identification with a fictional, morally complex antagonist can significantly impact real-world attitudes toward criminals. Additionally, revelation timing predicted identification with a fictional antagonist for male participants, but not for female participants, indicating a need for future research to investigate potential gender differences for identification with morally complex antagonists. A person’s own morality salience, however, did not significantly impact identification with a fictional antagonist. Overall, this work demonstrates that exposure to fictional narratives and identification with morally complex antagonists can affect real-world attitudes, and gives direction for future research to better understand the mechanisms that drive engagement with antagonists in narratives.
... Complicating this picture, ADT researchers have recently come to recognize an essential role for the mechanism of identification 7 in facilitating liking of morally problematic characters, such as antiheroes. This theoretical revision was precipitated by findings that whereas moral monitoring cannot explain liking of an antihero character, identification with the antihero can explain such liking (Janicke & Raney, 2015;Raney, Schmid, Niemann, & Ellensohn, 2009;Tsay & Krakowiak, 2011). Based on this research, Janicke and Raney (2018, p. 541) concluded that "liking of an antihero develops through identification with the character rather than moral approval (as with traditional hero protagonists)." ...
... But why would one want to identify with immoral characters in the first place, when most fictions also contain moral characters? Raney, Schmid, Niemann, & Ellensohn (2009) proposed that an accepting attitude toward violence and a lack of moral conviction should predispose to identification with, and enjoyment of, immoral characters. The positing of these specific factors bespeaks the mitigative stance of the ADT tradition: Immorality is assumed to be an obstruction to enjoyment that, as such, needs to be cognitively mitigated. ...
... 8 A personality psychological approach to villain positivity can complement the traditions of CMT and ADT in two distinct ways. First, the approach highlights individual differences in responding, which tend to be neglected by CMT, and, to a lesser extent, the ADT tradition, which has proposed trait-level modulators of identification (Raney, Schmid, Niemann, & Ellensohn, 2009), but which has not drawn upon the basic constructs of personality psychology. Second, a personality psychological approach may expand the explanatory scope of the ADT tradition by identifying personality trait-level modulators of the psychological processes explored by this tradition, including enjoyment, identification, and moral disengagement. ...
Paradoxically, villainous characters in film, literature, and video games can be very popular. Previous research in the traditions of cognitive media theory and affective disposition theory has assumed that villainous characters can inspire positive engagement only when audiences discount the villains’ immorality by focusing on positive traits or mitigating circumstances. Challenging this assumption, we argue that audiences with a conventionally immoral personality profile may come to engage positively with villainous characters because they share the villains’ immoral outlook to some significant degree. We find robust support for this hypothesis in a North American sample (N = 1805) by comparing respondents’ survey scores on the Dark Triad of personality traits (narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy) with their professed degrees of villain sympathy, identification, fascination, empathy, and enjoyment. We reject a competing hypothesis that such positive forms of engagement with villainous characters will be best predicted by respondents’ agentic values, such as autonomy and competence. Our results support a need to consider personality as a basic determinant of character preferences.
... The rise of anti-heroism tales may also stem from the idea of moral disengagement (Raney, Schmid, Neimann, & Ellesohn, 2009). People have been observed resolving the cognitive dissonance of liking a traditionally unlikeable character by granting "moral amnesty" (Raney et al., 2009) under certain circumstances to those who are demonstrating otherwise unacceptable behaviour because they like them and want them to succeed. Hence, their interest and investment in a character may quite often override traditional moral beliefs. ...
The tale of the anti-hero has long been told time and time again across many cultures. Its rise in popularity has been attributed to people no longer believing in traditional heroism “as a declining society was inadequate for it and as man had a sense of powerlessness in the face of a blind technology” (Neimneh, 2013).
... Affective Disposition Theory (ADT) stems from media psychology and proposes explanations for why and how an audience deals with various media entertainment narratives [13]. Its most basic premise is that users attach an emotion to relevant characters while consuming narrative media [14]. ADT states that the use of a specific form of media is a function of the affects and dispositions of viewers towards (medial) characters. ...
... The assumptions of ADT have been widely tested in academia, with strong empirical support based on a variety of media narratives [15]. Within the ADT, the formation of affects can be illustrated by moral judgements assessing the moral appropriateness of a specific behavior, varying levels of liking or disliking, and the identification with medial characters, which influence the valence and intensity of affects and the use of specific media [14]. Research already explored different antecedents of affects like the general attitude towards the behavior the character performs and demographic variables. ...
... Results show that a more positive attitude increases the identification and the liking of the character. Furthermore, taking into account assumptions of developmental psychology and the fast changing self-concept of younger people becoming richer over time, a negative relation between age and affects can be found [14]. Additionally, researchers proposed different antecedents of moral judgements. ...
Watching live streams of video games on the internet has become a
popular leisure activity, which is accompanied by a remarkable social and economic meaningfulness. Different academic studies already captured the empirical phenomenon, but it remains unclear if the consumption of live streams of
video games can be best described as a function of social or technological related
variables in a single study. Our approach takes an initial step to answer this question. We conducted a survey collecting data from 210 participants to better understand live streaming. Affective Disposition Theory (ADT) was used to capture
social and the Uses and Gratifications Theory (UGT) technology related variables. Using structural equation modelling, both theories showed their disjunctive
usefulness to explain the individual use of streams. Additionally, we were able to
derive a unified model capturing the interplay of social and technological aspects.
... Moreover, the persona of the antihero has been used in a variety of contexts. Mostly though, the antihero remained the fundamental feature of media and narratives that were narrowcast toward certain readers or viewers (e.g., Schafer, 1968;Simmons, 2008;Raney, Schmid, Niemann, & Ellensohn, 2009) such as those in the literary world. Hence, our deeper focus should be on examining his anti-hero image, as it could help us understand those important aspects of Cobain's rise in popularity that turned him into a commodity, despite the ideas conveyed by his music and the conceptual designs of his life philosophy. ...
