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Do dark personalities prefer dark characters? A personality psychological approach to positive engagement with fictional villainy
Abstract
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.
... They also found that Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy were positively associated with similarity to that antihero. Kjeldgaard-Christiansen et al. (2021), likewise, found that higher Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy were positively associated with positive engagement and identification with villains. Finally, Black et al. (2019) found that Machiavellianism was associated with liking for villainous characters (the other Antagonistic Triad traits were not measured). ...
... Instead, we developed a preselected list of antiheroes, heroes, and villains to be rated and averaged across ratings of characters within each category. Conversely, Kjeldgaard-Christiansen et al. (2021) and Black et al. (2019) used decontextualized items to assess liking of villainous and "dark" characters, respectively. The downside to this approach is that it loses some of the ecological validity provided by assessing archetypal qualities presented in the form of whole characters. ...
... Moreover, the greater perceived admirability of and similarity to antiheroes shown by participants higher in the antagonistic triad replicate the findings of Greenwood et al. (2021), who found that Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy were positively associated with similarity to a favorite (or, at least, a familiar) antihero character. The associations between the antagonistic traits and admiration for villains also replicate the findings of Kjeldgaard-Christiansen et al. (2021) and Black et al. (2019), who linked these traits to liking and positivity toward villainous characters. ...
Heroes, antiheroes, and villains in fictional narratives differ in the quality of their moral character. The current study examined whether Machiavellianism, grandiose narcissism, psychopathy, and everyday sadism predict ratings of admirability of and similarity to these three archetypal characters in the same study, expanding on literature that has typically examined personality predictors for ratings of only a single character type. Participants (N = 473) rated the admirability of and their similarity to 25 fictional heroes, antiheroes, and villains from popular media and also to first-person paragraph descriptions of hero, antihero, and villain archetypes. All four personality traits were positively associated with perceived admirability of and similarity to antiheroes and villains but to different degrees, with psychopathy and sadism showing the strongest results. The ratings for heroes were less consistent, with a positive correlation of narcissism with similarity to fictional heroes but negative or nonsignificant correlations for all other associations. The results suggest that antagonistic personality traits correspond to audience perceptions of morally problematic characters.
... 21,22 Furthermore, ongoing discussions center on the extent to which fictional characters, typified by figures like Tony Soprano, may serve as relatable touchpoints for individuals sharing similar psychological profiles, engendering both empathy and introspection. 23 Media psychological research has unveiled the influence of non-moral factors, such as a character's attractiveness and popularity, in evoking positive forms of engagement, including liking and identification. 24 Cognitive media theory posits that the appeal of morally ambiguous or villainous characters may not be exclusively determined by their moral standing, but rather by additional factors including the narrative framework and portrayal of the character. ...
... 24 Cognitive media theory posits that the appeal of morally ambiguous or villainous characters may not be exclusively determined by their moral standing, but rather by additional factors including the narrative framework and portrayal of the character. 23 Additionally, various researchers have identified factors contributing to the favorable engagement with morally ambiguous characters, who may attract viewers by virtue of possessing individual traits unrelated to their moral standing, leading to an intriguing paradox of allegiances. 25 Furthermore, cognitive media theorists argue that a positive disposition toward an immoral character can activate a cognitive mechanism termed "moral disengagement." 26 This mechanism may find its basis in factors that outweigh or mitigate the character's immorality, often inspiring forms of positive engagement. ...
James Gandolfini's lead role as Tony in The Sopranos has garnered critical attention for its nuanced portrayal of a mafia leader coping with mental health issues. This article explores and analyzes the dysfunctional psychological patterns exhibited by this character throughout the series and the impact on its viewers. This research offers an in-depth exploration into the development and manifestation of Tony Soprano's psychological disorders. It examines the underlying reasons and subsequent repercussions of his behavior combining a psychoanalytic framework and a content analysis methodology. By engaging in these approaches, it provides significant insights on the complex interplay between his delinquent conduct and mental health disorders. It uses qualitative content analysis to closely analyze pivotal episodes and character interactions across all seasons of The Sopranos. Informed by established psychological theories, this study identifies and interprets recurrent behavioral, cognitive, and emotional patterns within Tony Soprano's character. Additionally, it explores the impact of sociocultural factors on his psychological development. This analysis uncovers a range of maladaptive psychological patterns exhibited by Tony Soprano, encompassing antisocial and borderline personality disorders, pervasive anxiety, chronic depression, anger management issues, narcissistic tendencies, and unresolved childhood trauma. These complex dynamics emerge in his relationships with others, impact his decision-making, and significantly add to the richness of his character and the series’ storytelling. The Sopranos presents Tony as an intriguing case study, revealing the complex interplay between criminal behavior and psychological dysfunction. This article underscores the significance of recognizing and addressing psychological struggles in high-stress, morally ambiguous contexts, highlighting the intricacies of human nature. By delving into the layers of Tony Soprano's psyche, one gains valuable insights into this character's enduring relevance and allure and its portrayal in contemporary media. Moreover, this study suggests that Tony's portrayal may serve as a point of identification and reflection for viewers with similar pathological profiles. Understanding his complexity may offer a platform for individuals confronting analogous challenges to cope and seek help. As a result, this study may favorably encourage viewers to empathize with Tony Soprano's psychological difficulties, generating empathy and stimulating conversations regarding mental health depiction in media. Further research in this area has the potential to deepen our comprehension of the relationship between crime, mental health, and personal growth, with implications for both clinical practice and media studies.
... For instance, those disposed to behave aggressively identify with aggressive characters (Eyal and Rubin 2003;cf. Sestir and Green 2010: 283), and those who score high "on the Dark Triad of personality traits (narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy)" identify more with villains than those who do not exhibit these traits (Kjeldgaard-Christiansen et al. 2021). Based in cognitive linguistics, María-Ángeles Martínez's model of storyworld possible selves represents an analogous effort to get at readers' connection with characters (2018). ...
... M. Smith 1995: 222); other recipients may do so because, as I noted earlier (p. 29), they share dark personality traits with the character (Kjeldgaard-Christiansen et al. 2021). ...
Immersion, Identification, and the Iliad explains why people care about this foundational epic poem and its characters. It represents the first book-length application to the Iliad of research in communications, literary studies, media studies, and psychology on how readers of a story or viewers of a play, movie, or television show find themselves immersed in the tale and identify with the characters. Immersed recipients get wrapped up in a narrative and the world it depicts and lose track to some degree of their real-world surroundings. Identification occurs when recipients interpret the storyworld from a character’s perspective, feel emotions congruent with those of a character, and/or root for a character to succeed. This volume situates modern research on these experiences in relation to ancient criticism on how audiences react to narratives. It then offers close readings of select episodes and detailed analyses of recurring features to show how the Iliad immerses both ancient and modern recipients and encourages them to identify with its characters. Accessible to students and researchers, to those inside and outside of classical studies, this interdisciplinary project aligns research on the Iliad with contemporary approaches to storyworlds in a range of media. It thereby opens new frontiers in the study of ancient Greek literature and helps investigators of audience engagement from antiquity to the present contextualize and historicize their own work.
... A good illustration comes from an interdisciplinary study of villain positivity, that is, positive feelings about villainous characters, on which one of the present authors collaborated (Kjeldgaard-Christiansen et al., 2021; "Dark Personalities, Dark Characters" project funded by the Interacting Minds Centre at Aarhus University). The examination of reader and viewer responses to characters, traditionally framed in terms of audience "identification," has long been a topic in philosophy, film studies, and literary theory, as well as in media psychology and communication studies. ...
According to a widespread view in the arts and humanities, artworks are not only cognitively but also morally valuable. However, arguments for this claim often proceed with little attention to empirical evidence. At the same time, artists, filmmakers, and media creators deliberately deploy various devices to effect cognitive change; but whether these devices have the desired effects, and on whom, also remains largely untested. If we want to understand the ways that film and media can have moral impacts, we must step out of our disciplinary siloes. It is not enough for film experts, philosophers, and experimentalists to merely take note of each other’s work; collaborative interdisciplinary research is required, both to improve methods and to examine questions that have not yet been empirically explored. In this article we propose a framework for this kind of research, focusing on how media can influence moral understanding. We first outline the challenges that must be met for such research to be successful, including clarifying and operationalizing concepts, measuring moral understanding, and applying empirical methods to media and the arts. We then describe the advantages of interdisciplinary collaboration for meeting these challenges, in the context of some recent examples of interdisciplinary projects on related themes.
... Although current studies focused on the film genre preferences are still relatively rare, researchers also found unique correlations between personality traits, based on the Big Five model [8], and the five entertainment-preference dimensions (i.e., Communal, Aesthetic, Thrilling, Dark, and Cerebral) [9]. Researchers also argued that individuals with dark personalities (i.e., narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy) have a preference for the dark characters in the movie [10]. ...
Studies have investigated the factors that affect entertainment preferences, including what we listen to, watch, and read. Only a few studies focused on the film genres and current findings are still insufficient. To explore the relationship between personality and film genre preferences, this study uses the self-reported questionnaire to collect data and test the correlations between the two variables. The personality traits are analyzed based on the Big Five Model, which consisted of Extraversion, Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, Emotional Stability, and Openness to Experiences. The results indicate 1) there are positive correlations between the Big Five personality traits and film genre preferences, 2) the incorporation of Conscientiousness and Openness to Experiences could predict the film genre preferences, 3) the gender differences should be considered in the analysis of personality and film genre preferences as well.
... Admiration elicited by film characters can come not only from heroes but also from villains. Many studies show that admiration appears in villainous characters because these characters have superior qualities, which usually give the audience a sense of honour and empathy, among others (Eaton 2010;Kjeldgaard-Christiansen et al. 2021). According to Wei (2023), the film's aesthetic treatment of form, style and content can fascinate audiences with the amoral qualities of an evil character and generate admiration. ...
Film-induced tourism is considered a valuable marketing tool, especially crucial for the recovery of post-pandemic tourism. The rapid growth of digital streaming platforms has enabled film and television works to reach global audiences and impact viewers on a broader scale. Scholars and tourism operators increasingly recognise film characters’ pivotal role in global film-induced tourism. While film-induced tourism is generally believed to impact the image of tourist destinations positively, existing research has predominantly focused on the decent characters portrayed in films. However, the allure of captivating audiences is not confined solely to decent characters. According to narrative studies in film and television, villainous characters with extraordinary skills often have a stronger appeal to viewers than decent ones. Therefore, the objective of this study is to explore a rarely discussed topic: how villainous characters enhance the attractiveness of tourist destinations. This interdisciplinary research principally integrates character arc theory and reception aesthetics from film studies, emotion contagion theory from marketing research, and place attachment theory from tourism studies. Accordingly, this study examines the perceived charismatic leadership of villainous characters and its impact on film tourists’ emotion contagion, place attachment and visit intention. The study distributed questionnaires to 532 audiences who watched the Chinese police and crime drama titled, The Knockdown (狂飙), and who acquainted themselves with the villainous character Gao Qiqiang (高启强). Structured equation modelling showed that villainous characters with charismatic leadership can significantly impact the intention of film tourists. Specifically, perceived charismatic leadership directly influenced emotions of pleasure, arousal and admiration. Place attachment existed as a whole or partial mediator of the three emotions and visit intention. Moreover, the audience’s justice sensitivity negatively moderated the positive relationship between perceived charismatic leadership and emotions. Finally, the study provides insights and suggestions for film tourism marketers and screenwriters.
... Although current studies focused on the film genre preferences are still relatively rare, researchers also found unique correlations between personality traits, based on the Big Five model [8], and the five entertainment-preference dimensions (i.e., Communal, Aesthetic, Thrilling, Dark, and Cerebral) [9]. Researchers also argued that individuals with dark personalities (i.e., narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy) have a preference for the dark characters in the movie [10]. ...
Studies have investigated the factors that affect entertainment preferences, including what we listen to, watch, and read. Only a few studies focused on the film genres and current findings are still insufficient. To explore the relationship between personality and film genre preferences, this study uses the self-reported questionnaire to collect data and test the correlations between the two variables. The personality traits are analyzed based on the Big Five Model, which consisted of Extraversion, Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, Emotional Stability, and Openness to Experiences. The results indicate 1) there are positive correlations between the Big Five personality traits and film genre preferences, 2) the incorporation of Conscientiousness and Openness to Experiences could predict the film genre preferences, 3) the gender differences should be considered in the analysis of personality and film genre preferences as well.
... On the note of individual differences, it may be that interindividual variability in dark personality characteristics, such as the Dark Triad of narcissism (egoistic and grandiose), Machiavellianism (cynical and manipulative), and psychopathy (impulsive and antisocial; Paulhus and Williams 2002), influences the motivation to seek out, purchase, and read horror manga. For example, Kjeldgaard-Christiansen et al. (2021) showed that those higher in the Dark Triad dimensions were more interested in, identified more with, and sympathized more with villains than to those lower in these dark dispositions. ...
This article provides support for the argument that horror media “works” by activating evolved cognitive and affective systems that are flexibly tailored to local socio-ecological contexts. Guided by previous work using evolutionary theory to study horror literature (e.g., Clasen 2012, 2018, 2019), I investigate horror manga’s popularity and international market, which indicate a cross-cultural preoccupation with horror transmedia that is explicable in terms of the form’s ability to target evolved psychological systems. Specifically, these multimodal texts elicit the evolved emotions of anxiety, fear, and disgust in response to culturally specific and evolutionarily relevant narratives, characters, antagonists, and environments. Thus, horror manga reflects the myths, folklore, and religious traditions of Japanese society in addition to salient ubiquitous evolutionary threats such as predators, antisocial conspecifics, and infectious diseases.
... Because the Dark Tetrad is a recent outgrowth of the Dark Triad (Paulhus & Williams, 2002), which neglects sadism, most research works on consensus and assumed similarity effects have used Dark Triad measures (Jonason & Webster, 2010). For example, people scoring high on narcissism were more likely to engage positively with villain characters (Kjeldgaard-Christiansen et al., 2021) and identified more closely with characters who were similarly narcissistic (Gibson et al., 2018). Similarly, people scoring high on Machiavellianism identified more closely with villains and antiheroes with similarly dark traits (Black et al., 2019). ...
This study examined Big Five and Dark Tetrad personality perception for 56 characters from the popular TV show Game of Thrones—and the book series that inspired it, A Song of Ice and Fire—by 309 fans recruited from 3 relevant subreddits. Specifically, we examined consensus—the extent to which multiple perceivers (participants) rate 1 or more targets (characters) similarly—and assumed similarity—the extent to which perceivers (participants) see targets (characters) as they see themselves. Using cross-classified structural equation models, we found that consensus correlations were significant for all Big Five and Dark Tetrad traits, ranging from .54 for narcissism to .83 for agreeableness (M = .66, SD = .10). Assumed similarity slopes were positive (range: .07–.29; M = .15, SD = .06) and significant for all traits except conscientiousness and open-mindedness. Thus, raters reliably assumed that characters were similar to themselves on 7 of 9 traits. Exploratory sex-differences analyses showed no sex-of-character effects but significant sex-of-perceiver effects for conscientiousness, open-mindedness, and Machiavellianism; women perceived characters to be higher on these traits than men. In addition, women (vs. men) rated themselves as higher on extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness but lower on Machiavellianism. We also present rankings for characters with the highest and lowest scores on each trait. Broadly, this work is important for understanding not only how our perceptions of personality generalize to fictional characters but also how we use fiction characters—and our perceptions of their personalities—to better understand our own social world.
... However, there may be other ways of interpreting this evidence. For example, it may be that the self-reported attitudes that are taken as evidence of moral disengagement are better understood as superfi cial rationalizations of preexisting positive attitudes toward immoral characters (Kjeldgaard-Christiansen et al. 2021). ...
Morally flawed antiheroes in TV and film, such as Dexter Morgan and Dirty Harry, often inspire sympathetic engagement from audiences. Media scholars have argued that it is these antiheroes’ status as fictional characters that allows audiences to flout their moral principles and side with the antiheroes. Against this view, I argue that these problematic sympathies can be explained without reference to a special fictional attitude. Human morality is sensitive not only to abstract moral principles but also to the concrete motives and situations of an individual moral agent, and the motives and situations of the sympathetic antihero very often seem exculpatory.
... Characters in a movie get the audience to get the story directly even though the supporting minor characters in the movie story (Tran et al., 2017). Dark characters can reflect a wide variety of cognition and behavior forms (Kjeldgaard-Christiansen et al., 2021). In the story Sleeping Beauty, he is an antagonist, depicted living in his dark kingdom called 'Forbidden Mountain.' ...
The purpose of this study was to analyze 1) Maleficent character deconstruction, 2) female image deconstruction in the story, and 3) character values ??contained in the studied films. The research method used is a qualitative method with an emphasis on the character of Maleficent. Data collection techniques used are literature study techniques or documentation studies. The data analysis technique analyzes the content or text-based deconstruction survey theory, which begins with selecting data from the rewatching film 'Maleficent' and the rereading of the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale. The idea was used to search for opposition binaries and analyze Maleficent's character both in the film and in the original fairy tale. The results showed that Maleficent's existence was deconstructed into a figure of a magic woman who was kind, compassionate, motherly and always maintained the calm and safety of Princess Aurora. Deconstruction takes place on other supporting characters in evil films, such as the king and princess Aurora. The deconstruction can be seen in the image of women depicted in the film. Princess Aurora's image is deconstructed into a vital, assertive, straightforward, brave, and critical figure.
Finding enjoyable fiction books can be challenging, partly because stories are multi-faceted and one's own literary taste might be difficult to ascertain. Here, we introduce the ISAAC method (Introspection-Support, AI-Annotation, and Curation), a pipeline which supports fiction readers in gaining awareness of their literary preferences and finding enjoyable books. ISAAC consists of four steps: a user supplies book ratings, an AI agent researches and annotates the provided books, patterns in book enjoyment are reviewed by the user, and the AI agent recommends new books. In this proof-of-concept self-study, the authors test whether ISAAC can highlight idiosyncratic patterns in their book enjoyment, spark a deeper reflection about their literary tastes, and make accurate, personalized recommendations of enjoyable books and underexplored literary niches. Results highlight substantial advantages of ISAAC over existing methods such as an integration of automation and intuition, accurate and customizable annotations, and explainable book recommendations. Observed disadvantages are that ISAAC's outputs can elicit false self-narratives (if statistical patterns are taken at face value), that books cannot be annotated if their online documentation is lacking, and that people who are new to reading have to rely on assumed book ratings or movie ratings to power the ISAAC pipeline. We discuss additional opportunities of ISAAC-style book annotations for the study of literary trends, and the scientific classification of books and readers.
This research examines the factor structure and psychometric properties of two well-known Dark Triad personality trait questionnaires: the Short Dark Triad (SD3) and the Dirty Dozen (DD). By analyzing data from 11 (SD3) and 5 (DD) carefully selected studies in the United States and Canada, this meta-analysis uncovers unexpected correlations among questionnaire items, challenging existing assumptions. The study employs a two-stage structural equation modeling approach to evaluate various measurement models. Conventional models, such as the correlated factor and orthogonal bifactor models, fail to explain the irregular correlations. For Dirty Dozen items, a bifactor-(S·I-1) model is more suitable than the orthogonal bifactor model, significantly affecting interpretation. On the other hand, the complex structure of the SD3 necessitates item revision to enhance reliability, discriminant validity, and predictive validity. These findings emphasize the need for refining and clarifying concepts in item revision. Furthermore, the research highlights the overlap between Machiavellianism and psychopathy, particularly in relation to revenge-related items, suggesting the need for differentiation between these traits or the identification of distinct core characteristics.
Attribution of mental states is fundamental to our engagement with fiction. Crucially, its social content depends on mental states recursively “embedded” within each other; for instance, when a person doesn’t want other people to know about her intentions. Given that some characters seem to be consistently capable of embedding mental states on a higher level than others, this essay reviews factors that may influence authors’ constructions of such mindreading hierarchies as well as their reversals. The argument focuses on the reversal scenes in films Goodbye Lenin, The Lives of Others, and Never Look Away, and on prosocial emotions evoked by their depiction of a more equitable distribution of a presumably valuable and scarce resource, that is, access to other people's minds.
Character liking, identification, and parasocial interaction/relationships are terms used in various literatures to describe character engagement. The current paper synthesizes more than six decades of research in media psychology and communication science to organize and delineate four processes related to character engagement with fictional characters: Attention, Appraisal, Affiliation, and Assessment. In addition to defining and distinguishing these four processes, we describe how they are influenced by narrative, character, and viewer features, leading to moral adjustment – that is, a viewer’s own morality being shaped and molded through exposure to fictional personae. We endeavor here to diminish conceptual confusion and to clarify causal, temporal, and reciprocal relationships between the four factors regarding moral adjustment in viewers. By uniting these processes under a single conceptual model, we provide a framework for understanding moral adjustment through character engagement that can serve as a launch point for more focused research projects.
A mythopoetic paradigm or perspective sees the world primarily as a dramatic story of competing personal intentions, rather than a system of objective impersonal laws. Asma (2017) argued that our contemporary imaginative cognition is evolutionarily conserved-it has structural and functional similarities to premodern Homo sapiens’s cognition. This article will (i) outline the essential features of mythopoetic cognition or adaptive imagination, (ii) delineate the adaptive sociocultural advantages of mythopoetic cognition, (iii) explain the phylogenetic and ontogenetic mechanisms that give rise to human mythopoetic mind (i.e., genetically endowed simulation and associational systems that underwrite diverse symbolic systems), (iv) show how mythopoetic cognition challenges contemporary trends in cognitive science and philosophy, and (v) recognize and outline empirical approaches for a new cognitive science of the imagination.
Using a process model of emotion, a distinction between antecedent-focused and response-focused emotion regulation is proposed. To test this distinction, 120 participants were shown a disgusting film while their experiential, behavioral, and physiological responses were recorded. Participants were told to either (a) think about the film in such a way that they would feel nothing (reappraisal, a form of antecedent-focused emotion regulation), (b) behave in such a way that someone watching them would not know they were feeling anything (suppression, a form of response-focused emotion regulation), or (c) watch the film (a control condition). Compared with the control condition, both reappraisal and suppression were effective in reducing emotion-expressive behavior. However, reappraisal decreased disgust experience, whereas suppression increased sympathetic activation. These results suggest that these 2 emotion regulatory processes may have different adaptive consequences.
Proposes a developmental model of story liking for suspense stories. The model predicts that (a) reader identification increases with greater perceived similarity between character and reader; (b) increased identification leads to greater suspense; (c) liking of outcome is a joint function of character valence (good or bad character) and outcome valence (positive or negative outcome); and (d) overall liking of story increases with greater identification, greater suspense, and greater liking of outcome. The model was tested by having 44 2nd, 64 4th, and 64 6th graders rate suspense stories on 10 affective scales. Results show that similarity to character increased reader identification, and this, in turn, produced more suspense. A strong developmental trend in evaluations of story endings was found: Young Ss preferred positive outcomes regardless of the valence of the character, but older Ss liked positive endings for good characters and negative endings for bad characters. This finding is interpreted as evidence for acquisition of the "just world" belief. Overall story liking was predicted by path analysis of independent contributions of character identification, suspense, and liking of outcome. Results support the proposed model of story appreciation. (29 ref)
In this study conducted during the 2020 Coronavirus pandemic, I explored how trait morbid curiosity was related to interest in 1) factual information about Coronavirus that was specifically morbid; 2) general factual information about Coronavirus; 3) pandemic and virus genres of films and TV shows; and 4) genres of film and TV shows that center around threat more broadly. Participants (n = 125) who scored high in morbid curiosity reported increased interest, compared to usual, in pandemic/virus genres as well as horror and thriller genres. Morbidly curious participants were also more interested specifically in morbid information about Coronavirus. Furthermore, disgust sensitivity was unrelated to these preferences. These results provide initial evidence that trait morbid curiosity can predict particular media preferences in the face of a real threat, and that morbid curiosity may reflect an adaptive predisposition in some individuals toward learning about the dangerous and disgusting aspects of a threat.
Background
The current COVID‐19 pandemic comes with multiple psychological stressors due to health‐related, social, economic, and individual consequences and may cause psychological distress. The aim of this study was to screen the population in Germany for negative impact on mental health in the current COVID‐19 pandemic and to analyze possible risk and protective factors.
Methods
A total of 6,509 people took part in an online survey in Germany from 27 March to 6 April. The questionnaire included demographic information and ascertained psychological distress, anxiety and depressive symptoms, and risk and protective factors.
Results
In our sample, over 50% expressed suffering from anxiety and psychological distress regarding the COVID‐19 pandemic. Participants spent several hours per day thinking about COVID‐19 (M = 4.45). Psychological and social determinants showed stronger associations with anxiety regarding COVID‐19 than experiences with the disease.
Conclusions
The current COVID‐19 pandemic does cause psychological distress, anxiety, and depression for large proportions of the general population. Strategies such as maintaining a healthy lifestyle and social contacts, acceptance of anxiety and negative emotions, fostering self‐efficacy, and information on where to get medical treatment if needed, seem of help, while substance abuse and suppression of anxiety and negative emotions seem to be associated with more psychological burden.
Age and gender differences across the lifespan in dark personality features could provide hints regarding these features’ functions. We measured manipulation, callous affect, and egocentricity using the Dirty Dozen and their links with agreeableness in a pooled cross-sectional dataset (N = 4,292) and a longitudinal dataset (N = 325). Age trends for all dark personality features were progressive through adolescence, but negative through adulthood. Men scored higher than
women, but the gender gap varied with age. Trends for agreeableness partly mirrored these trends and changes in dark personality features and agreeableness were correlated. Results are discussed in light of the maturity principle of personality, gender role socialization processes, and issues regarding incremental validity of dark personality over traditional antagonism measures.
Post-apocalyptic fiction taps into the deepest springs of ancient and evolved emotions, but it found in modernity a particularly hospitable cultural ecology and a particularly receptive audience. Focusing on post-apocalyptic English language science fiction and horror literature of the Cold War era, I argue that a biocultural analytical framework is indispensable to making sense of this type of fiction. Post-apocalyptic stories function as a mental testing-ground where readers can cognitively and emotionally model the experience of living through the worst, and the genre prompts readers to reflect on the meaning of an existence that is always subject to radical change.
Morally ambiguous characters are often perceived to challenge Zillmann’s affective disposition theory of drama. At the heart of this challenge is the question: “To what extent can liking be independent of character morality?” The current study examines this question with a 2 (Disposition: Positive vs. Negative) × 3 (Character Type: Hero, Antihero, Villain) between-subjects factorial experiment that induces variance in liking and morality. We assess the influence of these orthogonal manipulations on measured liking and morality. Main effects of both manipulations on the measured variables emerged, with a significant correlation between measures. Regression analyses further confirm that liking is associated with perceived morality and vice versa. Because variance in morality was induced by the liking manipulation and variance in liking was induced by the morality manipulation, the assumptions of disposition theory regarding morality and liking seem accurate. Future research directions are provided that may help reconcile and integrate the seeming challenge of morally ambiguous characters with affective disposition theory.
Under conditions where the exchange of information is largely unrestricted, one measure of a story or genre's popularity is its pervasiveness, which may be assessed cross-culturally (e.g., how widespread the story is across societies) or intra-culturally (e.g., the percentage of group members who know the story). This definition embraces a host of motivations for telling or listening to a story (e.g., instruction, manipulation , curiosity, entertainment), many of which are subsumed by the criterion of relevance: when people have an interest in telling and/ or listening to a given story, we may say that the story has relevance for them. Story relevance is likely rooted in local ecology: stories that address problems the audience may experience in real life may be expected to attract widespread interest because the information they contain is potentially useful. Conversely, stories that do not address such problems may attract less interest because they have no practical application. This essay develops the hypothesis that relevance affects story pervasiveness by examining two popular story genres from two very different socioeconomic systems: the transformer tale and the bedtime story. The former is widespread across forager groups but absent in modern industrialized societies, while the latter is widespread across modern societies but glaringly absent from forager oral tradition. The principle of relevance would predict that each story addresses a problem that is specific to the ecology in which it is current. As we will see, this is the case: the problem addressed by the transformer is absent from modern industrialized societies, and the problem addressed by the bedtime story is absent from forager societies.
What is fiction about, and what is it good for? An influential family of theories sees fiction as rooted in adaptive simulation mechanisms. In this view, our propensity to create and enjoy narrative fictions was selected and maintained due to the training that we get from mentally simulating situations relevant to our survival and reproduction. We put forward and test a precise version of this claim, the “ordeal simulation hypothesis”. It states that fictional narrative primarily simulates “ordeals”: situations where a person’s reaction might dramatically improve or decrease her fitness, such as deadly aggressions, or decisions on long-term matrimonial commitments. Experience does not prepare us well for these rare, high-stakes occasions, in contrast with situations that are just as fitness-relevant but more frequent (e.g., exposure to pathogens). We study mortality in fictional and non-fictional texts as a partial test for this view. Based on an analysis of 744 extensive summaries of twentieth century American novels of various genres, we show that the odds of dying (in a given year) are vastly exaggerated in fiction compared to reality, but specifically more exaggerated for homicides as compared to suicides, accidents, war-related, or natural deaths. This evidence supports the ordeal simulation hypothesis but is also compatible with other accounts. For a more specific test, we look for indications that this focus on death, and in particular on death caused by an agent, is specific to narrative fiction as distinct from other verbal productions. In a comparison of 10,810 private letters and personal diary entries written by American women, with a set of 811 novels (also written by American women), we measure the occurrence of words related to natural death or agentive death. Private letters and diaries are as likely, or more likely, to use words relating to natural or agentive death. Novels written for an adult audience contain more words relating to natural deaths than do letters (though not diary entries), but this is not true for agentive death. Violent death, in spite of its clear appeal for fiction, does not necessarily provide a clear demarcation point between fictional and non-fictional content.
Many narrative films feature villains, major characters that audiences are meant to condemn. This article investigates the cognitive-affective underpinnings of audience antipathy in order to shed light on how filmic villainy is constructed. To that end, the article introduces an analytical framework at the intersection of cognitive film theory and moral psychology. The framework analyzes villainy into three categories: guilty intentionality, consequential action, and causal responsibility.
While there is a growing literature on “dark traits” (i.e., socially aversive traits), there has been a lack of integration with the burgeoning research literature on positive traits and fulfilling and growth-oriented outcomes in life. To help move the field toward greater integration, we contrasted the nomological network of the Dark Triad (a well-studied cluster of socially aversive traits) with the nomological network of the Light Triad, measured by the 12-item Light Triad Scale (LTS). The LTS is a first draft measure of a loving and beneficent orientation toward others (“everyday saints”) that consists of three facets: Kantianism (treating people as ends unto themselves), Humanism (valuing the dignity and worth of each individual), and Faith in Humanity (believing in the fundamental goodness of humans). Across four demographically diverse samples (N = 1,518), the LTS demonstrated excellent reliability and validity, predicting life satisfaction and a wide range of growth-oriented and self-transcendent outcomes above and beyond existing measures of personality. In contrast, the Dark Triad was negatively associated with life satisfaction and growth-oriented outcomes, and showed stronger linkages to selfish, exploitative, aggressive, and socially aversive outcomes. This exploratory study of the contrasting nomological networks of the Light vs. Dark Triad provides several ways forward for more principled and data driven approaches to explore both the malevolent and beneficent sides of human nature.
The purpose of this research was to explore the association between preferences for dark fictional characters, such as villains or morally ambiguous protagonists, and individual differences in related variables, particularly Machiavellianism and imaginative resistance (a reluctance to imaginatively engage with immoral fictions). Past research suggests that liking for morally ambiguous and evil fictional characters is a function of identification and moral disengagement (e.g., Janicke & Raney, 2017; Sanders & Tsay-Vogel, 2016), but does less to address why some people are more likely to successfully morally disengage and identify with such dark characters. Here, in a series of three studies, we found a robust association between liking for dark characters, self-reported imaginative resistance, moral purity concerns, and Machiavellianism. Such results suggest a need to include these constructs in models of fictional engagement.
Horror entertainment is a thriving and paradoxical industry. Who are the consumers of horror, and why do they seek out frightening media? We provide support for the threat simulation theory of horror, according to which horror media provides a form of benign masochism that offers negative emotional stimulation through simulation of threat scenarios. Through an online survey of genre use and preference as well as personality traits and paranormal beliefs ( n = 1,070), we find that sensation seeking and the fifth of the Big Five factors, intellect/imagination, predict liking of horror and frequency of use. Gender, educational level, and age are also correlated with horror liking and frequency of use (males show higher liking and more frequent use, whereas liking and use frequency are negatively correlated with educational level and age). People with stronger beliefs in the paranormal tend to seek out horror media with supernatural content, whereas those with weaker beliefs in the paranormal gravitate toward horror media with natural content, suggesting that people seek out horror media with threatening stimuli that they perceive to be plausible. While frightening media may be initially aversive, people high in sensation seeking and intellect/imagination, in particular, like intellectual stimulation and challenge and expect not just negative but also positive emotions from horror consumption. They brave the initially aversive response to simulate threats and so enter a positive feedback loop by which they attain adaptive mastery through coping with virtual simulated danger.
This study examined survey data and neural reactivity associated with voluntarily engaging in high arousal negative experiences (VANE). Here we suggest how otherwise negative stimuli might be experienced as positive in the context of voluntary engagement. Participants were recruited from customers who had already purchased tickets to attend an “extreme” haunted attraction. Survey data measuring self-report affect, expectations, and experience was collected from 262 adults (139 women and 123 men; age M = 27.5 years, SD = 9.3 years) before and after their experience. Changes in electroencephalographic (EEG) indices of reactivity to cognitive and emotional tasks were further assessed from a subsample of 100 participants. Results suggested that participants’ reported affect improved, particularly for those that reported feeling tired, bored, or stressed prior to the experience. Among those whose moods improved, neural reactivity decreased in response to multiple tasks. Together, these data suggest that VANE reduces neural reactivity following stress. This result could explain post-VANE euphoria and may be adaptive in that it could help individuals to cope with subsequent stressors. To the extent that this phenomenon replicates in clinical situations, it could inform clinical interventions by using VANE principles to reduce neural reactivity to subsequent stressors.
We propose that the dark triad of personality predicts how recipients respond to eudaimonic narratives (stories dealing with purpose in life, the human condition, and human virtue). Matched eudaimonic or non-eudaimonic videos were presented via random assignment. The more individuals lack empathy and organize their world around self-promotion – reflected in the so-called dark triad of narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy – the more they perceived the eudaimonic stories (vs. control) to be inauthentic and corny (perceived corniness). This effect translated to a more negative overall evaluation of the eudaimonic videos (moderated mediation). Self-reported feelings of being touched, moved, and inspired (meaningful affect) were largely unaffected by the dark triad, suggesting that these personality factors do not disable emotional responses to eudaimonic narratives.
Fear of infectious disease can create a variety of problems not the least of which is fear itself. An important question is how individuals attempt to manage their fear. The appearance of Zika in the U.S. presented an opportunity to examine this issue in a consequential natural context. Beginning nine days after the W.H.O. declared Zika a world health crisis, two-waves of survey data were collected from women ages 18–35 who were living in the Southern U.S. (N = 561). Most respondents (71%) used one or more emotion regulation strategies and a plurality (41%) utilized multiple strategies. Fear of Zika showed no demonstrable effect on avoidance, reappraisal, or contesting and none of these three strategies were effective at down-regulating fear. Fear and suppression, however, showed a self-reinforcing cycle in which fear increased use of suppression and suppression increased intensity of the fear response. Although the observed associations were small, even modest effects can be consequential when cumulated over time or across large numbers of individuals.
Abstract Dyadic play fighting occurs in many species, but only humans are known to
engage in coalitional play fighting. Dyadic play fighting is hypothesized to build motor
skills involved in actual dyadic fighting; thus, coalitional play fighting may build skills
involved in actual coalitional fighting, operationalized as forager lethal raiding. If
human psychology includes a motivational component that encourages engagement
in this type of play, evidence of this play in forager societies is necessary to determine
that it is not an artifact of agricultural or industrial conditions. We examine whether
coalitional play fighting appears in the hunter-gatherer record and includes motor skills
used in lethal raiding. Using the ethnographic record, we generated a list of motor
patterns regularly used in forager warfare. Then, using Murdock’s Ethnographic Atlas,
we identified 100 culture clusters containing forager societies and searched the ethnographic
records of these societies for descriptions of coalitional play fighting, operationalized
as contact games played in teams. Resulting games were coded for the
presence of eight motor patterns regularly used in forager lethal raiding. Although play
does not tend to be systematically documented in the hunter-gatherer literature, sufficiently
detailed descriptions of coalitional play were found for 46 of the 100 culture
clusters: all 46 exhibited coalitional play using at least one of the predicted motor
patterns; 39 exhibited coalitional play using four or more of the eight predicted motor
patterns. These results provide evidence that coalitional play fighting (a) occurs across
a diverse range of hunter-gatherer cultures and habitats, (b) regularly recruits motor
patterns used in lethal raiding, and (c) is not an artifact of agricultural or industrial life.
This is a first step in a new line of research on whether human male psychology includes motivations to engage in play that develops the deployment of coordinated
coalitional action involving key motor patterns used in lethal raiding
Research on moral judgment has been dominated by rationalist models, in which moral judgment is thought to be caused by moral reasoning. The author gives 4 reasons for considering the hypothesis that moral reasoning does not cause moral judgment; rather, moral reasoning is usually a post hoc construction, generated after a judgment has been reached. The social intuitionist model is presented as an alternative to rationalist models. The model is a social model in that it deemphasizes the private reasoning done by individuals and emphasizes instead the importance of social and cultural influences. The model is an intuitionist model in that it states that moral judgment is generally the result of quick, automatic evaluations (intuitions). The model is more consistent than rationalist models with recent findings in social, cultural, evolutionary, and biological psychology, as well as in anthropology and primatology.
Storytelling is a human universal. From gathering around the camp-fire telling tales of ancestors to watching the latest television box-set, humans are inveterate producers and consumers of stories. Despite its ubiquity, little attention has been given to understanding the function and evolution of storytelling. Here we explore the impact of storytelling on hunter-gatherer cooperative behaviour and the individual-level fitness benefits to being a skilled storyteller. Stories told by the Agta, a Filipino hunter-gatherer population, convey messages relevant to coordinating behaviour in a foraging ecology, such as cooperation, sex equality and egalitarianism. These themes are present in narratives from other foraging societies. We also show that the presence of good storytellers is associated with increased cooperation. In return, skilled storytellers are preferred social partners and have greater reproductive success, providing a pathway by which group-beneficial behaviours, such as storytelling, can evolve via individual-level selection. We conclude that one of the adaptive functions of storytelling among hunter gatherers may be to organise cooperation.
Earlier research has identified a remarkable number of related factors to resilience during adolescence. Historically, theoretical treatments of resilience have been focused almost exclusively on psychosocial levels of analysis to derive explanatory models. However, there is insufficient understanding of the role of emotion regulation explaining competent functioning despite the experience of adversity (resilience), especially during adolescence. This study explores the relationship between both, emotional regulation abilities and strategies, and resilience in a sample of adolescents from suburbs high-schools (Jerez de la Frontera, Spain). The study also examines how using different emotional regulation strategies may help the development of resilience levels at this stage. Participants of the study were 164 adolescents ranging from 13 to 16 years old (M = 13.98; SD = 0.66). Emotion regulation was measured using the Cognitive Emotional Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ, Garnefski et al., 2001), and sections D and H of Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test, a performance test (Emotion Regulation Ability sections, MSCEIT, Spanish version, Mayer et al., 2003). Resilience was evaluated with ERE (Educative Resilience Scale for children and adolescents, Saavedra and Castro, 2009). Verbal Intelligence (Yuste, 1997) and personality traits (Cattell and Cattell, 1986) were assessed as two independent variables. Results supported the idea that emotion regulation ability (MSCEIT, D and H sections, Extremera et al., 2006) is a significant predictor of adolescents' resilience. Moreover, cognitive regulation strategies, such as positive reappraisal, predicted perceived resilience among students. Sociability (A factor of HSPQ, sociability) also correlated with resilience levels. Hence, these results are promising, implying that emotion regulation ability may act as a helpful tool preventing adolescents from irrational risky behaviors, commonly assumed at this developmental stage.
Previous research has argued that narrative is an evolutionary adaptation, offering advantages in terms of survival and reproductive successes. It is yet unclear, however, how narratives may promote our fitness to survive. Integrating developments in narrative theory, evolutionary psychology, communication science, and cognitive neuroscience, this article presents a Mental Simulation Model that explains the mechanisms through which narratives prepare us for potential life-threatening events in the future. The model proposes that the design features of narrative (setting, perspective, and action) facilitate various distinctive processes of mental simulation (transportation, identification, and action simulation). It is argued that these simulation processes are capable of enhancing our fitness to survive in distinct but complementary ways. The article offers testable propositions and discusses empirical implications.
Over the past decade, entertainment scholars have extended affective disposition theory beyond traditional hero narratives to better understand the enjoyment of antihero narratives. This study builds upon and unifies this work through the development of a generalized model of the antihero narrative enjoyment process. Participants (n = 234) viewed 1 of the 3 feature-length antihero films. The findings revealed a consistent enjoyment model that highlights the role of the individual-difference variable willingness to accept violence as a predictor of situational moral disengagement, leading to character identification and liking, which in turn predicted enjoyment. Furthermore, the study demonstrates that identification seems to be the process through which we build dispositions toward an antihero character, rather than moral judgments, extending previous research on the role of identification for antihero enjoyment.
Agency (A) and communion (C) are fundamental content dimensions. We propose a facet-model that differentiates A into assertiveness (AA) and competence (AC) and C into warmth (CW) and morality (CM). We tested the model in a cross-cultural study by comparing data from Asia, Australia, Europe, and the USA (overall N = 1.808). Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses supported our model. Both the two-factor model and the four-factor model showed good fit indices across countries. Participants answered additional measures intended to demonstrate the fruitfulness of distinguishing the facets. The findings support the model's construct validity by positioning the fundamental dimensions and their facets within a network of self-construal, values, impression management, and the Big Five personality factors: In all countries, A was related to independent self-construal and to agentic values, C was related to interdependent self-construal and to communal values. Regarding the facets, AA was always related to A values, but the association of AC with A values fell below our effect size criterion in four of the five countries. A (both AA and AC) was related to agentic impression management. However, C (both CW and CM) was neither related to communal nor to agentic impression management. Regarding the Big Five personality factors, A was related to emotional stability, to extraversion, and to conscientiousness. C was related to agreeableness and to extraversion. AA was more strongly related to emotional stability and extraversion than AC. CW was more strongly related to extraversion and agreeableness than CM. We could also show that self-esteem was more related to AA than AC; and that it was related to CM, but not to CW. Our research shows that (a) the fundamental dimensions of A and C are stable across cultures; and (b) that the here proposed distinction of facets of A and C is fruitful in analyzing self-perception. The here proposed measure, the AC-IN, may be a useful tool in this research area. Applications of the facet model in social perception research are discussed.
Biofeedback games have the potential to make gaming a deeply personal experience by linking the gamespace to each player's physiological state. First, this paper describes the psycho-educational potential of the horror-themed biofeedback game Nevermind. In Nevermind, players' heart rate is continuously read into the game which in turn adapts to the player's momentary levels of negative affective arousal. Greater negative arousal causes the game and its horror-themed settings to become more disturbing. As a result, Nevermind challenges players to improve their emotion regulation skills by encouraging them to healthily down-regulate their negative affective states in the face of stressful situations. Second, Nevermind implements valuable design practices, practices which we share here. Finally, we describe a recent study conducted on 47 players. We discuss potential physiological metrics which may be useful for understanding how behaviors in the real world relate to those in biofeedback games like Nevermind.
Recent discussions surrounding the Dark Triad (narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism) have centered on areas of distinctiveness and overlap. Given that interpersonal dysfunction is a core feature of Dark Triad traits, the current study uses self-report data from 562 undergraduate students to examine the interpersonal characteristics associated with narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism on four interpersonal circumplex (IPC) surfaces. The distinctiveness of these characteristics was examined using a novel bootstrapping methodology for computing confidence intervals around circumplex structural summary method parameters. Results suggest that Dark Triad traits exhibit distinct structural summary method parameters with narcissism characterized by high dominance, psychopathy characterized by a blend of high dominance and low affiliation, and Machiavellianism characterized by low affiliation on the problems, values, and efficacies IPC surfaces. Additionally, there was some heterogeneity in findings for different measures of psychopathy. Gender differences in structural summary parameters were examined, finding similar parameter values despite mean-level differences in Dark Triad traits. Finally, interpersonal information was integrated across different IPC surfaces to create profiles associated with each Dark Triad trait and to provide a more in-depth portrait of associated interpersonal dynamics.
The Dark Triad of personalities—Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy—all project onto Quadrant 2 of the interpersonal circumplex. That spatial similarity reflects their common interpersonal exploitativeness. An explanation of their distinctive behavioral tactics, however, requires both circumplex location and a specification of two moderators—temporal orientation and identity need. Temporal orientation (strategic vs. impulsive) distinguishes the strategic Machiavellians from the impulsive psychopaths and narcissists. Identity need distinguishes narcissists (high) from the psychopaths and Machiavellians (low). These two moderators may prove equally useful in the other quadrants by showing distinctions among variables that project onto the same location on the circumplex.
In recent years, theorizing regarding the role and importance of media entertainment in everyday life has garnered much serious attention by media effects scholars. The role of moral judgments, sanctions, and lack thereof, is one such area in which theoretical development has expanded. The present study examines narrative exposure, identification, and moral judgment as indicators of the degree to which individuals may morally disengage during mediated entertainment experiences. Additionally, this study attempts to further expand disposition theory and theorizing about the role of moral disengagement by moving beyond conceptualizations of good, bad, and morally ambiguous characters to explore more subtle moral distinctions between characters as they exist within the same narrative and along a continuum. Results suggest that identification and moral judgment serve as important mediators predicting moral disengagement, however the nature of these relationships are moderated by the perception of the character’s moral fortitude.
To avoid threats to the self, people shun comparisons with similar—yet immoral, mentally unstable, or otherwise negatively viewed—others. Despite this prevalent perspective, we consider a contrarian question: Can people be attracted to darker versions of themselves? We propose that with self-threat assuaged, similarity signals self-relevance, which draws people toward those who are similar to them despite negative characteristics. To test this general idea, we explored a prevalent context that may offer a safe haven from self-threat: stories. Using a large-scale proprietary data set from a company with over 232,000 registered users, we demonstrated that people have a preference for villains—unambiguously negative individuals—who are similar to themselves, which suggests that people are attracted to such comparisons in everyday life. Five subsequent lab experiments ( N = 1,685) demonstrated when and why similarity results in attraction toward—rather than repulsion from—negative others.
Male antisocial behaviour is concentrated in the adolescent period of the life course, as documented by the curve of crime over age. This article reviews recent evidence regarding the hypothesis that the age–crime curve conceals two groups with different causes. Life-course-persistent males show extreme, pervasive, persistent antisocial behaviour from early childhood to adulthood. They are hypothesized to be rare, with pathological risk factors and poor life outcomes. In contrast, adolescence-limited males show similar levels of antisocial behaviour but primarily during the adolescent stage of development. They are hypothesized to be common and normative, whereas abstainers from offending are rare. This Review recaps the 25-year history of the developmental taxonomy of antisocial behaviour, concluding that it is standing the test of time in research, and making an impact on policy in early-years prevention and juvenile justice. Research is needed into how the taxonomy relates to neuroscience, health, genetics and changes in modern crime, including digital crime.
The term dark triad refers to the constellation of narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy. Over the past few years, the concept has gained momentum, with many researchers assuming that the dark triad is a prominent antecedent of transgressive and norm-violating behavior. Our purpose in this meta-analytic review was to evaluate (a) interrelations among narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy; (b) gender differences in these traits; (c) how these traits are linked to normal personality factors; and (d) the psychosocial correlates of the dark triad. Our findings show that dark triad traits are substantially intercorrelated, somewhat more prevalent among men than women, predominantly related to the Big Five personality factor of agreeableness and the HEXACO factor of honesty-humility, and generally associated with various types of negative psychosocial outcomes. We question whether dark triad traits are sufficiently distinct and argue that the way they are currently measured is too simple to capture the malevolent sides of personality. Because most research in this domain is cross-sectional and based on self-reports, we recommend using a cross-informant approach and prospective, longitudinal research designs for studying the predictive value of dark triad features.
Everyone knows the thrill of being transported by a film, but what is it that makes movie watching such a compelling emotional experience? In Moving Viewers, Carl Plantinga explores this question and the implications of its answer for aesthetics, the psychology of spectatorship, and the place of movies in culture. Through an in-depth discussion of mainstream Hollywood films, Plantinga investigates what he terms "the paradox of negative emotion" and the function of mainstream narratives as ritualistic fantasies. He describes the sensual nature of the movies and shows how film emotions are often elicited for rhetorical purposes. He uses cognitive science and philosophical aesthetics to demonstrate why cinema may deliver a similar emotional charge for diverse audiences.
Understanding the role of morally ambiguous characters such as anti-heroes in entertainment experiences has become a central concern for media researchers. Some have argued that different character schemas or tropes may vary along specific moral domains, whereas others promote a linear progression of moral violation from hero to villain. This study presents the results of survey data (N = 294) examining the perceptions of established character tropes in terms of character morality, enjoyment, and appreciation responses. Popular perceptions of character tropes drawn from the website TV Tropes did not significantly differ in terms of which moral domains they upheld or violated, but demonstrated a linear progression of moral violation across five domains of morality. Perceptions of character tropes also did not differ significantly in associations with enjoyment, appreciation, or variables drawn from character identification literature such as self-expansion, wishful identification, or homophily. When examining media responses, however, self-expansion, wishful identification, and moral violation were all strongly related to enjoyment. Unlike enjoyment, appreciation was not related to moral violation. These results are discussed in terms of hedonic and eudaimonic responses to characters.
This book is a bold theoretical account of the role of emotions and cognition in producing the aesthetic effects of film and television genres. It argues that film genres are mental structures that integrate sensations, emotions, and actions, activating the viewer's body and mind. Using recent developments in neuroscience and cognitive science, in combination with narrative theory and film theory, the author provides an alternative account to that offered by psychoanalysis explaining identification and the correlation of viewer reaction with specific film genres. The book concludes with an analysis of the emotional structures of comic fiction, metafiction, crime fiction, horror, and melodrama. It is unique in describing a wide range of problems and issues within film studies, from a cognitive, neurophysiological, and ecological point of view.
This book investigates the relation of art to morality, a topic that has been of central and recurring interest to the philosophy of art since Plato. The book explores the various positions that have been taken in this debate, and argues for ethicism - a position that holds that an artwork is always aesthetically flawed insofar as it possesses an ethical demerit that is aesthetically relevant. Three main arguments are developed for this view: these involve showing that moral goodness is a kind of beauty (the moral beauty argument); that art can teach us about morality and thereby often has aesthetic value (the cognitive argument); and that our emotional responses to works are merited in part by ethical considerations (the merited response argument). In the course of its argument for the correctness of ethical criticism of art, the book also develops a new theory of the nature of aesthetic value, explores how art can teach us about the world and what we morally ought to do by guiding our imaginings, and argues that we can have genuine emotions towards people and events that we know are merely fictional. The book also examines several artworks in detail, showing how ethical criticism can yield rich and plausible accounts of works such as Rembrandt's Bathsheba and Nabokov's Lolita.
This book provides analysis of how human biology, as well as human culture, determines the ways films are made and experienced. This new approach is called "bioculturalism." The book shows how important formats, such as films for children, romantic films, pornography, fantasy films, horror films, and sad melodramas, appeal to an array of different emotions that have been ingrained in the human embodied brain by the evolutionary process. The book also discusses how these biological dispositions are molded by culture. It explains why certain themes and emotions fascinate viewers all over the globe at all times, and how different cultures invest their own values and tastes in the universal themes.The book further uses the breakthroughs of modern brain science to explain central features of film aesthetics and to construct a general model of aesthetic experience, the PECMA flow model, which explains how the flow of information and emotions in the embodied brain provides a series of aesthetic experiences. The combination of film theory, cognitive psychology, neurology, and evolutionary theory provides explanations for why narrative forms are appealing and how and why art films use different mental mechanisms than those that support mainstream narrative films, as well as how film evokes images of inner, spiritual life and feelings of realism. Embodied Visions provides a new synthesis in film and media studies and aesthetics that combines cultural history with the long history of the evolution of our embodied brains.
This 2007 book examines several contentious and under-studied criminal career issues using one of the world's most important longitudinal studies, the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development (CSDD), a longitudinal study of 411 South London boys followed in criminal records to age 40. The analysis reported in the book explores issues related to prevalence, offending frequency, specialization, onset sequences, co-offending, chronicity, career length, and trajectory estimation. The results of the study are considered in the context of developmental/life-course theories, and the authors outline an agenda for criminal career research generally, and within the context of the CSDD specifically. © Alex R. Piquero, David P. Farrington, Alfred Blumstein 2007 and Cambridge University Press, 2009.
The pursuit of social status is a recurrent and pervasive challenge faced by individuals in all human societies. Yet, the precise means through which individuals compete for and effectively acquire social standing remains unclear. Despite a large literature examining the factors that lead to rank differentiation, this body of work currently lacks a unifying framework. The current chapter addresses this gap by proposing the adoption of the Dominance-Prestige Account, an evolutionary framework that proposes two distinct pathways to rank attainment in human societies: dominance, or the use of force and intimidation to induce fear, and prestige, or the sharing of expertise or know-how to gain respect. Here, we show how this account provides a parsimonious explanation for the large body of previously disconnected findings that have emerged on rank attainment, and demonstrate that it offers the additional benefit of explaining why various behaviors, traits, and attributes effectively promote rank, rather than simply describe which of these factors promote rank. In light of its parsimony and explanatory power, we advocate the Dominance-Prestige Account as an empirically grounded framework for organizing, understanding, and generating research on human social rank dynamics. © Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014. All rights are reserved.
Affective disposition theory explains well the process of enjoying hero narratives but not the appeal of narratives featuring antiheroes. Recent antihero studies suggest that character identification and moral disengagement might be important factors in the enjoyment of such fare. The current study builds on this work. A sample of 101 self-identified fans and nonfans of the television series 24 viewed a condensed version of Season 1, providing evaluation of various protagonist perceptions, moral judgments, and emotional responses to the narrative, as well as overall enjoyment. As expected, fans reported greater liking of the protagonist and greater enjoyment. But more importantly, regression analyses illuminated key differences between the groups in terms of the factors predicting enjoyment, providing a clearer picture of how we enjoy antihero narratives.