“web-sling to save or shoot to kill?” the impact of dissonant origin and antiheroic action on...

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“WEB-SLING TO SAVE OR SHOOT TO KILL?”

Bowman · Roman Knoster · Sanders

ABSTRACT

The current study explores the impact of dissonant origininformation (information about character origin that countersaudiences’ prior knowledge) on dispositional shift (movementfrom more to less extreme judgments). In a 2 (action: pro- oranti-social) x 2 (outcome: rewarded or punished) x 2(canonical/control or dissonant origin) between-subjectsexperimental design, participants receiving dissonant originexperienced greater dispositional polarization (that is,dramatic shift) – from extreme positive to extreme negativejudgments; these effects intensified when the character’sactions were anti-social.

BACKGROUND

• Morally ambiguous characters possess traits spanning the good/evil “dichotomy”

• Origin stories set the anchor for this assessment

BACKGROUND“It is in the expositionthat audiences are given the origin story of a character, and this origin often serves as the cognitive and affective anchor by which we weigh a character’s subsequent actions”

(Raney, 2003).

BACKGROUND

Origin Stories

Espoused origins provide the moral lenses for …

Character dispositions

…our initial assessments of a character …

Character actions

…and contextualize how we accept or reject a character’s actions (regardless of this action’s “objective” valence)

Origins provide the anchor for character

impression formation (Sanders, 2010)

BACKGROUND

The Comics Code Authority lead to

the “great Silvering” of gritty

heroes such as Batman.

HYPOTHESIS

• (H1) The presentation of dissonant origin information will lessen the degree to which audiences are affectively polarized toward characters.

• (H2) Moral evaluations of characters and their behaviors will mediate the relationship between origin stories and affective polarization.

• An increase in good/evil polarization will be associated with– (H3a) lower feelings of eudaimonic appreciation

– (H3b) higher feelings of hedonic enjoyment.

Good

“Meh”

Evil

METHOD

• N = 292 for a “story on superheroes”

– (52% male, age M = 29.51, 30% comic fans)

Your random* character is: Spider-Man

The pages you’re about to read are still “in progress” so you’ll notice that

the art and storyline are still a bit rough – this is completely normal as

artists and writers will often tweak their products after getting feedback

from readers. Please pay close attention to the developing storyline, and

we’ll ask you about your thoughts once you’ve had a chance to read

them. There should be five total draft comic book pages.

*participants completed knowledge

test on six super-heroes (foil)

METHOD

• Five-page comics

created w/ existing

Spider-Man art

Sample “good” action

METHOD

• Spider-Man either

rewarded or punished

for his actions…

“Punishment”

“Reward”

• …and directly (“bad”)

or indirectly (“control”)

killed his Uncle Ben

METHOD

• Measures– Character disposition (-2 to +2)

• Avg shift from 1.02 to -0.19; dispositional shift of M = -1.20

– Character knowledge (six-point) • all but n = 11 knew Spider-Man’s origin

– Character morality (six-point) • Raney (2004); M = 2.93, SD = 1.11

– Enjoyment & appreciation• Oliver and Raney (2011): enjoyment M = 2.93 (SD = .86),

appreciation M = 2.76 (SD = .88)

RESULTS: H1

• Dissonant origins should reduce polarization;

not supported

– Largest shift for “bad action, bad/good

outcome, dissonant origin” (M ~ 1.90)

– Least shift for “good action, bad/good

outcome, control origin” (M ~ .50)

RESULTS: H2

Dissonant Origin

-.240Character Morality

.486 Polarization

“Good Action” narratives:

? ?Character Morality

.376 Polarization

Bad Action” narratives

RESULTS: H3

• Greater

polarization was

associated with

higher enjoyment

(H3a, R2 = .225)

DISCUSSION

• “At least for the writers of such a popular superhero as Spider-Man, the current study suggests that when it comes to cherished heroes, “with great popularity, comes great responsibility.” Providing a dissonant anti-hero origin might be expected to give audiences more to contemplate, but the current study suggests that the introduction of intense dissonance might well result in a rejection of the hero label in favor for the villain one. In a way, the anti-hero exists in a precarious valley in between the heroic and the villainous – in between the web-slinger and the gun-slinger.”

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Nick Bowman, Ph.D. [CV]

Twitter (@bowmanspartan)

Skype (nicholasdbowman)

nicholas.bowman@mail.wvu.edu

http://comm.wvu.edu

/fs/research/lab

Interaction Lab

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