The Effects of Side-Taking on Narrative Entertainment and the Perceptions of Events and Characters
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21737005 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Nicholas L Matthews (0000-0003-0220-1917, The Ohio State University, corresponding author), C Joseph Francemone (0000-0003-3075-4412, The Ohio State University), Charles K Monge (0000-0001-9277-8239, The Ohio State University), Kaitlin Fitzgerald (0000-0002-4491-1768, Cornell University), Teresa Lynch (0000-0001-9949-6445, The Ohio State University), Mary Grizzard (0000-0003-2883-0308, The Ohio State University) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 27 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 533-557 |
| Publication date | 2024-07-03 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Media Psychology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1521-3269 • E-ISSN: 1532-785X |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/15213269.2023.2255845 |
| OpenAlex | W4386692240 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 33 |
Media psychologists commonly study how narrative elements (e.g. characters) influence entertainment and perceptions. Research on the sequencing and structure of these elements (i.e. metanarrative; the shape of the story) is less common. In both areas, morality tends to ground theorizing (e.g. disposition theory). To extend knowledge in these domains, we conceptualize and observe the effects of side-taking (i.e. choosing a side during conflict), a core concept in narratives and moral psychology. Dynamic coordination theory explains that side-taking is fundamental to morality because it signals moral judgment/condemnation. In a preregistered experiment (N = 577), we observed how the direction (i.e. siding with/against the protagonists or taking no side) and timing of side-taking (i.e. early, middle, or late in the story) influenced variables at multiple levels of analysis (i.e. micro-to-macro). Although timing did not produce effects, we found robust evidence that the direction of side-taking affected variables at all levels of analysis
Entertainment · Epistemology · Great Rift · Linguistics · Metanarrative · Morality · Narrative · Perception · Political science · Sociology · Computer Science · Media Influence and Health · Media Studies and Communication · Media, Gender, and Advertising · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology
Hamilton vs. Kant
Appreciation of Entertainment
The emotional arcs of stories are dominated by six basic shapes
Expectancy Violations Theory
The Role of a Narrative's Emotional Flow in Promoting Persuasive Outcomes
Interdependence of Narrative Characters
Moral Disengagement Cues and Consequences for Victims in Entertainment Narratives
How Moral Expectancy Violations Influence Audiences’ Affective Dispositions Toward Characters
A Graph-Learning Approach for Detecting Moral Conflict in Movie Scripts
Exploring How We Enjoy Antihero Narratives
Moral Judgment and Crime Drama
Do Audiences Judge the Morality of Characters Relativistically? How Interdependence Affects Perceptions of Characters’ Temporal Moral Descent
Beyond Heroes and Villains
Perceptions of Moral Violations and Personality Traits Among Heroes and Villains
Making a Good (Bad) Impression
Viewer's moral sanction of retribution in the appreciation of dramatic presentations
The Dual Role of Morally Ambiguous Characters
Mechanisms of moral disengagement in the exercise of moral agency
Explaining the role of character development in the evaluation of morally ambiguous characters in entertainment media
A solution to the mysteries of morality
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |