Do Audiences Judge the Morality of Characters Relativistically? How Interdependence Affects Perceptions of Characters’ Temporal Moral Descent

In two pre-registered studies, we leveraged recent advances to disposition theory to examine whether character judgments are relative. We used a Pilot Study to develop a moral continuum of behaviors for a hypothetical television series. We referenced our established moral continuum to create behavioral sequences that represented two characters descending into immorality. We manipulated whether one or both characters were present in the narrative. The simultaneous presence of both characters polarized participants’ moral evaluations of character behavior, categorization of the characters as heroic/villainous, and character liking. Our findings substantiate the systematic effects that character interdependence has on disposition formation. An improved understanding of narrative context can specify when between- and within-character comparisons occur and what effects character interdependence has on disposition theory’s processes. We discuss how narrative schemas, character schemas, and character networks can serve as the elements for explicating the role of narrative context in disposition theory.

The Role of Morality in Emotional Reactions to and Enjoyment of Media Entertainment

This article examines the complex role that morality plays in emotional reactions to media entertainment. Morality no doubt influences and to a certain extent governs our emotional responses to media, with the stories we chose to consume, the characters we love and hate, the rationale behind those feelings, the emotions that we experience on their behalf, and the pleasure and meaning comes as a result. Specifically, as media consumers, we experience emotional reactions to characters (liking), to their plights (anticipatory emotions), and to their ultimate outcomes (enjoyment and appreciation). Each of these emotional reactions are regulated by morality: character liking by moral judgments about the behaviors and motivations of characters, anticipatory emotions by sense of expected justice restoration, and enjoyment by the moral evaluation of the actual outcome portrayed in relation to the expected outcome. These processes and relationships are discussed in light of recent work on moral intuition, moral emotions, and moral disengagement.