Morality Predicts Enjoyment But Not Appreciation of Morally Ambiguous Characters

Figures & data

TABLE 1 Descriptive Statistics for Morality, Self-Expansion, and Identification, and Enjoyment and Appreciation, by Character Type

	Hero	Classical anti-hero	Disney anti-hero	Pragmatic anti-hero	Unscrupulous hero	Nominal hero	Villain
Variable	M (SD)	M (SD)	M (SD)	M (SD)	M (SD)	M (SD)	M (SD)	F(6, 287)
Harm	2.70^ab (1.78)	2.33^a (1.32)	3.41^bc (1.74)	3.61^bcd (1.33)	4.40^c (1.55)	4.49^cd (1.83)	5.67^e (1.42)	22.27**
Fairness	2.68^a (1.78)	2.52^a (1.32)	3.31^ab (1.49)	3.33^ab (1.36)	4.23^bc (1.46)	4.39^cd (1.51)	5.33^d (1.44)	19.54**
Loyalty	2.48^a (1.92)	2.38^a (1.52)	3.02^ab (1.59)	2.38^a (1.16)	3.28^ab (1.62)	3.87^bc (1.59)	4.36^c (1.37)	10.71**
Authority	3.50^a (1.85)	3.42^a (1.46)	4.15^ab (1.60)	4.10^ab (1.45)	4.84^bc (1.62)	4.84^bc (1.56)	5.50^c (1.37)	10.01**
Purity	2.53^a (1.62)	2.25^a (1.28)	3.07^ab (1.66)	3.58^bc (1.54)	4.14^c (1.78)	4.46^c (1.72)	5.64^d (1.30)	24.23**
Self-expansion	2.99 (1.42)	3.39 (1.38)	3.45 (1.49)	3.36 (1.37)	3.54 (1.47)	3.31 (1.61)	2.91 (1.52)	1.08
Wishful ID	3.58^a (1.78)	3.34^a (1.79)	3.16^a (1.69)	3.59^a (1.76)	3.50^a (2.05)	2.76^a (1.79)	2.07^b (1.63)	4.05**
Homophily	2.88^a (1.64)	3.07^a (1.48)	2.63^a (1.72)	3.07^a (1.65)	2.90^a (1.74)	2.29^a (1.84)	2.07^a (1.44)	2.41*
IOS	2.33 (1.62)	2.27 (1.44)	2.40 (1.59)	2.07 (1.50)	2.05 (1.65)	1.83 (1.53)	1.62 (1.15)	1.46
Enjoyment	5.25^a (1.41)	5.29^a (1.21)	5.16^a (1.26)	4.82^a (1.62)	4.78^a (1.52)	4.45^a (1.71)	3.97^b (1.74)	4.27***
Appreciation	4.11^a (1.62)	4.23^a (1.23)	4.13^a (1.33)	4.41^a (1.38)	4.23^a (1.54)	3.77^b (1.49)	3.43^c (1.47)	2.27*

Note. * p < .05, ** p < .01, *** p < .001. Superscripts denote Bonferroni post hoc differences between character types, p < .05.

FIGURE 1 Morality by character type across five domains of morality. Note. The y-axis represents extent of moral violation

FIGURE 2 Identification across character type

TABLE 2 Pearson’s Correlations of Predictor Variables

	Character type	Self-expansion	Wishful ID	Homophily	IOS
Character type	—
Self-expansion	–0.02	—
Wishful ID	–.21**	.64**	—
Homophily	–.16*	.62**	.76**	—
IOS	–.16**	.48**	.52**	.55**	—
Moral violation total	.55**	–0.04	–.19**	–.14*	–0.09

Note. For character type, the order is hero, classical anti-hero, Disney anti-hero, pragmatic anti-hero, unscrupulous hero, nominal hero, and villain. All other variables are continuous.

TABLE 3 Regression Analysis Predicting Enjoyment and Appreciation

	Enjoyment
	Step 1		Step 2		Step 3
	B(SEb)	β	B(SEb)	β	B(SEb)	β
Character type	–0.21 (0.04)	–0.27***	–.17 (.04)	–.22**	–0.09 (.05)	–.12
Self-expansion			.22(.08)	.20**	.22 (.08)	.21**
Wishful ID			.24(.07)	.29***	.22(.07)	.26***
Homophily			–.0.08(.08)	–.09	–0.08(.08)	–.09
IOS			.01(.07)	–.01	–.02(.07)	–.02
Moral violation					–.19(.06)	–.19**
F	23.29***		16.62***		15.92***
R^2	.07		.22		.25
ΔR^2			.15***		.03**

	Appreciation
	Step 1		Step 2		Step 3
	B(SEb)	β	B(SEb)	β	B(SEb)	β
Character type	–0.10 (0.04)	–0.14*	–.06 (.03)	–.08*	–.03 (.04)	–.04
Self-expansion			.54(.06)	.54***	.54 (.06)	.54***
Wishful ID			.16(.06)	.20**	.15(.05)	.19*
Homophily			–.03(.06)	–.03	–.03(.06)	–.03
IOS			–.01(.05)	–.01	–.03(.05)	–.02
Moral violation					–.02(.05)	–.07
F	5.90*		63.90***		53.79***
R^2	.02		.53		.53
ΔR^2			.51***		.003

Notes. *p < .05, **p < .01, ***p < .001.

For character type, the order is hero, classical anti-hero, Disney anti-hero, pragmatic anti-hero, unscrupulous hero, nominal hero, and villain. All other variables are continuous.

Most Common Characters Per Character Type

Type	Most-mentioned characters	Character description
Hero	Superman	This type of character is a character who is always right, selflessly fights for noble causes, is kind to all and is a natural and charismatic leader. He successfully fights against evil, saves those in distress and always reaches his predefined goals. Examples of this type of character are: Luke Skywalker from Star Wars and Superman
Disney anti-hero	Shrek	This type of character has heroic intentions but often have a sour, cynical view of the world. This type of character stands a good chance of positive transformation over the course of the story, once they confront their internal conflicts, or find someone or something they want to fight for. Examples of this type of character are: Shrek and Tyrion Lannister from Game of Thrones
Pragmatic anti-hero	Robin Hood	This type of character is willing to do immoral things for a good cause. In their view, the end justify (the where necessary violent) means. The intentions of these characters are pure and good and the abide by a strict personal moral code, which they follow in reaching their goals. Examples of this type of character are: Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games and Batman
Classical anti-hero	Karate Kid	This type of character is full of self-doubt, mediocre (or worse) in combat, has trouble seeing the whole picture, unsuccessful in love, frightened, cowardly and/or not particularly bright. He or she tends to “grow” over the course of the narrative and overcomes his or her own weaknesses. Examples of this type of character are: Elsa from the movie Frozen and Spiderman
Unscrupulous hero	James Bond	This type of character will fight for the good cause out of good intentions. However, they are unaffected by the collateral effects and damages they create along the way. They live according to a code, are often violent (in pursuit of justice and vengeance), are cynical (due to personal trauma) as well as opportunistic”. Examples of this type of character are: Jack Bauer from 24 and Mad Max from the similarly-titled movies.
Nominal hero	Hannibal Lecter	Even though this type of character fights on the side of good, their intentions/motivations are anything but pure or good (often focused on selfish goals). This type of character is often seen through the lens of the enemy of my enemy – the lesser of two evils. Examples of this type of character are: Dexter Morgan (from Dexter the TV-show) and Loki from the Marvel universe (Thor, The Avengers)
Villain	The Joker	This type of character is the one that works against the good guys, is characterized and even admired for his or her determination in being evil, having selfish goals, cunning and intelligence. Nevertheless this character almost never reaches his or her goal, is almost always beaten or vanquished and fails in his or her evil intentions. Examples of this type of character are: Sauron (from Lord of the Rings) and Darth Vader from Star Wars