Engaging the Dark Side: Exploring Identification with Morally Complex Antagonists

Abstract

This work investigates what factors prompt audience members to engage with morally complex antagonists and examines potential real-world attitudinal outcomes of such engagement. A twopart experimental study (n = 140) examines whether the revelation timing of a character's immoral behavior in a fictional narrative (late reveal versus early reveal) and a person's morality salience (vice salience versus virtue salience) impact identification with a morally complex antagonist. Further, real-world attitudinal outcomes of antagonist identification are examined.Results demonstrated that identification with a fictional, morally complex antagonist can significantly impact real-world attitudes toward criminals. Additionally, revelation timing predicted identification with a fictional antagonist for male participants, but not for female participants, indicating a need for future research to investigate potential gender differences for identification with morally complex antagonists. A person's own morality salience, however, did not significantly impact identification with a fictional antagonist. Overall, this work demonstrates that exposure to fictional narratives and identification with morally complex antagonists can affect real-world attitudes, and gives direction for future research to better understand the mechanisms that drive engagement with antagonists in narratives.

Parasocial relationships with morally ambiguous media characters – the role of moral foundations

“…While other studies have already shown this effect for character tropes like heroes or villains (Bonus et al, 2021;Tian & Hoffner, 2010), we demonstrate that this is also the case for MACs, who have a special role when it comes to moral behavior. As a lot of research about morality and media characters refers to the ADT, existing research focused on viewers' liking of MACs or their identification with them (e. g., Frazer & Moyer-Gusé, 2023;Raney & Janicke, 2013;Tsay & Krakowiak, 2011). This study expands the existing literature by examining viewers' PSRs as long-term connections with MACs, as PSRs are not limited to exposure and can develop beyond the mediated contact between viewer and media character (Dibble et al, 2016).…”

“…To better understand this influence, future studies would need to consider recent developments in this research area. For example, the role of moral disengagement in viewers' relationships toward MACs (e. g., Frazer & Moyer-Gusé, 2023;Krakowiak & Tsay-Vogel, 2013), the interdependence of characters (e. g., , or viewers' moral expectancy toward MACs (e. g., N. L. Matthews & Bonus, 2023).…”

“…The success of morally ambiguous characters who display clearly immoral behaviors challenges ADT's predictions (Raney, 2004), as viewers positively engage with MACs despite their immoral actions. This resulted in a lot of research analyzing viewers' engagement with morally challenging characters (e. g., Eden et al, 2011;Frazer & Moyer-Gusé, 2023;Kleemans et al, 2017;Krakowiak & Tsay-Vogel, 2015;Oliver et al, 2019;Raney, 2004). These studies used and tested different approaches to why viewers can positively engage with immoral characters and underlined the importance of the relationship between morality and character liking.…”

“…Annalise Keating, for example, is characterized by many positive attributes: She is a valued colleague at work; she is highly reliable and loyal to her friends; she supports the students in her classes at university; and, in general, she is a strong advocate for justice. Further, MACs can be categorized into more specific types, for example, ranging from perfect hero to perfect villain (Tamborini et al, 2018) or while considering their role in the plot, differ-entiating morally complex protagonists from antagonists (Frazer & Moyer-Gusé, 2023).…”

“…For example, studies have analyzed why MACs are liked, why viewers accept their immoral behavior, and how viewers react to such behavior (e. g., Eden, Grizzard, & Lewis, 2011;Grizzard, Huang, Fitzgerald, Ahn, & Chu, 2018;Kleemans et al, 2017;Krakowiak & Oliver, 2012;Krakowiak & Tsay-Vogel, 2013;Shafer & Raney, 2012;Tamborini et al, 2018). Several constructs, such as transportation (Krakowiak & Oliver, 2012), suspense (Eden et al, 2011;Krakowiak & Oliver, 2012), and identification (Frazer & Moyer-Gusé, 2023;Raney & Janicke, 2013;Tsay & Krakowiak, 2011), have been shown to contribute to entertainment experiences with MACs. However, little is known about parasocial relationships with MACs, even though the PSR is a crucial concept in entertainment research (Dibble, Hartmann, & Rosaen, 2016;Klimmt, Hartmann, & Schramm, 2006).…”