Spoilers Affect the Enjoyment of Television Episodes but Not Short Stories.

Publisher: SAGE Country of Publication: United States NLM ID: 0376475 Publication Model: Print-Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1558-691X (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 00332941 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Psychol Rep Subsets: MEDLINE

Publication: 2016- : Thousand Oaks, CA : SAGE
Original Publication: Louisville, Ky. : Southern Universities Press,

Motion Pictures* ; Pleasure* ; Reading* ; Television* ; Thinking*; Adult ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Sex Factors ; Young Adult

While spoilers are culturally regarded as something that detracts enjoyment from a narrative, research has presented a complicated picture. When Leavitt and Christenfeld presented participants plot-crucial information to individuals before reading a short story, the story was subsequently enjoyed as much as, or more than, unspoiled stories. Other research shows that these findings may be driven by an interaction of individual differences, such as need for cognition, rather than a broad spoiling effect. In Experiment 1, we tested if reported enjoyment of a narrative decreased even when participants were alerted to the presence of a plot spoiler, to extend previous findings for short stories while adding a condition informing participants beforehand that their short stories was being spoiled. Experiment 2 extended this methodology to full-length episodes of television. Our results were different from previously reported positive effects of spoilers and show that spoilers, under certain circumstances, have a negative effect on enjoyment for television but not short stories.

Keywords: Creativity; decision-making; fan behavior; language proficiency; thinking styles

Date Created: 20180818 Date Completed: 20200213 Latest Revision: 20200213

20240513

10.1177/0033294118793971

30115003