As suggested by the common phrase “spoiler alert!” many people avoid spoilers for narrative entertainment. However, recent research has found that exposure to spoilers may actually enhance enjoyment. The present study sought to replicate and extend those findings with a multidimensional approach to enjoyment and by examining choice of spoiled versus unspoiled narratives. Comprehension theories suggest that spoilers should improve media appreciation, whereas excitation-transfer theory suggests that spoilers harm arousal and suspense. Additionally, media users’ conventionally held beliefs imply that respondents should choose unspoiled stories. A within-subjects experiment (N = 412) tested these hypotheses. As expected, unspoiled stories were more fun and suspenseful. Surprisingly, unspoiled stories were also more moving and enjoyable in general. No effect of media choice emerged.
BartschA.AppelM.StorchD. (2010). Predicting emotions and meta-emotions at the movies: The role of the need for affect in audiences’ experience of horror and drama. Communication Research, 37, 167-190.
2.
BartschA.OliverM. B. (2011). Making sense of entertainment: On the interplay of emotion and cognition in entertainment experience. Journal of Media Psychology, 23, 12-17.
3.
BrewerW. F. (1996). The nature of narrative suspense and the problem of rereading. In VordererP.WulffH. J.FriedrichsenM. (Eds.), Suspense: Conceptualization, theoretical analysis, and empirical explorations (pp. 107-127). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
4.
BusselleR.BilandzicH. (2009). Measuring narrative engagement. Media Psychology, 12, 321-347.
5.
CacioppoJ. T.PettyR. E. (1982). The need for cognition. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 42, 116-131.
6.
Dal CinS.ZannaM. P.FongG. T. (2004). Narrative persuasion and overcoming resistance. In KnowlesE. S.LinnJ. A. (Eds.), Resistance and persuasion (pp. 175-191). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
GreenM. C.BrockT. C. (2000). The role of transportation in the persuasiveness of public narratives. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79, 701-721.
9.
GreenM. C.BrockT. C.KaufmanG. F. (2004). Understanding media enjoyment: The role of transportation into narrative worlds. Communication Theory, 14, 311-327.
10.
GreenM. C.KassS.CarreyJ.HerzigB.FeeneyR.SabiniJ. (2008). Transportation across media: Repeated exposure to print and film. Media Psychology, 11, 512-539.
11.
HallA.ZwarunL. (2012). Challenging entertainment: Enjoyment, transportation, and need for cognition in relation to fictional films viewed online. Mass Communication and Society, 15, 384-406.
12.
HassounD. (2013). Sequential outliers: The role of spoilers in comic book reading. Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, 4, 346-358.
13.
HastallM. R.Knobloch-WesterwickS. (2013). “Caught in the act”: Measuring selective exposure to experimental online stimuli. Communication Methods and Measures, 7, 94-105.
14.
HenningB.VordererP. (2001). Psychological escapism: Predicting the amount of television viewing by need for cognition. Journal of Communication, 51, 100-120.
15.
KintschW. (1980). Learning from text, levels of comprehension, or: Why anyone would read a story anyway. Poetics, 9, 87-98.
16.
KlimmtC. (2011). Media psychology and complex modes of entertainment experiences. Journal of Media Psychology, 23(1), 34-38.
17.
KnoblochS.ZillmannD. (2002). Mood management via the digital jukebox. Journal of Communication, 52, 351-366.
18.
Knobloch-WesterwickS. (2006). Mood management: Theory, evidence, and advancements. In BryantJ.VordererP. (Eds.), Psychology of entertainment (pp. 239-254). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
19.
Knobloch-WesterwickS.KeplingerC. (2006). Mystery appeal: Effects of uncertainty and resolution on the enjoyment of mystery. Media Psychology, 8, 193-212.
20.
Knobloch-WesterwickS.KeplingerC. (2008). Murder for pleasure: Impacts of plot complexity and need for cognition on mystery enjoyment. Journal of Media Psychology, 20, 117-128.
21.
LeavittJ. D.ChristenfeldN. J. S. (2011). Story spoilers don’t spoil stories. Psychological Science, 22, 1152-1154.
22.
LeavittJ. D.ChristenfeldN. J. S. (2013). The fluency of spoilers: Why giving away endings improves stories. Scientific Study of Literature, 3, 93-104.
MacDowellK.MandlerG. (1989). Constructions of emotion: Discrepancy, arousal, and mood. Motivation and Emotion, 13, 105-124.
25.
NabiR. L.KrcmarM. (2004). Conceptualizing media enjoyment as attitude: Implications for mass media effects research. Communication Theory, 14, 288-310.
26.
NakamuraS.KomatsuT. (2012). Study of information clouding methods to prevent spoilers of sports match. In TortoraG.LevialdiS.TucciM. (Eds.), AVI ’12: Proceedings of the International Working Conference on Advanced Visual Interfaces (pp. 661-664). New York, NY: ACM.
27.
NisbettR. E.WilsonT. D. (1977). Telling more than we can know: Verbal reports on mental processes. Psychological Review, 84, 231-259.
28.
OliverM. B.BartschA. (2010). Appreciation as audience response: Exploring entertainment gratifications beyond hedonism. Human Communication Research, 36, 53-81.
29.
OliverM. B.WoolleyJ. K. (2010). Tragic and poignant entertainment: The gratifications of meaningfulness as emotional response. In DövelingE.von ScheveE.KonijnE. A. (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of emotions and mass media (pp. 134-147). New York, NY: Routledge.
30.
PalmgreenP.RayburnJ. D.II. (1985). An expectancy-value approach to media gratification. In RosengrenK. E.WennerL. A.PalmgreenP. (Eds.), Media gratifications research: Current perspectives (pp. 123-147). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
31.
RaneyA. A. (2004). Expanding disposition theory: Reconsidering character liking, moral evaluations, and enjoyment. Communication Theory, 14, 348-369.
32.
ReberR.SchwarzN.WinkielmanP. (2004). Processing fluency and aesthetic pleasure: Is beauty in the perceiver’s processing experience?Personality and Social Psychology Review, 8, 364-382.
33.
ReineckeL.TamboriniR.GrizzardM.LewisR.EdenA.BowmanN. D. (2012). Characterizing mood management as need satisfaction: The effects of intrinsic needs on selective exposure and mood repair. Journal of Communication, 62, 437-453.
34.
RyanR. M.DeciE. L. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. American Psychologist, 55, 68-78.
35.
TamboriniR.BowmanN. D.EdenA.GrizzardM.OrganA. (2010). Defining media enjoyment as the satisfaction of intrinsic needs. Journal of Communication, 60, 758-777.
36.
VaughnL. A.ChildsK. E.MaschinskiC.NiñoN. P.EllsworthR. (2010). Regulatory fit, processing fluency, and narrative persuasion. Social & Personality Psychology Compass, 4, 1181-1192.
37.
WebsterD. M.KruglanskiA. W. (1994). Individual differences in need for cognitive closure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67, 1049-1062.
38.
WilsonT. D.GilbertD. T. (2005). Affective forecasting: Knowing what to want. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 14, 131-134.
39.
WinkielmanP.CacioppoJ. T. (2001). Mind at ease puts a smile on the face: Psychophysiological evidence that processing facilitation elicits positive affect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81, 989-1000.
40.
WirthW.HartmannT.BöckingS.VordererP.KlimmtC.SchrammH.. . . JänckeP. (2007). A process model of the formation of spatial presence experiences. Media Psychology, 9, 493-525.
41.
ZillmannD. (1971). Excitation transfer in communication-mediated aggressive behavior. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 7, 419-434.
42.
ZillmannD. (1980). Anatomy of suspense. In TannenbaumP. H. (Ed.), The entertainment functions of television (pp. 133-163). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
43.
ZillmannD. (1991). The logic of suspense and mystery. In BryantJ.ZillmannD. (Eds.), Responding to the screen: Reception and reaction processes (pp. 281-303). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
44.
ZillmannD. (2006). Dramaturgy for emotions from fictional narration. In BryantJ.VordererP. (Eds.), Psychology of entertainment (pp. 215-238). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
45.
ZillmannD.HayT. A.BryantJ. (1975). The effect of suspense and its resolution on the appreciation of dramatic presentations. Journal of Research in Personality, 9, 307-323.
46.
ZuckermanM. (2006). Sensation seeking in entertainment. In BryantJ.VordererP. (Eds.), Psychology of entertainment (pp. 367-387). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
