Affective Disposition Theory in Suspense: Elucidating the Roles of Morality and Character Liking in Creating Suspenseful Affect

According to affective disposition theory, our enjoyment of narratives is a function of our feelings toward characters and perceived justness of the outcomes they encounter. Research on suspense has demonstrated that liking characters leads to greater suspense, and that morally just outcomes are associated with greater enjoyment of the narrative. However, additional factors may be relevant in this context. More specifically, perceived threat may act as a complement to character liking, and timing of narrative events may alter the impact of morality. Two studies were conducted in an effort to both complement and challenge affective disposition theory. Study 1 revealed that greater character liking, self-threat, and character-threat are all associated with more suspense and, through excitation transfer, more enjoyment. The first study also found threat to be positively associated with identification, liking, and transportation. Study 2 demonstrated that valence of a midpoint narrative outcome does not necessarily matter for suspense, in that a protagonist’s extreme success and extreme failure in the middle of the narrative were associated with roughly the same amount of suspense. Implications for affective disposition theory are discussed.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy

Level thesis:degree_level

doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Communication

Grantor dc:publisher

The Ohio State University

Year dc:date

2013

Author dc:creator

• Brookes, Sarah

Contributors dc:contributor

• Moyer-Guse, Emily

• Communication
• Mass Media
• affective disposition theory
• suspense
• character liking
• transportation
• identification
• morality

Statement dc:rights

• unrestricted
• This thesis or dissertation is protected by copyright: all rights reserved. It may not be copied or redistributed beyond the terms of applicable copyright laws.

Language dc:language

English

Repository record dc:identifier

http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1365522015

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:etd.ohiolink.edu:osu1365522015