Citation

Lagrange V, Hiskes B, Woodward C, Li B, Breithaupt F. PLoS One 2019; 14(12): e0226503.

Affiliation

Department of Cognitive Science, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, United States of America.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Public Library of Science)

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0226503

PMID

31856262

Abstract

We use an interactive story design in which participants read short stories and make two consecutive plot choices about whether protagonists commit low- or high-violence actions. Our study has four main findings. 1) People who choose high violence report greater satisfaction with the story, while those switching to or staying with no violence show lower satisfaction. 2) However, when participants encounter these stories without choices, they reliably rate higher-violence stories as less satisfying than lower-violence stories. 3) Regret seems to account for the low satisfaction of those who choose or switch to low violence. 4) There is a large segment of people (up to 66%) who can be persuaded by different story contexts (genre, perspective) to choose extreme violence in interactive fiction and as a consequence of their choice feel satisfaction. We hypothesize that people who opt for high violence enjoy the story as a result of their choice. Overall, we suggest that choosing violence serves as a gateway for enjoyment by creating an aesthetic zone of control detached from morality.

Language: en