Allison Eden

Repeated exposure to daytime soap opera and shifts in moral judgment toward social convention

This study examined the influence of prolonged exposure to soap opera on character dispositions and real-world moral judgments. Eight groups viewed from 0–7 weeks of soap opera prior to a final week after which participants completed measures of disposition towards show characters as well as perceptions of morality in real-world situations. Results demonstrated the effect of prolonged exposure on both the polarization of dispositions toward characters and a trend in moral judgments toward social convention. These findings highlight the role of disposition within social cognitive theory, and the importance of dispositional considerations in understanding learned morality.

Gender Attribution in Online Video Games

Demographic research and anecdotal evidence suggest that, historically, games have been dominated by male players. However, newer research shows gains by female players, especially in online games. Therefore, how gamers perceive the masculinity of other gamers in game has become relevant. Two experiments examine how two variables - game genre and player skill - inform gender perception in online games. Results from both studies show that game genre is a salient cue for gender perception, but that perception of player skill is not. A number of gender differences in perceptions of player skill and the relationship between genre and perceptions of player masculinity are also identified. These findings are an important first step in understanding the perception of others in online entertainment environments.

Predicting media appeal from instinctive moral values

Zillmanns moral sanction theory defines morality subcultures for entertainment as groups of media viewers who evaluate character actions with shared value systems. However, the theory provides no a priori means to identify these shared value systems. The model of intuitive morality and exemplars incorporates a theoretical framework for identifying and testing the factors from which these shared value systems emerge. This study applies the models framework, based on 5 “moral domains” from moral foundations theory, to test the influence of shared value systems on character perceptions and narrative appeal. A within-subject experiment varied violation of these five domains (care, fairness, ingroup loyalty, authority, and purity) and narrative resolutions (positive or negative outcomes) in 10 short narrative scenarios. The 5 domains predicted character perceptions and narrative appeal. The results are discussed in terms of the utility of these domains for understanding the reciprocal relationship between audience values and media response.

Bridging media psychology and cognitive neuroscience: Challenges and opportunities.

Abstract. Media neuroscience has emerged as a new area of study at the intersection of media psychology and cognitive neuroscience. In previous work, we have addressed this trend from a methodological perspective. In this paper, we outline the progression of scholarship in systematic investigations of mass communication phenomena over the past century, from behaviorism and environmental determinism to biological and evolutionary paradigms. These new paradigms are grounded in an emergentist perspective on the nature of psychological processes. We discuss what it means to ask valid research questions in media neuroscience studies and provide recent examples in the areas of interpersonal and intergroup processes, morality, and narratives as well as in persuasion and health communication. We conclude with a selection of innovative methodological avenues that have the potential to accelerate the integration of cognitive neuroscience into media psychology research.

Rousing reviews and instigative images: The impact of online reviews and visual design characteristics on app downloads

Mobile apps are very popular. However, this is not true for every app, with some apps receiving millions of downloads, while other apps are mostly ignored. We investigate the popularity of apps in terms of downloads by focusing on two salient cues: (a) online recommendations (e.g., presence and valence of online reviews) and (b) visual characteristics of app icons (e.g., use of visual metaphors and anthropomorphism). Study 1 was a field study in which we content-analyzed 500 apps from the “transportation” subcategory of the Google Play Store. We found that the presence and valence of online reviews, as well as the presence of visual metaphors in app icons were positively related to the number of app downloads. Study 2 was an experiment in which we presented participants with different app icons containing different types of visual metaphors. We again found that app icons with visual metaphors led to more positive attitudes towards the apps and behavioral intentions. Combined, our studies show that both online consumers (through online reviews) and app designers (through visual design) impact an app’s popularity.

Predicting popularity of mass market films using the tenets of disposition theory

Disposition theory (DT) has been a prevalent and useful theory for examining narrative enjoyment. This study uses logic from DT to predict film popularity indicated by box office gross. A content analysis was conducted on the plot summaries of popular films to determine the extent to which dispositional considerations were upheld. Results indicate that adherence to dispositional considerations is prevalent, but not a significant predictor of film popularity when controlling for other important variables such as budget. Results indicate a need for scholars to incorporate greater understanding of the predictive power of theoretical models in real-world applications.

Morality predicts enjoyment but not appreciation of morally ambiguous characters

Understanding the role of morally ambiguous characters such as anti-heroes in entertainment experiences has become a central concern for media researchers. Some have argued that different character schemas or tropes may vary along specific moral domains, whereas others promote a linear progression of moral violation from hero to villain. This study presents the results of survey data (N = 294) examining the perceptions of established character tropes in terms of character morality, enjoyment, and appreciation responses. Popular perceptions of character tropes drawn from the website TV Tropes did not significantly differ in terms of which moral domains they upheld or violated, but demonstrated a linear progression of moral violation across five domains of morality. Perceptions of character tropes also did not differ significantly in associations with enjoyment, appreciation, or variables drawn from character identification literature such as self-expansion, wishful identification, or homophily. When examining media responses, however, self-expansion, wishful identification, and moral violation were all strongly related to enjoyment. Unlike enjoyment, appreciation was not related to moral violation. These results are discussed in terms of hedonic and eudaimonic responses to characters.

The Influence of Media Exposure on the Accessibility of Moral Intuitions and Associated Affect

The model of intuitive morality and exemplars (MIME) predicts that media content can increase the accessibility of preconscious moral intuitions, which shape subsequent moral decision making. To date, attempts to demonstrate evidence of this intuitive, preconscious process with self-report measures have met with little success. The current paper presents results from a study designed to test the MIME’s predictions, measuring the accessibility of moral intuitions with a moral foundations–affect misattribution procedure (MF-AMP) argued in the current paper to be more capable of detecting the aforementioned effect. An experiment manipulated exposure to media content that focused on care and fairness to test the proposition that media content can increase the accessibility of these moral intuitions. The findings offer preliminary evidence supporting the MIME’s proposition that media content featuring behaviors relevant to specific moral intuitions can increase (temporarily at least) the accessibility of those specific moral intuitions in the audiences.

Perceptions of Moral Violations and Personality Traits Among Heroes and Villains

This study investigates disposition-formation processes in entertainment by predicting perceptions of media heroes and villains by their behavior in specific moral domains. Participants rated self-selected heroes and villains from television and film along the moral domains of care, fairness, loyalty, authority, and purity (Haidt & Joseph, 2007) as well as along dimensions of warmth, competence, and duplicity used in impression-formation research (Fiske, Cuddy, Glick, & Xu, 2002). Results show that heroes violate moral norms in domains of authority and purity, whereas villains violated moral norms in the domains of caring and group loyalty. Furthermore, these moral violations are associated with personality dimensions of warmth and competence differently for each character type, such that impressions of heroes are driven by their work in the care domain (i.e., saving or protecting people), whereas for villains, violation of purity norms is most strongly associated with subsequent impression formation processes.

Moral intuitions: Morality subcultures in disposition formation

This study tested the relationship between morality and disposition formation proposed by disposition theory using intuitive moral intuitions as indicators of membership in a morality subculture. After completing a measure of intuitive morality, participants read a short scenario varying the morality of a character’s behavior, and then rated their moral approbation of the behavior and liking for the character. Results indicated that moral approbation mediated the relationship between character behavior and character disposition, and that intuitive morality moderated this relationship for the violation condition. Findings highlight the importance of moral intuitions in disposition formation processes, and support the use of intuitive morality in understanding responses to media characters.