Audiences love a good spoiler or two

Home > Entertainment > K-pop

print dictionary print

Audiences love a good spoiler or two

NEW YORK - If you are angry that someone spoiled the plot of a movie or revealed the ending of a book, don’t be.

A new study by researchers from the University of California, San Diego, shows that spoilers may enhance enjoyment, even for suspense-driven story lines and film plots.

After studying three types of stories - ironic-twist, mystery and literary - by authors such as John Updike, Roald Dahl and Agatha Christie, they found readers preferred versions with a spoiling paragraph written into the story.

“I was quite surprised by the results,” researcher Nicholas Christenfeld said in an interview. “Like most people, I don’t turn to the end of a book to see who dies or what happens.”

For the study, each story was read by up to 30 people and presented in two formats: the original version and with a spoiling paragraph inserted into the story.

Readers of all three story types preferred the spoiled versions more than the originals.

“Plots are just excuses for great writing,” Christenfeld explained. “Nonetheless, plots are important, like a skeleton or a coat hanger. You need it to display the things that are important, but the plot itself isn’t critical.”

Christenfeld said in many cases a book or movie can be reread or seen multiple times and still be enjoyable.

“As a film director, your job isn’t really to come to the conclusion that the butler did it. A single line would do that,” he said.

Once viewers know the ending of a film, they may want to view it again to see things that had meaning or didn’t have meaning the first time around.

The researchers said the study, which will be published in the journal Psychological Science, showed that the success of entertainment does not rest on suspense alone.

“Stories are a universal element of human culture, the backbone of the billion-dollar entertainment industry, and the medium through which religion and societal values are transmitted,” they wrote.

Christenfeld and his co-author Jonathan Leavitt added that the findings could mean that commonly held perceptions about suspense may also be incorrect.

“Perhaps,” they said in the study, “birthday presents are better when wrapped in cellophane and engagement rings are better when not concealed in chocolate mousse.”


Reuters
Log in to Twitter or Facebook account to connect
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
help-image Social comment?
s
lock icon

To write comments, please log in to one of the accounts.

Standards Board Policy (0/250자)