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Choosing and enjoying violence in narratives
Victoria Lagrange1, Benjamin Hiskes2, Claire Woodward3
1Department of French and Italian, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, United States of America.
Plos One
|December 20, 2019
Summary
Choosing high violence in interactive stories increases user satisfaction, unlike low violence choices. This suggests an "aesthetic zone of control" detached from morality enhances enjoyment in digital narratives.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Media Studies
- Human-Computer Interaction
Background:
- Interactive narratives allow user agency in plot development.
- The psychological impact of violence in media is a complex and debated topic.
- Understanding player choices in virtual environments is crucial for designing engaging experiences.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how user choices regarding violence in interactive stories affect narrative satisfaction.
- To explore the psychological mechanisms, such as regret, underlying these satisfaction differences.
- To determine the extent to which narrative context influences the propensity to choose violent actions.
Main Methods:
- Participants engaged with interactive stories, making sequential choices between low- and high-violence actions.
- Story satisfaction was measured based on participants' choices and subsequent reactions.
- Contextual factors (genre, perspective) were manipulated to assess their influence on violence choices.
Main Results:
- Higher violence choices correlated with greater reported story satisfaction.
- Stories with high-violence content were rated less satisfying when presented without user choice.
- Regret was identified as a factor in lower satisfaction for participants choosing or switching to low-violence options.
- Up to 66% of participants could be persuaded to choose extreme violence, reporting satisfaction.
Conclusions:
- Choosing violence in interactive fiction can act as a gateway to enjoyment by creating a sense of control.
- This enjoyment appears to stem from an aesthetic appreciation of agency, separate from moral considerations.
- Findings highlight the nuanced relationship between choice, violence, and satisfaction in interactive media.
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