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.
Highlights
Depictions of violence are highly present in many interactive media, and a matter of great controversy
We study three degrees in violence: - No violence, which appears as non-confrontational communication. - Low violence, which can be defined as a physical aggression that does not threaten the life of the individual. - Extreme violence, that we understand as a physical aggression that threatens the life of the individual
This means that there are six patterns of choices by participants resulting from no violence (= N) low violence (= L) and high violence (= V): first no violent choice and end of the conversation (= NN); first no violent choice and performance of a violent action (= NV); first slightly violent and apology (LN); first slightly violent and escalation (LV); first highly violent and apology (VN); and first highly violent and escalation (VV), see Fig 1
Summary
Depictions of violence are highly present in many interactive media, and a matter of great controversy. Some media users show an interest in violence and derive high enjoyment from it. Other media users do not enjoy but rather detest and avoid violence. There seem to be some people in the middle who sometimes, but not always, enjoy and choose violence in media. We are interested to know more about this middle group, such as how large it is and under what circumstances they will opt for and enjoy violence in media. We are curious about the connection between choosing violence and enjoying it
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