Some Like It Morally Ambiguous: The Effects of Individual Differences on the Enjoyment of Different Character Types

Abstract

Responses to morally ambiguous characters vary greatly. The same character may be loved by some individuals and hated by others. The present study (N = 313) empirically tested how two individual difference factors, ambiguity tolerance (AT) and need for cognition (NFC), affected responses to purely good, purely bad, and morally ambiguous character types. Findings reveal that both AT and NFC affected enjoyment of content featuring different character types. Specifically, AT predicted both affective and cognitive enjoyment of good and ambiguous characters, and NFC predicted cognitive enjoyment of these characters.