Abstract
ABSTRACT Due to the popularity of Walt Disney Studio films and characters, and the fact that young audiences often emulate their favorite Disney characters’ actions, an understanding of the values depicted by Disney’s popular heroes and villains is warranted. Guided by the model of intuitive motivation and exemplars, and extending previous work investigating broader altruism and egoism in Disney films, we content-analyzed the population of N = 442 family-rated (i.e. G- and PG-rated) Walt Disney Studio film synopses to extract the specific values depicted by films’ heroes and villains and examined the extent to which values depicted as socially desirable were predictive of audience reception (i.e. IMDb.com ratings and votes). Results from this research brief revealed that (1) heroes were more likely to violate personal safety considerations in pursuit of upholding care, loyalty, competence, autonomy, and relatedness, (2) villains were more likely to violate care and fairness in pursuit of power goals, and (3) films emphasizing the desirability of care, loyalty, and relatedness values were more popular with audiences via IMDb votes. Implications of these results are discussed.
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