Spoiler Alert: People Enjoy Books More When They Know The Spoilers

Culture

from the skip-to-the-end dept

Might as well put the details upfront in this one: “spoilers” apparently don’t “spoil” anything. It’s pretty standard these days for people to offer up “spoiler alert” warnings when revealing a surprising twist in a story that some might not have read/seen/heard. However, a new study, that tested a variety of books both with and without key points “spoiled,” found that people actually seem to prefer a book if they’ve been told a spoiler ahead of time. While this surprises me a bit (though I’d never really thought that much about it), it makes sense. While I certainly enjoy books/movies with twists, I’ve certainly read and seen stories while knowing the twist ahead of time and didn’t mind it. Instead, in those cases, I end up paying more attention to how we get to the twist, and looking for foreshadowing and whatnot. I can’t recall ever feeling “cheated.” There are definitely books and movies with twist endings that took me totally by surprise, which I enjoyed. But I’m not sure I wouldn’t have liked them just as much if I’d known the “secret” going in.

Filed Under: enjoyment, knowledge, spoilers

Commercials Increase Enjoyment Of TV Shows?

Studies

from the alternative-explanations dept

In a study that the television industry must absolutely love, researchers apparently found that people enjoyed a sitcom with commercials included by a significant margin over watching the same show without the commercials. Of course, before jumping to conclusions about such a study, it’s worth thinking about alternative explanations other than the idea that people really like commercials. In the Freakonomics post above, they posit that sitcoms are written with these breaks in mind — and the story arc reflects that. Taking the commercials out could make the show feel slightly disjointed. I know I’ve sometimes felt that way when watching DVDs of TV shows. In fact, I would imagine that a similar study comparing movies shown without commercials and those with commercials abruptly inserted might return the opposite results — with the version with commercials greatly disliked compared to the movie without.

Another potential explanation could just be the way we view watching sitcoms — where we’ve been somewhat conditioned for those regular breaks. We’re used to them, and being able to do something during them (go to the bathroom, get a snack, talk to a significant other/kids/parents), and taking them out so that the entire show goes straight messes with our own expectations. If that latter idea is correct, then it would suggest that having people watch a show where they could fast forward via DVR through the commercials should still be quite enjoyable, because they still get the break and still can do those “other” things during the breaks rather than actually watching the commercials. In other words, it may be that people like the breaks, not the commercials.

Filed Under: commercials, enjoyment, tv