Quote:Knowing how a book ends does not ruin its story and can actually enhance enjoyment, a study suggests.
Researchers at the University of California San Diego gave participants 12 short stories where two versions were spoiled and a third unspoiled.
In all but one story, readers said they preferred versions which had spoiling paragraphs written into it.
Although the study could not explain why, it suggested the brain may find it easier to process a spoiled story.
"You get this significant reverse-spoiler effect," study author and professor of social psychology Nicholas Christenfeld said.
"It's sort of as if knowing things puts you in a position that gives you certain advantages to understand the plot."
Co-author Jonathan Leavitt added: "It could be that once you know how it turns out, you're more comfortable processing the information and can focus on a deeper understanding of the story."
Prof Christenfeld said this suggested people may enjoy a good story as much as a good twist at the end, and even if they know the outcome, will enjoy the journey as much as the destination.
He added in many cases, a book or film can be re-read or seen multiple times and still be enjoyable.
For the study, short stories written by authors including Agatha Christie, John Updike and Anton Chekov were read by volunteers who had never seen them before.
Some read the stories as originally written, some had a spoiler paragraph incorporated into the story and others had an introductory spoiler paragraph and then were asked to rate them on a scale of 1 to 10.
Even when the stories contained a plot twist or mystery, subjects preferred the spoiled versions.
The researchers concluded the study, which will be published in September's Psychological Science journal, showed that the success of entertainment did not rest on simple suspense alone.
- Source: [BBC]
I'm a little critical of what the spoilers actually were, in the study. Personally I feel that you can look at things in a different way once you know the plot, but the experience you get without knowledge of the plot can be good too IMO.
On the other hand, one should really read/watch/listen to stories based on the story itself, not the climax or ending IMO.
Hmm well that's interesting.
Personally I like find out things in a story for myself, yet some of the time things are spoiled for me and I will admit it doesn't stop me for reading/watching/playing to the end.
That's why wee re-read things
Both ways are nice, and only having the one DUBMLEDOREDIES option sucks
Quote:"It could be that once you know how it turns out, you're more comfortable processing the information and can focus on a deeper understanding of the story."
I agree to this 100%!
It would depend on the nature of the story and the nature of the spoiler.
I mean sure for a superhero story you know the good guys are going to win, whatever, makes no difference.
While for something that relies on extreme events for shock value, if you're spoiled then you're obviously not going to be shocked...
Probably explains why my friend likes to skip ahead in reading a book once in a while before returning to where he was.
I've actually caught myself doing this a couple of times.
diego Wrote: [ -> ]Probably explains why my friend likes to skip ahead in reading a book once in a while before returning to where he was.
I've actually caught myself doing this a couple of times.
In anime, I do this every time.
Hmm... I don't like when someone spoils a book for me. I tend to skip ahead to the part where the shocking event happens, then I have no desire to read it anymore :/
I like reading a book and figuring out what's going to happen myself. Especially if it's a mystery novel or something.
Assassinator Wrote: [ -> ]It would depend on the nature of the story and the nature of the spoiler.
I mean sure for a superhero story you know the good guys are going to win, whatever, makes no difference.
While for something that relies on extreme events for shock value, if you're spoiled then you're obviously not going to be shocked...
What I was going to say. If the story has a shock ending a spoiler would ruin it. Other than that I don't mind. I remember when I used to read books I would tend to check the last page.
Spoilers for tournaments are where I especially get angry. Especially unintentional spoilers. I don't get as much out the experience when I know the outcome. For instance, if I know a character is going to die in a game, it will often drastically change my approach to the game. For books and movies, it is often not as much of a problem for me. Giving a spoiler, however, can take away from something's replayability, rewatchability, re-x-ability. If you find out a plot twist near the end or something, you might feel an urge to go back through again and see just how that information is important to the rest of the game, the minute details often add so much more to the tale. If I know how it will play out, then I often approach the story from a more objective standpoint, often losing much of the beauty it has to offer in the process.