Titel
Perceived Similarity and Sympathy With Villains
AutorInnen
Steiger, L., Tekin, Ö., Gahn, M., Stirnkorb, N.
Abstract
This study investigated whether perceived similarity with a given villain can play a role in the judgement of the villain’s character. The goal was to replicate the third sub-study of “Can Bad Be Good? The Attraction of a Darker Self” (Krause and Rucker, 2019). In an online survey, the subjects were assigned to one out of six different groups, using block-randomization. The subjects read a list of either positive or negative adjectives describing the character of the fic- tional villain “Sam”. In the following the subjects had to find similarities or dis- similarities with “Sam” and then rate the villain’s character as well as propose a monetary fine for an imaginary crime the villain had committed. After analyzing the data the most surprising findings were, that there is no significant effect of perceived similarity between one self and the villain on rating the villains per- sonality as good or bad or the amount of monetary fine that each subject pro- posed. The groups that read positive adjectives associated with “Sam” also rated him as a better person in comparison to the groups with a list of negative adjectives. Between the positive adjectives and the similarity condition, there was no effect of interaction found. These findings suggest that perceived simi- larity of oneself with a given villain does not have significant influence on the judgement of the villain’s character or the proposed amount of monetary fine.
Schlagworte
character evaluation, cognitive bias, perceived similarity