While waiting in line outside bookstores for the sixthHarry Potternovel to be distributed in 2005 , fans of the son wizardbegan to take heed criesof “ Snape kills Dumbledore ! ” Some readers who had view leak scans of advance copies online decided to drive around and blackguard spoilers at citizenry who had n’t even gotten their hand on the title .
It was cruel . There may have been crying . But was it actuallyspoilingthe experience of reading the book ?
For the journalPsychological Science , psychologists Jonathan Leavitt and Nicholas Christenfeld published astudyin 2011 canvass how the enjoyment of chronicle can be influenced by how much a lector knows about the plot in progress . The writer took 819 field from the University of California , San Diego and had them read unforesightful stories break into three distinct class : chronicle with “ twist ” endings in the O. Henry mould , mysteries , and narratives that were more focused on intimate character development and literary flourish than big plot twist .
Each lecturer got three story by base authors like Roald Dahl and Agatha Christie . Some had an basic paragraph spoiling the outcome ; others had a paragraph that appeared to be part of the tale cocker it ; a third was presented as - is with no additions . The subjects were asked to rate their enjoyment on a scale of 1 to 10 .
Readers tended to rate spoiled stories no differently than unspoiled 1 — in fact , they were rated slightly higher . “ In all three story types , incorporating spoiler text into tarradiddle had no effect on how much they were liked , ” the author wrote .
They speculated that knowing outcomes in advance create a different sort of suspense for the lector — one in which they had more data than the characters did . In a follow - up study [ PDF ] , Leavitt and Christenfeld debate that “ fluency , ” or a familiarity with a story ’s beats , can permit the lector to pay more aid to other item . If you ’ve watchedStar Wars12 time , the movie has obviously been “ spoiled”—but that allows you to concenter your aid on the tool pattern or backdrop character reference .
The authors acknowledge the studies do n’t account for the form of anticipatory thrill that comes with the release of an “ issue ” film or book — a calendar month - retentive ( or even years - long ) sustained suspense that can sometimes be more satisfying than the fiction itself . While scientific discipline might insist spoilers do n’t really weigh , shout out them to Thomas Kyd in descent at aHarry Potterrelease party is believably not the skilful way to try that theory .
[ h / tThrillist ]
