Why do they do it? And does it actually spoil the story or make it better? Karina Young, a project manager from Bournemouth, admits the first thing she does when watching a film is whip out her phone, look it up on IMDB and Wikipedia, sometimes missing the first 10 to 15 minutes of the film while reading the synopsis. When Jigsaw, the latest instalment in the franchise, came out last year, she was determined to kick the habit. But Karina only made it to the snack bar before giving in.
Back when Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince was first published, comedian Ros Ballinger from Manchester flicked to the last few pages and spoiler alert found out Professor Dumbledore died before she'd even finished the first chapter. Sometimes spoiler hunting is reserved for big series - the ones which dominate the headlines for weeks whenever they air. Student Bridie Kennerley, 24, said she used to be a "chronic binge watcher" - but now she doesn't have the same amount of time to watch everything, she'll keep up by looking up spoilers.
She added: "I think some people get it, but sometimes people will be talking about a show and say: 'Oh I don't want to spoil it for you' and I'll just tell them they might as well, because I'll do it for myself otherwise anyway. Delving into the Wikipedia pages of series or films you're not planning to watch is all well and good, but why do it for pop culture you actually enjoy? Dan Selcke, the editor of WinterIsComing. He's not someone who actively goes looking for spoilers, but, unlike a huge part of the Game of Thrones fandom, he really doesn't mind spoilers - not that he's able to avoid them in his line of work.
They looked at the final episode of the TV series How I Met Your Mother and found that people who knew [ahead of time] what happened at the end felt less stressed watching the finale. Rosenbaum and Johnson then jumped in and did a follow-up study in They also found that certain habits also impact how people interact with spoilers. In yet another study from , the Rosenbaum-Johnson duo proves my main rationale for seeking out spoilers.
The fact is all this anti-spoiler propaganda is only a very recent phenomenon. I also may or may not have issues with giving up control. Follow us. Newsletter Exclusive news delivered to your inbox. Surprise Surprise. Dec 30, Share. Illustration by Shreyaa Krritika Das. See all articles by Pallavi. Latest Science articles.
Early To Rise. So there isn't any thought that with these great works of fiction, knowing the ending is going to ruin them. However, there's some research that disagrees with this notion. LiveScience reports that in a study, Benjamin Johnson, an assistant professor of communication science at VU University Amsterdam in the Netherlands, found that spoilers may not ruin an experience entirely, but can reduce suspense and decrease overall enjoyment. The study asked university students to read different short stories they had never previously heard or seen, and before reading, the students were given summaries that included spoilers.
The students then rated the stories, describing whether or not they found them engaging, moving, and suspenseful. Instead, we surprisingly found that for all the outcomes, spoilers were detrimental," Johnson told LiveScience. Instead, the study actually showed that stories that had been "spoiled" were rated as less moving, less thought provoking, and less successful at drawing the reader into an experience than those that weren't.
So what do these contradictory reports mean, exactly? Well, regardless of the research, it still stands that the benefits of spoilers are subjective to personal preferences and expectations.
Every person knows better than anyone else how they enjoy stories best; one person may find that knowing spoilers helps them enjoy movies more, for instance, while another might not want to know little to nothing about a TV show before going in.
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