The Effect of Moral Clarity Versus Ambiguity in Entertainment Media on Cooperation in an Economic Game

• In Event: Media and Morality

Abstract

Investigations of moral clarity versus ambiguity in mass communication are increasingly common, especially in entertainment theory. However, studies of the unintended effects of moral clarity/ambiguity are lacking. Moreover, recent, untested theoretical developments suggest mechanisms for how moral clarity/ambiguity might affect audiences. The current paper presents two studies examining the impact of moral clarity/ambiguity on cooperation in an economic game. We reason that morally clear-cut narratives elicit similar, synchronous responses across audience members, and that this shared experience leads to greater cooperation. By contrast, we reason that morally ambiguous narratives elicit divergent, asynchronous responses across audience members, and leads to decreased cooperation. We conduct two studies (one using text stimuli, and one using feature-length films). Results suggest that moral clarity is indeed associated with higher levels of cooperation than moral ambiguity, and that the emphasis of binding moral intuitions intensifies this effect. Discussion centers on implications for media theory.

Authors

• Robert Joel Lewis, University of Texas at Austin

• Matthew N Grizzard, University at Buffalo - SUNY

• J. Michael Mangus, U of California - Santa Barbara

• Peyman Rashidian, U of Texas - Austin

• Rene Weber, U of California - Santa Barbara