“Is He Talking to Me?” How Breaking the Fourth Wall Influences Enjoyment

• In Event: Psychology of Media Enjoyment

Abstract

We investigate the entertainment-related consequences of the TV trope of breaking the fourth wall (B4W), i.e., when a fictional character addresses the viewers directly. Based on the model of narrative comprehension and engagement (Busselle & Bilandzic, 2008, 2009) we assumed that B4W contributes to viewers’ cognitive and affective enjoyment by intensifying the parasocial interaction experience. Contrary, B4W should reduce enjoyment by disrupting viewers’ transportation into the narrative. An online experiment with 260 participants was conducted in which we manipulated a scene from House of Cards by removing two B4W moments for one group while showing the complete sequence to the other. A multiple mediation analysis revealed that B4W significantly increased the parasocial interaction experience which in turn heightened cognitive and affective enjoyment. However, no indirect effect of B4W on the enjoyment components through transportation was found. We discuss the implications of our findings for future research.

Authors

• Daniel Possler, Hannover U of Music, Drama and Media

• Daniela M. Schluetz, U of Muenster

• Lucas Golombek