For many people, avoiding spoilers for television, films, or books has become akin to an Olympic sport. Internet users express worry and anger about “spoilers” in online discussions or reviews that give away important story developments for their favorite media franchises.
A new study by researchers in the U.S. and the Netherlands shows that spoilers can reduce feelings of entertainment, but the effect does not seem as strong as outraged fans might believe.
The study, which appears in the December issue of “Communication Research” used an experiment to test how 412 university students responded to both spoiled and unspoiled short stories. A previous study in 2011 by researchers in California found that spoiled stories were rated as “better” than unspoiled stories.
Read the full story – Spoiler Alert: Story Spoilers Can Hurt Entertainment. A Little.
