Poetics 29 (2001) 189206

www.elsevier.com/locate/poetic

Emotional reactions to narratives about the

fortunes of personae in the news theater
Dolf Zillmann*, Silvia Knobloch
University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, USA

Abstract
This expose examines how people react to nonction narratives about the fortunes of individuals and groups that manifest the public cast of characters in the daily news. In contrast to
prevalent presumptions of response uniformity, a diversity of emotional reactions to themes
commonly categorized as bad or good news is projected. It is proposed and documented that
frequent exposure to public personnel results in the formation of aective dispositions, and
that these dispositions then govern the elicitation of emotions in response to revelations of the
characters bad or good fortunes. Drama-appreciation theory is invoked to explain the disposition-specic emotional reactivity. The function of moral considerations in the overriding
of empathic response tendencies is elaborated and shown to span the ctionnonction
dichotomy. # 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Representations of ctional events are known to aect human emotions in a
variety of ways. Representations of actual happenings, in contrast, are commonly
thought to dier in this regard, mainly in that they elicit a narrower range of emotions. The news is a case in point. Accounts of relevant occurrences tend to be
dichotomized as bad versus good news, and respondents emotions are presumed to
accord with this classication in that distress reactions are expected to follow disclosures of bad fortunes to some, whereas joyful reactions are expected to result
from revelations of good fortunes to others. It is treated as a truism that bad news
must engage empathic concerns that can only foster dysphoric reactions such as
dismay and sadness. Good news is treated analogously as a theme that is partial to
eliciting euphoric reactions.
* Corresponding author. Present address: College of Communication and Information Sciences, University
of Alabama, Oce for Graduate Studies, 478 Reese Phifer Hall, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0172, USA.
E-mail address: dzillman@icr.va.edu (D. Zillmann).
0304-422X/01/$ - see front matter # 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
PII: S0304-422X(01)00042-0

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This expose challenges these presumptions of emotional response uniformity for

nonctional representations. It emphasizes thematic similarities in ctional and nonctional accounts, and it projects that the basic emotional response mechanisms apply
to both these representational formats. Focus is on aective dispositions toward the
persons and groups to whom good or bad things happen. All news accounts of consequence to others are viewed as dramatic theses of victimization or gratication, defeat
or victory, disgrace or triumph, respectively, relating outcomes that respondents,
because of their aective dispositions toward aected parties, may either despise or
applaud. Given dispositions of disliking and resentment, news revelations of good fortunes thus may evoke irritation, if not infuriation, whereas revelations of misfortunes
may trigger reactions of unmitigated joy much as they would in ctional portrayals.
1.1. The preponderance of misfortune themes in the news
The news is known to be dominated by reports of misfortunes. Numerous content
analyses have shown, in fact, that the incidence of such reports, usually labeled bad
news, exceeds the incidence of reports of good fortunes, and that it does so to an
impressive degree (Haskins, 1984; Stone and Grusin, 1984; Carroll, 1985; Stone et al.,
1987). News reporting appears to be partial to mishaps, setbacks, disasters, and
tragedies that threaten or that have been suered by people of all walks of life,
whether or not such reports are of consequence for the news consumer. This partiality to impending and manifest victimization is obtrusive enough to have been
recognized by the public. According to a US opinion survey, 64% of news consumers believe that the news media focus too much on negative themes (Shaw, 1993).
Moreover, a survey of news directors shows these professionals to be acutely aware of
the disproportional selection of victimization themes for presentation in the news
(Galician and Pasternack, 1987). The directors tend to defend their apparent preference, however, by contending that narratives about victimization, because they
entail information about risks and dangers, have greater utility and, hence, are more
newsworthy than others.
1.2. Presumed emotional eects of misfortune themes in the news
Interestingly, most news directors nonetheless believe that the preponderance of
themes of danger and victimization in the news desensitizes and depresses news consumers (Galician and Pasternack, 1987). Their beliefs are echoed by many media
critics and scholars (Gerbner and Gross, 1976; Veitch and Gritt, 1976; Galician,
1986; Levine, 1986; Cowdy, 1993; Jaehnig et al., 1981;). In fact, the expectation of
depressive and cynical reactions to the onslaught of bad news is said to have prompted the American institution of closing newscasts with a piece or two of upbeat, good
news (Scott and Gobetz, 1992; Zillmann et al., 1994). Such placement of enlightening or amusing reports is thought to provide a release from the deathwatch
(Marc, 1989: 1). Bennett (1983) similarly suggests that the purpose of upbeat closing
stories is to send people o to bed reassured that, despite its problems, the world is
still a safe and positive place(Bennett, 1983: 5).

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The much-debated recent trend toward greater involvement of elements of entertainment in the news and in related nonctional narratives (Bogart, 1980; Postman,
1986; Thomas et al., 1990 Fruh et al., 1996;) can be analogously interpreted. The
placement of entertaining tidbits into accounts of unfortunate events may well provide a silver lining and take the sting out of negative reactions. Additionally,
amusing asides may oer comic relief. The interspersion of entertaining reports
into series of mostly depressing reports should have similar response-ameliorating
eects. Then again, not all negative revelations can be belittled as laughing matters,
and the conveyance of truly tragic happenings is bound to foster reactions of sadness and other depression-like emotional experiences.
Despite the aversive emotional reactions that genuinely negative news narratives
are bound to evoke, there can be little doubt that such negative themes hold great
appeal to audiences (Haskins, 1984; Donsbach, 1991; Eilders, 1997). At times, negative reality programming (Nimmo and Combs, 1985; Oliver and Armstrong, 1995;
Jonas and Neuberger, 1996) appears to be sought out, not just despite the aversive
reactions it triggers, but because of them. News narratives that shock with accounts
of abuse and terror, for example, may not have entertainment value in the traditional sense. They attract audiences nonetheless.

2. Appeal and utility of nonctional misfortune themes

The hedonistic paradox of the appeal of aversion-evoking narratives tends to be
resolved by referral to biological factors, specically to motives serving self-preservation (Frijda, 1988; Zillmann, 1998). The inclination to continually screen ones environment for threats and dangers, in view of its obvious survival value through the
millennia, is thought to be evolutionary dened and thus deep-rooted. This supposition
is actually endorsed, although often only implicitly, by media representatives who
attempt to justify the predominance of misfortune themes in the news. Apprising the
public of threats and dangers is considered to serve the medias surveillance function
better than accounts of individual accomplishments, prescriptions for self-advancement, the disclosure of opportunities for the aggregation of valued commodities,
and other features not pertaining to harm (Lasswell, 1948; Shoemaker, 1996).
The media have, of course, greatly extended the immediate environment that
had to be screened in earlier times. News consumers now are apprised of a multitude
of dangers that threaten all conceivable regions of the globe. Many of these dangers
are utterly inconsequential for the news consumers themselves. An earthquake in
Peru, for example, is not a threat to Finns, but its news coverage in Finland is likely
to attract large audiences and instill dismay about the plight of victims. Curiosity
about the event, and even empathic involvement with its victims, can hardly be
considered to have utility, however, in terms of preparing Finnish television viewers
to cope with the dangers in question. Upon reection, the large majority of threats
and dangers that are more-or-less continually featured by the media are of little, if
any, consequence for most readers, listeners, and viewers. Extraordinary curiosity
about the events in question is obtrusively evident, nonetheless. This would seem to

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render the utility argument less than compelling, and it makes claims of newsworthiness
of utility-lacking events ring hollow. The curiosity about threats and dangers, along
with the human suering that is associated with them, is better understood as an
exploitable residue of agonistic vigilance that had, but no longer has, general utility
(Zillmann, 1998). This interpretation is preferable to declaring such curiosity morbid
(Haskins, 1984), as this would brand a natural inclination aberrant.
Irrespective of the origin of motives that attract news consumers to narratives
about danger, mayhem, and grand disasters, however, such narratives are generally
viewed as infusing the citizenry with apprehensions, fears, depressive states, lingering anxieties, and at the very least, with bad moods.
2.1. Bad news of consequence
Often enough, bad news provides information about threats and dangers that
concern the populace at large or, at least, well-dened subpopulations. Reports of a
new and especially dangerous nationwide u epidemic, for example, should be of
interest to the entire news-consuming population. Reports of a hurricane about to
make landfall in the Carolinas of the United States, on the other hand, should be of
concern only to those living in the indicated coastal regions. If dangers extend to the
news recipient, as they do in these cases, concern and distress that motivates the planning of protective measures are likely reactions. Moreover, if such reports feature the
suering of those already victimized by the dangers in question, empathic distress is the
likely response. Under these conditions it must be considered improbable that news
recipients can take pleasure from learning about others succumbing to the danger.
Research on the eects of news reports that feature the victimization of others by
the dangers that also threaten the news recipients supports this interpretation. An
investigation on carjacking (Gibson and Zillmann, 1994), for example, shows a clear
correspondence between aversive emotional reactions to various versions of a news
report that detailed incidents of carjacking, on the one hand, and the perception of
the threat of carjacking to the motorists, on the other. Specically, the reported
carjackings varied from minimally injurious through violent and crippling to fatal.
Ratings of being emotionally upset about the report increased progressively with the
brutality of the carjackings. The respondents assessment of the general and, perhaps
more importantly, the self-directed threat of carjacking varied analogously.
A similar investigation about the threat of random shootings in fast-food restaurants
and, independently, the dangers of contracting Salmonella poisoning in these establishments (Aust and Zillmann, 1996) conrmed this relationship. The report presented
incidents of these victimizations either with or without victim interviews. The interviews, moreover, featured victims who reported their suering either in a calm and
controlled way or in a highly emotional manner. Respondents reported being greatly
distressed by the emotion-laden versions of the reports. They were least distressed
when exemplars of victim suering were not provided. Estimates of the magnitude
of the dangers of random shooting and Salmonella poisoning proved to be a function of emotional distress elicited by the reports. Most importantly, the respondents
considered themselves at greater risk of being victimized, the more they were upset

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by the reports. Predictably, they were most distressed when highly emotional testimony was given. The investigation also examined empathic sensitivity as a personality
trait and established that the assessment of general danger and personal risk is a
function of such sensitivity. This is to say that the more empathic a person, the more
strongly will be the reaction of distress to emotional exemplars of others suering
and, in turn, the higher will be the assessment of the risk of victimization.
An investigation about the risk of contracting Melanoma from excessive sun
exposure (Zillmann and Gan, 1996) further corroborates that report-induced distress is positively related to risk assessment; or conversely, that the perception of
appreciable risk to others and especially to self is associated with reactions of emotional upheaval.
The linkage between risk that extends to self and distinctly negative emotional
reactions to danger-conveying and danger-exemplifying news reports should not be
considered the only condition under which revelations of others suering are bound
to trigger negative emotional reactions. Reports of setbacks for groups whose concerns and goals are shared and actively supported by the news consumers should
also elicit only negative emotional reactions. Generally speaking, those who are
participants in a social movement, not uninvolved bystanders, must be expected to
respond with distress to learning of events that spell disaster for the movement. It is,
after all, their own cause that suers a setback.
Being actively involved with groups that, for example, promote the protection of
the environment or the decriminalization of recreational narcotics, or that oppose
the right to abortion or free-trade legislation, is bound to foster pronounced negative
emotions to news revelations of setbacks for the involved persons causes, but positive
emotions to revelations of advancements of these causes. Additionally, the more signicant a setback or advancement, the stronger the respective reaction of distress or
elation is likely to be.
2.2. Bad news of interest
Not all news consumers are actively involved with particular social causes, however. Most news recipients may well be linked to one cause or another and even be
active in some groups and parties. In all probability, these news consumers will be
strongly involved with only a limited number of causes addressed in daily reports, and
they will qualify as interested bystanders for the remaining vast majority of reports
that cover the success or failure of social agendas and initiatives. Although not
directly involved as agents, the news consumer as bystander or nonintervening
observer is nonetheless likely to be partial to some agendas and initiatives and
opposed to others. This is to say that the dispositional dynamics of the news consumer as interested observer are much the same as those of the actively involved,
socially engaged news consumer. On the whole, the interested observers emotional
dispositions may be not as strong as those of actively engaged parties. They appear
to be strong enough, however, to liberate distress and elation reactions of considerable intensity. For example, reports of failing eorts to overcome the exclusionary
policy of all-male military academies and to get women accepted is bound to sadden

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not only active feminists, but all women and men who sympathize with the feminists
objective to gender-integrate the U.S. military. Needless to say, those who oppose this
objective are bound to rejoice when learning of failing eorts to integrate. This example
suggests that emotional reactions to reports of failing or succeeding eorts that serve
particular objectives can be expected although, for one thing, the reported outcome is
essentially without consequence for the news recipients themselves; and for another, the
recipients have no hand, in bringing about the reported outcomenot even remotely so.
The suggestion that news revelations of events that are pertinent to particular objectives will foster hedonically opposite emotional reactions, depending on whether these
objectives are supported or opposed by the news recipient, implies, of course, that the
assumption of uniform responses of dysphoria to reports of misfortunes and of
euphoria to reports of good fortunes is untenable. To the extent that emotional dispositions toward issues, as well as toward the people dening these issues, are diverse
and vary along a negativepositive continuum, it should be expected that emotional
reactions vary accordingly. This means that given news narratives will trigger
euphoric responses in some recipients and dysphoric ones in others. The prevalence
of bad news, then, would not necessarily foster a prevalence of bad emotions.
The possibility of emotional indierence warrants some attention. It could be
argued that many uninvolved news consumers (i.e., recipients for whom revelations
are inconsequential personally and who have no stake in the success or failure of
reported eorts) are emotionally indierent and that, therefore, outcome-specic
emotions are not to be expected. Under these conditions, the preponderance of bad
news may simply induce a low-intensity gloomy mood state. More likely appears that
the absence of emotional dispositions will leave respondents emotionally untouched
altogether. Irrespective of which of these two conjectures has merit, it would seem
that the large majority of news consumers does hold aective dispositions toward
the large majority of issues addressed in the news. On the assumption, then, that
dispositional variation does exists, the projection of emotionally diverse reactions to
identical revelations in news reports can be accepted as a working hypothesis.

3. Disposition theory of emotional reactions to the news

The presumed diversity of emotional reactions to pertinent revelations by the news
is readily explained by the application of disposition theory. This theory has been
used to good eect in understanding reactions to ctional narrative (Zillmann, 1994)
as well as to some nonctional situations, such as athletic competition (Zillmann
and Paulus, 1993). As it also applies to immediate social interactions (Zillmann and
Bryant, 1980; Zillmann, 1991), its extension to reports of these interactions in the
news is straightforward.
3.1. Moral judgment in the empathic mediation of emotion
The concept of empathy is central to disposition theory. It is the research on empathic
reactivity, in fact, that provides compelling evidence that aective reactions are a

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function of aective dispositions toward the agents to whom good or bad things are
happening and who express positive or negative emotions in response to these happenings (Berger, 1962; Stotland, 1969; Aronfreed, 1970; Homan, 1978; Eisenberg
and Strayer, 1987; Zillmann, 1991). It has been shown that, when the indicated dispositions are favorable, persons respond in a hedonically compatible fashion to the
good or bad fortunes of others; that is, they will be pleased and joyful when learning
about good fortunes of liked others, and they will be displeased and distressed when
learning about bad fortunes of liked others. When these dispositions are unfavorable,
however, persons respond in a counterempathic or hedonically incompatible way.
Given unfavorable dispositions, aective responding simply reverses within the hedonic
dichotomy. The experience of good fortunes by disliked others becomes distressing, and
that of bad fortunes by them becomes enjoyable. Empathic reactivity may be expected,
then, wherever and whenever dispositions of liking exist. Dispositions of disliking,
contempt, resentment, or open hatred, on the other hand, must be expected to foster
counterempathic reactions. In such situations, the negative disposition virtually overrides empathic concerns, mostly because of moral considerations (Wilson, et al., 1986;
Zillmann, 1991, 2000; Carroll, 1996). This is to say that resented others are deemed
undeserving of good fortunes and deserving of bad fortunes. Narratives relating resented others good fortunes are thus likely to irritate and distress. Moreover, narratives
relating resented others bad fortunes not only fail to engage empathic concerns, but
are bound to spark joyful reactions and applause. Such counterempathic response
tendencies have been amply demonstrated, mostly in dramatic contexts (Zillmann
and Cantor, 1976; Zillmann, 1994, 1996; Carroll, 1996; Tan, 1996).
Regarding the news, empathic reactivity must be expected to vary similarly as a
function of dispositions toward people. Narratives about bad fortunes suered, or
about good fortunes attained, by particular agents and groups in the news must
therefore be expected to foster empathic reactions in the favorably disposed section
of the audience and counterempathic ones in the unfavorably disposed section. As
research on empathic reactivity in a dramatic context (Zillmann and Cantor, 1977)
shows that dispositionally indierent persons tend to be somewhat empathic, rather
subdued aective reactions can be expected for the audience section that is neither
favorably nor unfavorably disposed toward featured agents and groups.
Aective reactions to the news thus are not simply a function of the normative
goodness or badness of events. Instead, they are mediated by considerations of
deservingness that are part and parcel of aective dispositions toward the recipients
of good or bad fortunes. Aective dispositions, then, not a somewhat consensual
taxonomy of the goodness or badness of events, are the ultimate determinants of
subjectively good or bad news. Good and bad news are truly in the eyes of the
beholder.
3.2. The formation of dispositions toward the cast of characters in the news
Large sections of the news audience may be quite indierent, say, to accounts of
massacres in Algeria, epidemic diseases in Ecuador, or religious persecutions in
Tibet. In drama-theoretical terms, the characters dening the aected groups are

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insuciently developed. Insucient character development is known to result in

emotionally at drama because it fails to make respondents care one way or
another. The same applies to the news. If next to nothing is known about suering
parties, aective reactions will be minimal as dispositions are those of indierence.
The situation can be changed, of course, by supplying information about the parties
in question as well as about the circumstances of their suering. This kind of character development has been practiced, for example, during the early-nineties famine
in Somalia (SOS in Somalia, 1993). Suering children and their circumstances
were featured repeatedly, resulting in the rapid formation of aective dispositions.
These dispositions grew strong enough to instigate civic action and ultimately governmental relief eorts. The story had its villains too, however, and the brutalization
of U.S. marines by these villains quickly converted supportive to angry reactions.
News consumers were again aectively engaged, and their emotional reactions were
once more strong enough to stir civic action and force a change in American foreign
policy (Sharkey, 1993).
The theater analogy should not be misinterpreted as suggesting that, as in drama,
aective disposition need be created for each case of interest. Regarding the news, the
people in the news are, as a rule, suciently developed characters. They are known,
and so is their stance on issues of relevance. Surely, the American president along with
his immediate political friends and enemies are well-developed players. So are the
leaders of other nations and the promoters of popular and unpopular causes. The same
is the case for celebrities in sport and entertainment. Because these persons are wellestablished entities, most news consumers will hold specic dispositions toward them.
In drama-theoretical terms, those who are liked become protagonists and those who
are disliked antagonists. Those who are met with indierence become side-kicks.
Yasir Arafat, for example, can be hero to some, villain to others, and side-kick to
the rest. The hero-villain classication is likely to reverse, given the same classiers,
for the Jewish leaders in the conict between Israelis and Palestinians.
This dispositional categorization applies to groups just as well. Persons embracing
a pro-choice ideology, for example, may be liked and assume hero status; or they may
be disliked and assume villain status. Their pro-life counterparts again are likely to be
inversely sorted by the same classiers. All conceivable social groupings can be treated
analogously as either protagonists (i.e., essentially, when the groups goals correspond
with those of the respondents), antagonists (i.e., when the groups goals are opposite to
those embraced by the respondents), or insignicant members of the cast of public
characters (i.e., when the groups goals are deemed immaterial by the respondents).
Such categorization obviously applies to demographic-style groupings (i.e., by
nationality, race, ethnicity, age, education, religion, political aliation, sexual orientation, etc.). It also applies, however, to tacitly dened groups such as sports fans, movie
bus, music devotees, and cult followers. Trekies, Punks, and Skinheads, for example,
are groups of well-developed characters. So are feminists, environmentalists, Rednecks, Yuppies, Promise Keepers, and uncounted others.
Unlike in ctional narratives, then, it is generally unnecessary to develop protagonists and antagonists by depiction of their character, deeds, or apparent intentions. This is signicant in that the manifest format of news narrative may be

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incomplete. Whereas, in order to engage the recipients emotions, ctional narrative

must rst develop all vital personae, the personae of news narrative are predeveloped
and their involvement by mere reference need only be supplemented by the report of
events that pertain to them. In other words, the dramatic theme of event-focused
news accounts is de facto completed by pre-existing character development.
3.3. The parasocial paradigm of disposition formation
The indicated dispositional treatment of people in the media has received considerable attention as a so-called parasocial phenomenon. Horton and his collaborators
(Horton and Wohl, 1956; Horton and Strauss, 1957) proposed that media consumers
develop a quasi-social relationship with media characters to whom they are repeatedly
exposed and about whom they often learn more than about persons in their immediate
social environment. Such relationships are not restricted to characters in the news, but
readily extend to ctional characters. Relationships built up and the understanding
that sustains them, seem no dierent in kind from those characteristic of normal
social life (Horton and Strauss, 1957: 587). Initially, then, impressions of characters
may be based on stereotypes of appearance and apparent social standing. The
repeated observation of their demeanor and conduct, however, is bound to override
any impressions and result in comparatively stable aective dispositions.
A large volume of research has explored the validity of this proposal. The question
whether favorite ctional television characters could become friends, much like
actual friends, drew most attention (Levy, 1979; Rubin and McHugh, 1987; Perse and
Rubin, 1989; Fabian, 1993; Isotalus, 1995). The answer was armative. It is widely
accepted that respondents do develop quasi-social relationships with media characters,
and that aective dispositions toward the targeted individuals are an integral part of
these relationships. Oddly, the research on parasocial relations has very much neglected
that media characters may also become enemy-like; that is, they may become disliked,
resented, and even hated. However, as the disposition-generating mechanisms outlined by Horton and collaborators apply to negative dispositions as well as to positive ones, it must be assumed that the media develop parasocial enemies as easily
as they develop parasocial friends. The research on parasocial relations, moreover, has been limited to such relations with individual media characters. The concept readily extends, however, to relations with coherent groups in the media.
3.4. Predicting aective reactions to news narratives from drama-appreciation theory
It should be noted that recent theorizing on emotional reactions to drama (Carroll,
1996; Tan, 1996; Zillmann, 1996) insists that respondents are witnesses to socially
relevant events, mainly ctional but also nonctional ones, and that disposition formation during both theatric illusion and social exchanges in actual reality is
thought to be governed by the same basic mechanisms. Furthermore, the governing
processes are thought to be the same for immediate and mediated observations.
Whether in ction, in the news, or in immediate interaction, then, witnessing personas
or persons do agreeable, good things will foster liking and friend-like treatment;

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witnessing them do disagreeable, bad things, in contrast, will foster disliking and
enemy-like treatment.
Once dispositions toward people in the news have been formed in this manner,
drama-appreciation theory (Zillmann, 1991, 1996, 2000) may be applied to make the
following specic predictions for aective reactions to favorable or unfavorable
revelations by news narratives.
(1) News revelations of bad fortunes for liked persons or groups foster negative
aect in proportion with the degree of liking.
(2) News revelations of bad fortunes for disliked persons or groups foster positive
aect in proportion with the degree of disliking.
(3) News revelations of good fortunes for liked persons or groups foster positive
aect in proportion with the degree of liking.
(4) News revelations of good fortunes for disliked persons or groups foster negative aect in proportion with the degree of disliking.

4. Aective reactions to news narratives as drama appreciation

The merits of these predictions were determined in two experimental investigations by Zillmann et al. (1998, 1999). Public gures and action groups, for whom liking
and disliking could be expected to vary substantially, were placed into news reports
according to which these focal agents experienced good or bad fortunes. Liking versus
disliking of the personnel in question was ascertained by ratings on 11-point bipolar
scales ranging from dislike ( 5) to like (5). In order to ensure the novelty of happenings to these well-established persons or groups, the stories were fabricated and said
to be breaking news just received from a wire service. Respondents read clippings of
blurbs about the made-up events, and they rated their reactions to the revelations
immediately after reading. Special care was taken to focus the respondents attention on
their immediate emotional reactions. The particular instructions were: Remember, in
this study we dont care so much about the story and its journalistic quality. We want to
learn about peoples emotional reactions to whats in the storymeaning, to what the
story is about. So, if whats reported makes you feel angry or sad, or if what happened irks you or makes you think something like what a shame or serves them
right, we want to know about it. And if whats reported strikes you as ridiculous and
laughable, we want to know that, too. Just give us your honest immediate reaction to
whats described. Ratings of satisfying, enjoyable, entertaining, amusing, and hilarious were made on 11-point unipolar scales ranging from not at all (0) through
extremely (10). These ratings had high interitem consistency and consequently could
be averaged to a stable composite measure of the respondents enjoyment of each
reported revelation. This composite measure was used in the various analyses.
4.1. Narratives about the fortunes and misfortunes of individuals
Prior to exposure to the reports, the respondents indicated their liking and disliking of a host of public gures and action groups, the focal persons and groups being

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part of a larger inventory. The central persons of four stories are listed in Table 2. Two
stories revealed a persons bad fortune, two a persons good fortune. The same story
was used for two persons, with just their names exchanged. Table 1 details the text
manipulation for former President Clinton and his opponent, Speaker of the House
Newt Gingrich. The text was analogously manipulated for Anita Hill, the woman who
tried but failed to prevent the conrmation of Clarence Thomas for the Supreme Court,
and her nemesis Thomas. Tonja Harding and Michelle Kwan are gure skaters who, at
the time of data collection, were of strikingly dierent appeal. Harding was implicated in competition-related criminal activities, whereas Kwan was a celebrated
athlete of impeccable behavior. Dennis Rodman and Tiger Woods are professional
athletes of similarly discrepant appeal. Rodman, a basketball star, was a notorious
spoof, whereas golfer Woods conduct was exemplary.
The Hill/Thomas bad-fortune story described these persons as victims of a carjacking. They were said to have escaped injury, but their cars were destroyed. The
other bad-fortune story featured the embarrassing purported disclosure of the medical records of Clinton/Gingrich. It was revealed that they had contracted a venereal
disease, a credible revelation as both parties were known to have extramarital
aairs. The stories on sports celebrities projected these persons good fortunes.
Harding/Kwan were said to have been named designer and spokesperson for a line

Table 1
Original text of the release concerning President Clinton and House-Speaker Gingrich
AP v1099 1rc3/5/9710:09am
[(White House)Presidents] {(Washington, DC)Gingrichs} medical records indicate sexually transmitted disease
A document posted on the Internet purporting to be a copy of the medical records of [President Bill
Clinton] {Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich} reveals that the [President] {Speaker} suers from a
strain of viral herpes and that he has been taking daily medication for the condition for at least the past
three years.
According to the report, [Clinton] {Gingrich (R, Ga.)} has been taking the drug Xentan daily since
September of 1993. Xentan is a drug prescribed for herpes simplex 4, or HS4, a strain of herpes transmitted through sexual contact. HS4 is not life-threatening, but is especially painful during periods of
activation.
[White House Spokesperson Mac McClarty] {Toney Blakenley, spokesperson for Gingrich,} called the
report utter rubbish, and says the [President] {Speaker} will not dignify the rumor by addressing the
fact personally. But a physician of Bethesda Medical Center has stated that the document is authentic.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the doctor said, without a doubt, this is one of our records. How
you guys got a hold of it, I have no idea.
The physician of record on the document is listed as Dr. A. Martin Lowe, who is the [Presidents]
{Speakers} personal physician. When contacted, Lowe refused to comment on the document.
A woman claiming that she knew of the [Presidents] {Speakers} condition beforehand also claims that
it is common knowledge in Washington social circles. Madame Lavine, a 43-year-old woman living in
Alexandria, Virginia, who runs an escort service in Washington, says, I knew and everyone knew. It was
a given fact that he had it. You could tell just by looking at him. His complexion gets all ruddy at times.
Thats a dead give-a-way. And, baby, to my mind, theres only one way to get it.
Note. Text in regular brackets denes the Clinton story, text in decorative brackets the Gingrich story.
Data collection occurred prior to the Lewinsky scandal.

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D. Zillmann, S. Knobloch / Poetics 29 (2001) 189206

Table 2
Correlational analysis of aective dispositions toward persons in the news and enjoyment reactions to
revelations of their bad or good fortunes
Revelation

Target

Bad fortune

Anita Hill
Clarence Thomas
Bill Clinton
Newt Gingrich

0.28
0.25
0.26
0.48

0.03
0.05
0.03
0.0001

Good fortune

Tonja Harding
Michelle Kwan
Dennis Rodman
Tiger Woods

0.13
0.52
0.54
0.35

0.28
0.0003
0.0001
0.007

Note. Aective disposition toward target persons was measured on a dislikingliking scale. Enjoyment was
measured by a composite of ratings of amusing, enjoyable, entertaining, hilarious, and satisfying (=0.93).

of sportswear and to receive millions of dollars for the endorsement. Similarly,

Rodman/Woods were said to have just signed a multi-million dollar lm contract.
The ndings, in particular the correlations between the respondents aective disposition toward a public person and their aective response to the report of this public
persons misadventure or good fortune, are summarized in Table 2. As can be seen,
disposition and reaction to the revelation of misfortune correlated negatively with great
consistency. The more a person was liked, the less enjoyable was it to learn of his or her
misfortune. Conversely, and more importantly, the more a person was disliked, the
stronger was the enjoyment reaction to disclosed misfortune. As predicted, the misfortune of disliked persons is good news for those not bothered by empathic concerns; and the joyful reactions are stronger, the more intense the resentment.
In contrast, the correlations were consistently positive for the liking of a person
and the enjoyment in response to reported good fortune. The more a person is liked,
the more enjoyable is it to witness his or her benefaction. Conversely, the less a
person is liked, the less enjoyment can materialize.
Additionally, the respondents aective dispositions were dichotomized into positive (liking) and negative (disliking). Respondents indicating indierence toward the
persons of the reports were removed from this analysis. Attrition was minimal,
however, attesting to the fact that news consumers do develop aective dispositions
toward the people in the news. The dichotomized groups were then subjected to
analyses of variance.
The ndings revealed that all stories featuring victimization were markedly more
enjoyed by persons harboring resentment toward the victims than by those liking them.
This relationship reversed for reports of benefaction. Those with negative dispositions
toward the recipients of good fortunes found it more dicult than the more positively
inclined ones to enjoy the outcome. Regarding the latter, the story about Tonja Harding was the exception. The skater had just fallen from grace, and dispositions
toward her were an admixture of liking and disliking that resulted in minimally differentiated scores. This situation prevented reactions to accord with those of welldierentiated dispositions.

D. Zillmann, S. Knobloch / Poetics 29 (2001) 189206

201

In summary, the ndings leave no doubt about the fact that news consumers develop
and maintain aective dispositions toward public persons who are frequently featured
in the news, and that these dispositions determine the recipients emotional reactions to
the revelation of fortunes as predicted by drama-appreciation theory.
4.2. Narratives about the fortunes and misfortunes of agenda groups
The initial experiment was not entirely successful, however. It succeeded with
individuals in stories, but failed with groups. A story on the violent confrontation
between pro-choice and pro-life activists proved to be ambiguous in that the
apparent success of one group over the other could be interpreted as a setback of the
successful groups cause. The ndings, consequently, were supportive only in part.
Moreover, an international news report on a massacre in the Israel/Palestine conict
failed entirely, the apparent reason being a lack of concern for either group. Of a
sample of college students, about two thirds indicated total indierence about the
groups in conict; the remaining third scored exceedingly low on liking and disliking.
These observations suggest that the frequent portrayal of political and national
groups in the news does not with necessity foster aective dispositions. Especially
when news consumers fail to see relevance for their own aairs, they do not commit
their aections and, as a result, are rather untouched by even the most grievous
misfortunes suered by the parties of their indierence.
It was decided, therefore, to conduct a follow-up investigation on nationally signicant, hotly debated issues. A new, unambiguous story on abortion was created and
supplemented by stories on environmental policy and gender-integration in the military. Regarding the abortion issue, the two diametrically opposed action groups inicted damage on the political agenda of their countergroup. Specically, the pro-choice
agenda was set back by a pro-life activist, or vice versa. The story about environmental
policy dealt with the passing of a resolution on timber cutting in the U.S. state of
Oregon. It was presented as a great political accomplishment, with either the
Democratic leaders celebrating it as a major victory of their party, or the Republican leaders claiming the victory for their side. The story on gender integration in
the military featured a clash among high-ranking military leaders on the desirability
of women in combat roles alongside men. The outcome was either favorable (with
the concluding quote reading: This is a proud day for any woman in uniform.) or
unfavorable to women (This is a sad day for any woman in uniform.). All
assessment procedures and analyses were those of the initial investigation.
The ndings concerning the predicted relationship between aective dispositions
toward action groups and reactions of enjoyment to reports of the groups misfortunes
were directionally correct and signicant throughout. As can be seen from Table 3, all
correlations involving the target groups were negative. The stronger the positive disposition toward an action group, the less intense the enjoyment reaction; or alternatively
expressed, the more resentment toward a group, the greater the enjoyment response.
Because a countergroup (i.e., a group with the opposite political agenda) existed
for each action group, the correlations between dispositions toward these groups
and enjoyment reactions could also be obtained. Table 3 shows that, as expected, the

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D. Zillmann, S. Knobloch / Poetics 29 (2001) 189206

Table 3
Correlational analysis of aective dispositions toward political action groups or their opposition groups
and enjoyment reactions to news revelations of setbacks for these groups
Content of news report

Disposition toward
Target group
r

Pro-life agenda ridiculed

Pro-choice agenda ridiculed
Democratic agenda defeated
Republican agenda defeated
Yes to women in military
No to women in military

0.40
0.42
0.35
0.27
0.35
0.44

Countergroup
p

0.0004
0.0002
0.003
0.03
0.003
0.0002

0.28
0.30
0.45
0.11
0.11
0.29

0.02
0.008
0.0001
0.35
0.34
0.01

Note. Target groups are pro-life activists, pro-choice activists, democratic politicians, republican politicians, persons opposed to women in the military, and persons in favor of women in the military. News
revelations are consistently negative for the target-group agendas. The opposite is the case for the countergroup agendas. Countergroups are those in opposition to the target groups (within abortion activism,
political aliation, and stand on women in the military). Dispositions toward target groups should
negatively relate to enjoyment, dispositions toward countergroups positively.

direction of all relationships reversed, although not signicantly so in some cases. This
nding conrms that the same misfortunes that are deplored when victimizing a liked
and supported group are enjoyable when victimizing the disliked opponent group.
The ndings were equally consistent after the dichotomization of aective disposition. In contrast to the extreme aective indierence toward the action groups featured
in the initial investigation, the topics chosen for the stories in the follow-up investigation proved to be highly involving. As a result, respondent attrition was minimal.
Under these conditions, the ndings were clear-cut in showing consistently greater
enjoyment after news revelations of detrimental happenings to action groups toward
whom negative aective dispositions were held than to such groups when met with
favorable dispositions.
In summary, the ndings again show that aective dispositions toward well-known
public persons, in these cases groups of persons who share a relevant agenda, determine
aective reactions, both their hedonic quality and their intensity, to reports of these
persons and groups fortunes. Aective reactions to the news, and to bad news in particular, proved once more to be greatly varied rather than uniform. These ndings are
fully consistent, of course, with the proposal that the dispositional emotion-mediating
mechanisms are essentially the same for ctional and nonctional representations of
events of consequence to the dispositional targets. The empathic dynamics, in particular,
are much the same in responding to themes within these representational formats.

5. Postscript
The news certainly dwells on events concerning public gures and, in the political
realm, on the agenda groups associated with such persons in positions of leadership.

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203

This leaves room, however, for reports of the fortunes of unknownsunknowns

toward whom aective dispositions cannot have been pre-established. Reports
about a tornado victim, for example, who lost his home and family to the disaster,
or about a lady who won several million dollars in the lottery, are cases in point.
Reactions to revelations of this sort may well be inuenced by supplemental information about the persons in question. The disclosure that the lottery winner already
is the heir to an unrelated fortune amounts to character development that is likely
to diminish and foil incipient reactions of empathic joy, as her benefaction may be
deemed unfair. On the other hand, unless the tornado victim can be presented as a
villain of sorts, his tragedy is bound to evoke feelings of sympathy and reactions of
genuine empathic distress.
Granted that the news relates many such situations that foster unmitigated deep
distress, the appeal of news-like reality programs that are laden with incidents of
victimization (Oliver and Armstrong, 1995), as well as the success of confrontational
talk-shows in which persons are subjected to public ridicule and humiliation (Bente
and Feist, 2000), must seem paradoxical.
One way of dismantling this paradox is to declare people masochistic. As Tannenbaum (1980) suggested, audiences apparently prefer an occasional jolt of shock
and arousal, aversive as it may be, to not being jolted at all. Alternatively, however,
it may be argued that people will nd ways to bypass much empathic distress by
moral reevaluation of the distress-inducing circumstances.
Following the lead that McDougall (1908, 1922) oered some time ago, it may be
proposed that, in order to prevent excessive co-suering with the demise of others,
persons must be creative in rationalizing the others aversive experiences as somehow
self-inicted and deserved by them. Those who manage to construe things in these
terms will nd themselves purged of all empathic concerns and free to consider mishaps to others amusing and laughable. Irritation from witnessing the embarrassment
of talk-show guests, for example, can be lessened or extinguished by recognizing that
the victims brought it upon themselves. People in their right mind, according to
this thinking, would not get themselves into situations where they can be humiliated
with impunity. Witnessing the humiliation of those stupid enough to deliberately
place themselves at risk thus can become amusing and entertaining.
The same dispersion of empathy with others misfortunes is to be expected, say,
for nonction reports about shark strokers who get their hands bitten o, sky divers
who pulled the parachute cord too late, motorcycle jumpers who failed to clear the
canyon, and uncounted other daredevils. They all should have known better and,
in case of mishap and trauma, do not seem to deserve anybodys sympathy.
Such explanation of the possible entertainment value of nonction narratives about
others misfortunes and suering stands in contrast to ctional narration. Nonctional displays of misfortunes require respondents, if they are to curtail empathic
reactions in the interest of being well entertained, to create moral reassessments on
their own. They must moralize the event to make it a story, as White (1981) would put
it. However, people presumably dier greatly in their ability and inclination to apply
such moral reassessments; and as a result, aective reactions to displayed misadventures are likely to vary substantially. In ctional narration, by contrast, the

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D. Zillmann, S. Knobloch / Poetics 29 (2001) 189206

moral interpretation of events tends to be well prepared by appropriate articulation

of circumstances, giving emotional responses comparatively little latitude. Fictional
narratives of others misfortunes, then, may be expected to evoke reactions of
empathic distress and corresponding emotions more consistently than nonctional
narratives of the same misfortunes experienced by people about whom next to
nothing is known.

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Dolf Zillmann (Doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania; Fellow of the American Psychological
Association) is Professor of Communication and Psychology at the University of Alabama. His contributions to theory and research concerning literature, the media, and the arts are in the psychology of
comedy, drama, horror, tragedy, music, and the news. Other domains of his scholarship are the psychophysiology of human emotions and of aggressive and sexual behaviors, especially of connections between
these behaviors. Recent books are Exemplication in Communication: The Inuence of Case Reports on
Issue Perception and Media Entertainment: The Psychology of Its Appeal.
Silvia Knobloch received her doctoral degree in 1999 from the Hochschule fur Musik und Theater, Institut
fur Journalistik und Kommunikationsforschung, in Hannover. She was awarded a post-doctoral fellowship from the German Academic Exchange Service and spent much of the year 2000 at the University of
Alabama, collaborating with Dolf Zillmann on numerous research projects. She is presently a Visiting
Professor in the Institut fur Kommunikationswissenschaft at the Technische Universitat Dresden. Recent
monographs are Schicksal spielen: Interaktive Unterhaltung aus handlungstheoretischer und personlichkeitspsychologischer Sicht and PR-Erfolgskontrolle durch Zeitreihenanalyse: Eine Methode zur Bewertung
von Public-Relations-Massnahmen.