Would you rather
read a mystery with a surprise ending or one with a predictable outcome?
A 2006
study conducted by Silvia
Knobloch-Westerwick of Ohio State University and Caterina Keplinger of Hanover
University in Germany found that people with low levels of self-esteem prefer to
read detective stories where they can easily deduce who committed the crime. One
theory is that guessing the killer can be a confidence boost because the reader
can say, “I knew it all along!”
However,
people with high self-esteem enjoy reading mysteries that end with an
unexpected twist.
Knobloch-Westerwick
said, “Personality plays a role in whether a person wants to be confirmed or
surprised when they read mysteries.”
How did
researchers arrive at that conclusion? First, participants (84 German college
students) were given a variety of personality and psychological assessments.
Then, they read a
one page short story in German about a businessman who was stabbed while in his
villa titled “Murder Because of Lust or Greed?” with two likely suspects—the
victim's wife and his mistress.
There were three
versions of the story:
1) Both
suspects were equally likely to have committed the crime.
2) One
suspect was strongly hinted at to be the killer and later revealed to be
guilty. (confirmation ending)
3) One
suspect was strongly hinted at to be the murderer, but the other suspect was
actually guilty. (surprise ending)
After reading one
of three versions of the story, participants rated how much they enjoyed the resolution.
People whose personality assessments suggested that they had low self-esteem preferred
the confirmation ending over the surprise ending. Participants who had high
self-esteem scores chose the story with the surprise ending. Both groups liked
the story in which it was unclear whodunit until the end.
Some implications
of the study:
· The most popular mysteries don't lead readers to expect a certain
ending. Co-author Knoblich-Westerwick said, “Mysteries that thwart or confirm
expectations in the end only pleased some of the mystery readers.”
· Situational factors may
influence enjoyment of reading mysteries. For instance, if a reader has a bad
day and her self-esteem is down, she might prefer a predictable resolution to a
story.
· People who get easily
bored are more likely to enjoy a story with an uncertain outcome.
Why conduct this
study? Knobloch-Westerwick said that researchers know little about what makes
crime fiction popular or appealing to readers. So, they attempted to find out
how the mystery genre interests different kinds of people.
She
also pointed out that mysteries are complex with multiple suspects and motives compared
to suspense stories that have a good guy vs. a bad guy. Overall, mysteries probably
appeal to people who enjoy thinking more than the average person.
Do you believe
that little is known about what makes crime fiction appealing to readers?
Do you think that readers who enjoy mysteries are deep thinkers?
