Spoiler Alert!: People Like Spoiler Alerts
A spoiler alert is a warning that you are about to find out an important piece of information about a novel, movie, play, or TV program that you haven’t read or seen yet. To spoil something means to ruin it, so the idea behind the term “spoiler alert” is that getting information about how a story ends will decrease (lessen) your enjoyment of it. But a new study by two California researchers indicates that just the opposite is true: Spoilers make you like a story even more.
In the study, people were given one of three different versions of a story that had a surprise ending, such as a mystery story by Agatha Christie or Raymond Chandler. One group was told how the story ended before they had even begun reading it, one group was given spoilers in the middle of the story, and one group read the story without any spoilers. By a small but significant amount, people who read the spoiler before reading the actual story enjoyed the story more than those who didn’t get a spoiler. (Getting a spoiler in the middle of the story didn’t make any difference, however.)
There are many possible reasons for these results. One is that people who know the plot (events) of the story can focus on the other parts of the drama – the characters (people) and their motivations, the style of the writing, etc. Reading a story can be difficult, so knowing how it ends eliminates the burden (difficulty) of having to figure it out, giving you more energy and time to focus on a deeper understanding of the novel.
Does knowing how a story ends make the act of reading the story more or less enjoyable for you?
~Jeff
Photo credit: Movie poster for Titantic (1997), Wikipedia Fair Use.
September 6th, 2011 at 10:04 am
Hello,
For me It does not make any difference knowing the end or not of a book or movie as long as I enjoyed it.
For example I like the movie School of Rock with Jack Black, I have seen it many times and I still enjoy it.
The same happens with certain books
Bye, looking forward to reading from you all.
Dan.
September 6th, 2011 at 10:11 am
Ja, ja, ..it depends of how the story is.
Being a novel of Agatha Christie (Inspector H. Poirot) or P.D. James (Inspector A. Dalgliesh) I prefer not to know the end
by all means but if it is a novel of Henning Mankell (Inspector Kurt Wallanger) or other Sweden authors I do not care at all.
The novels of H.Mankell or Stig Larson are absolutely original and you may know who the killer is just from the beginning
or even you are inside the mind of such an evil person what it is very unsettling.
Some times as you said Jeff, the most important thing is the style, the characters, the thoughts or the motivations of people
to act and do what they are going to do.
If it is a movie I only like to know what the movie is about, the director or the book the movie is based but nothing more.
I hate the idea of somebody telling me the movie´s plot before I am going to watch it.
Interesting subject Jeff, I like it.
Thank you very much.
emiliano
September 6th, 2011 at 11:02 am
Dear Jeff,
It is all depends on the type of the story one is reading.The story that follows everyday’s life won’t get ruined if one finds out about the ending upfront. perhaps, knowing the milestones of the story does not make readers less interested.
It is most likely that readers don’t want to know how the story ends if the story is loaded with plot twist and suspense in a way that readers can’t put it down all until the end;You enjoy the story as it unfolds and readers have no desire to know the ending.
I myself,never skip to the final page to see what has become of the story characters. It will ruin it for me.
Some tomes it happens that you pick up a book about a prominent figure over the course of history that kind of stories never get ruined no matter what part you read first.
So ,Depending the type of story the expectation changes as the order in which story is read.
September 6th, 2011 at 11:42 am
Hello ESLPod team,
reading the blog article I found out a rare expression “By a small but significant amount”. I consider it like there is small amount of people but their opinion is very important, worth considering.
Is it so?
September 6th, 2011 at 1:33 pm
It does make difference knowing the end of the story before seeing it. It is not funny! Spoilers are undesired people. They should go anywhere but not beside us. Go, spoilers, go to hell!
Aecio
September 6th, 2011 at 10:09 pm
Hi! When you talk to us on Broadway… well, we dream at America.
Nice and poignant this “West Side Story” known like a successful musical film and in my country. And the song “America ” is well known especially at the radio.
I had forgotten the plot. So, I have listened to you and You Tube .
Thank you. Very nice story.
September 6th, 2011 at 10:16 pm
Hi! You sing so nice and heartly … that we can think you are in love with Maria.
Unfortunately, among us the blog friends nobody has the name Maria.
I think it is a present for we all. Thank you.
September 6th, 2011 at 10:18 pm
Hi! Thank you for the new phrases for me:
“It is a very poignant story.”
“It is catchy.”
September 6th, 2011 at 11:14 pm
Dear Jeff to add to your point from my experiment I should say that knowing the plot of a story and specially a film makes you more curious to know how it will happen.you want to know the detail of it and make more connections with the whole story.
September 6th, 2011 at 11:51 pm
Jeff, in my two cents,
) is missing. And, vice versa, of course?
I totally disgree with this study.
When I have finished reading a novel or a story in a book , then when I see it on screen, I feel something (or may be, a slew of things
So, for the most times, if I have to read a novel or a story or to see a movie, I don’t like being told anything or plot in that in ahead of time!!
For this reason, Jeff, please don’t tell me any piece of plot or scence of it if you want to recommand me a novel or a movie!! ( that is a joking!!)
By the way, Jeff,
Thank you so much for your ” my dear — “. I guess you know what I am referring to!! Really, really thanks.
September 7th, 2011 at 1:53 am
Hello, everyone!
There was wonderful podcast number 470 about spoilers.
I’m hate the spoilers, but my wife usually read end of the book and then continue reading from the begging. I’m not understand her at all or even became mad when she do it, cause I want she will amazing what happening in the end.
How can a person be intresting in the story if he (or she) is allready know how does it ends? I don’t understand, sorry.
I think when you know the end you will not feel WOW effect.
Alex
September 7th, 2011 at 5:07 am
All the reasoning behind the theory may be true,but I personally think that knowing or not knowing the surprising part of the story has nothing to do with focusing on other aspects of a story.
You read the story and at the same time as the story unfolds you figure out the characters and what the story holds.
As a matter of fact,knowing the ending does take the edge off the story. So, readers that otherwise would be totally into story do not get deeply involved with the story simply because they know where the story goes ,how it turns out ,and where the characters end up.
For what its worth,It is like a movie. When you know the plot, You get distracted during the movie . The movie fails to grab your full attention,another words ,it doesn’t make you sit on the edge of the seat the entire time no matter how suspenseful the movie is. The same applies for book reading.
Having Spoiling alerts is a good way of avoiding the boredom.
The only time I skip through the book is when the story makes my skin crawl( creepy)
It is how it works for me though
You may view it differently.
But,I think the majority like my thinking on the matter
By now
September 7th, 2011 at 5:45 am
This is a very controversial topic.
I will start saying that for me it’s not a big deal to know how the story ends, at all. You can believe me.
I like very much the cinema. I enjoy watching movies. If they are good movies, much better. If I had to say which my favorite star is, I would say he is Robert de Niro. Recently I watched for third time a not very good movie, but I like it very much, starring by him called “Everybody’s Fine”. I enjoyed so much the movie as the first time I saw it, even though knowing the end. It happened to me the same thing with movies with a surprisingly end like “The Sixth Sense” starring by Bruce Willis.
I mind so little to know the end of a movie that some months ago, when I was going to watch a movie (I can’t remember what movie was), I asked a workmate of mine had already seen it that told me the movie so that I could decide whether go to watch it or not. I Decided to go to watch it.
I have spoken many times to my adult children about that. Of course, two of three are completely against me, besides, one of them is working as an assistant director in the Spanish movie industry.
Regards
September 7th, 2011 at 6:07 am
Sorry, in my previous post I lost my last paragraph. I want to add it.
The movie corresponding to picture that Jeff have put , that is, “Titanic”, is a good example. Everybody knows the end and everybody enjoys watching it.
However, I understand that to be a spoiler shows bad manners.
September 7th, 2011 at 8:38 am
Hi! I don’t think a spoiler can make you decrease your enjoyment of reading a book or watching a movie. In general, we know how a movie ends, because friends or even the media tell us that. I agreed with the point of view that sometimes a spoiler might increase our interesting. When I know how the story ends, I try to observe the details and ultimately I like it even more. It’s true that a little of mystery is good as well. It depends on the moment.
Regards,
September 7th, 2011 at 8:53 am
Hi, Alexey!
My wife does the same your wife does!
That makes me angry because I tell her: “You must respect the intention of the author!”
But she replies: “No, the book is mine and I do what I like to do!”
This is a misterious for me like other female misteriouses… Only one time –
reading a novel by Agota Kristof (an Hungarian-French writer) –
doing what she’s used to do, she… spoiled herself the taste of reading that.
I smiled – but with a very much caution!
September 7th, 2011 at 9:05 am
Hello ESLPod team,
reading the blog article I found out a rare expression “By a small but significant amount”. I consider it like there is small amount of people but their opinion is very important, worth considering.
Is it so?
Nobody can explain me…?
September 7th, 2011 at 9:46 am
MADE SUITS.- We´re maybe facing a cultural difference on this issue. A very common expression “brake yourself” they say in Spanish when someone in a group of friends is commenting about a new released book or movie. He or she is going to be stopped in a sudden and abrupt way by listeners and being said something like “please don´t you go on telling us how it ends, cause you are going us to spoil this”. Other point is that It seems that is easier for storyboard makers, and movie scripting writters to set up complex intrigues and virtualize complicated characters than to figure out credible and congruent conclussions. Usually it is also full of misleading and inconsistencies around of the thing. For other reasons not many of the final versions are brilliant endings, there´s not usually much of a surprise because most of them are taylor-made to fit what some people call financial censorship or a marketing mix values of moral, political and social ingredients that editors or studio producers consider essential and suitable to satisfy a demand as of broadest scope as possible of final viewers or readers. YOU TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT.
September 7th, 2011 at 2:05 pm
“Despite the amount could be small it is enough to show an important meaning”
An example could be “a small amount of arsenic in a bottle of wine it is so significant as to kill a person”
A systematic killer in a big city could be so significant as to have all the citizens absolutely frighten.
Here only a person among thousands could be very significant at the moment.
In the example it seems odd that some people, despite they could be a small group, could be delighted
knowing the end of the plot, that is the reason it is significant.
Sergey, more or less I understand this meaning about the sentence but I could be wrong.
My best dear friend.
emiliano
September 7th, 2011 at 3:26 pm
Hi Dr. Jeff and ESl team;
In fact I’m disagree with this idea that saying end of a movie, book or something else make make the reader or watcher eager to presude rest of it. Cus all the schemes in through
of movie or book will be ruined.
September 7th, 2011 at 5:19 pm
Thank you very much, Jeff, for alerting us to this “Spoiler Alert” study.
I don’t watch much films, movies, or even books and so I have not been bothered by spoilers. I did not even know there is such a term “Spoiler Alert” until now.
I think it does not matter to me whether I bump into some spoiler just before I watch a film or read a book, it will be indifferent to me. I think I will have forgotten the contents of the “spoiler” even before the film starts or before I open the book.
Thanks again, Jeff, good “Alert” you have given us.
***********************
Hi Sergey, I am glad you raised a question which can be significant for us as English learners.
I read your question a few times, read Jeff’s articles a few times, clicked into the link “new Study” in Jeff’s articles, read the article by Written by TAYA FLORES , and finally read Emiliano’s answer to your question in order to find an answer to your question.
In Taya Flores’s article, I cannot find any concrete figure e.g. how many per cent of people who read the spoiler before reading the actual story enjoyed the story more than those who didn’t get a spoiler.
I don’t know if Jeff read the original research publication in the journal Psychological Science by Leavitt and Nicholas Christenfeld of the University of California, San Diego, and thus have some extra information which we do not have.
Anyway, I think Emiliano’s explanation is very good, I hope you agree with me as well.
Best Regards
Betty
September 7th, 2011 at 10:43 pm
Hi, Sergio!
))))
I was very upset when my wife read the end of the Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms. Because in the end there was the high tragedy point of this novel. But it is not so tragic when you don’t know all previous plot.
Well… Now I don’t recommend books for her. It’s more comfortable for me.
September 8th, 2011 at 6:11 am
Dear Betty
Where have you been hiding:)?
Nowadays ,we see lees of you on this very page
I promise I like your well-written posts. unlike my poor-written comments( no patronizing intended), your beautifully done comments are always inspiring and encouraging.
U r the spirit on this blog.
Definitly ,you will be missed when you are a no-show even for a shortwhile
September 8th, 2011 at 8:32 am
Hello emiliano & Betty
emiliano’s explanation revealed the same aspects I mentioned in my pre-explanation. It means I actually understood the idea like it should be. Thank you for your help.