The researchers explain this effect in terms of the actor-observer bias. That is to say: both males and female readers agreed more strongly with an item that stated, "I feel I can understand and appreciate the main character and situation of he story," and one that stated, "I would like to continue reading to find out what happens next in the story," when the protagonist was male as compared with being female. With their clever manipulation of assigning people to the same stories but with different-sexed protagonists, Bortolussi and her colleagues found both male and female readers-in Canada and Germany-preferred male protagonists. Previous research has tended to find that males tended to prefer male protagonists and females to prefer female protagonists. They prepared versions in English (for the Canadian readers) and in German (for the German readers). For each passage with a male protagonist, they wrote a version of the same passage with a female protagonist, and for each passage with a female protagonist, they wrote a version with a male protagonist. selected four passages, each of about 1000 words, from contemporary novels, two with male protagonists, and two with female protagonists. It’s rather like when one is driving and has to brake suddenly to avoid hitting that careless person in front.īortolussi et al. When we observe others doing exactly the same thing, we tend to attribute their action to some persisting aspect of their personality. When we act, we tend to see ourselves as being responsive to circumstances, doing what is necessary to pursue a plan. I would tend to say this student was working hard because he or she was conscientious or ambitious. If I were to see another student working hard for weeks studying for an exam, I would be the observer. I am the actor here, and as such I might experience myself as studying hard because I know the exam will be difficult and I know the result will be important for my future plans. Imagine I am a student and I work hard for weeks studying for an exam. The bias is that we tend to experience our own reasons and other people's reasons for doing anything in rather different ways. It was proposed by Edward Jones and Richard Nisbett (1971), and it's called the actor-observer bias. In psychology there is a principle that helps to explain this effect. In a story, circumstances tend to take precedence over other influences in how a writer imagines a protagonist.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |