Moral Judgment as a Predictor of Enjoyment of Crime Drama

Abstract The goal of the study is to better understand the relationship between factors involved in moral judgment of entertainment and the enjoyment of crime drama. After completing numerous social-justice measures, the 139 participants viewed one of two clips from a crime-punishment movie and then responded to survey items regarding their enjoyment of the clip. The clips differed in the type of crime presented. It was predicted that the different crimes would elicit different levels of moral judgment about the punishments for those crimes, which would then impact enjoyment. Although the levels of enjoyment reported for the two clips were similar, enjoyment was predicted by different factors of moral judgment in each condition, as predicted. The results lend further support to disposition theory and the integrated model of crime-drama enjoyment, as well as identify factors of moral reasoning that consistently serve as predictors of crime-drama enjoyment.