Spoiler alert: spoilers make you enjoy stories more

Next time someone is about to spoil your favorite show, don’t plug your ears: research shows that "spoilers" actually make you enjoy stories more.

Taking away the element of surprise seems like it should make a story less enjoyable. Yet people will watch #movies with surprise endings more than once, and people still gladly watch classics like Romeo and Juliet even though they know the story.

UC San Diego #psychology professor Nicholas Christenfeld put #spoilers to the test. Not only do spoilers not earn their name, they should really be called “enhancers”: people consistently enjoyed spoiled stories more than unspoiled stories in experiments.

#spoilers #spoileralert #ucsandiego #ucsd #ucsandiego

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[rtswift]

my motto if it's a good story it doesn't matter if you know the ending

[derpoi]

curiosity led me to soo much spoilers dammit

[goblinkillahd]

Never search a characters name because the auto fill alone will add death then you know that person is gonna die.

[lior]

But does that experiment actually account for the hard-earned emotional investment in some narrative or character over extended periods of time? What about the moment in which something is spoiled, wouldn't that be considered an unpleasant experience in itself? What about differences in plots and their plot-twists? What about the creators' choice to unveil a plot point in a certain manner?

[chikipaw]

Who's here because they got spoiled

[mrwhale]

I was just spoiled that a character dies and I'm kinda upset that I know what will happen and don't want to read the book anymore how should I keep reading and enjoy while I know it won't be as emotional as it would be if I wasn't expecting it

[mj-dwlj]

When I get spoiled I convince myself that wasn’t rear idk how it works every time

[jdh]

I personally don't think spoilers matter. I knew how breaking bad ended. But that knowledge didn't take away any experience with following Walter and Jesse throughout the entire series

[LuckyGideon-xt]

Help I love spoilers, and then I don't wan to watch or read the media anymore, then I think the media is trash😭

[mr.wetdream]

For me, spoilers never effect me. I might know what happens, but the most important thing is why it happens. I saw the ending of Scarface when I was 12. I knew he died, but the context is what interested me.

[acrefray]

Just something slightly different about spoilers that I think you may have overlooked: "Spoilers" by their name "spoil" the story. Leaking a late plot point may not necessarily be a spoiler, but leaking a hidden character detail may be, if it detracts from the overall enjoyment of the story - and that is the point. A piece of information that would cause the average person to dislike something that they originally liked.

Let me give you a solid example from Game of Thrones.
Assume someone is watching the start of Series 1, Episode 1, and they are thinking "This Kingsguard knight looks AWESOME! He's going to be my favourite character!". If someone tells them that he throws a child out of the window before it comes up on screen, that detracts from the scene and "spoils" it. There is still analytical information to be gathered, but the emotional connection is (at least in part) severed by this foreknowledge.

Another example would be if an "honest" character was shown to be false long before their falsehood appears, the perception of that character will be different, and perhaps there would have never been the "trusting" part in which the character perhaps tries to use.

I hope this provokes some more thought on this idea - especially since there is no real 'solid' definition of what a spoiler is, and since every person is different, and affected differently to different stimulus, in different circumstances with different attachments to different stories.
Doing reliable blanket studies on such an obscure topic must have been difficult to create a reliable, repeatable experiment for.

Great episode, by the way!

[hauntedwafflecake]

I think every person and every fictional story are different when it comes to spoilers.
The experience you get when you know nothing is also different from the one you get when already know what's coming. People can enjoy the story more the second time, but they won't enjoy it the same way they did the first time.

Anyway, I personally like spoilers, but let people decide themselves whether they want to know beforehand or not.

[Linzau]

my stance on this is that I even if I would enjoy the story more, I would still like to be able to experience it blind.

[KeyleeTamirian]

To me, spoilers enhance my experience.
I'm a person with a very strange attention span. I can easily switch my attention, but when i get my attention attached to something, i cannot think of anything but that.
When i see some mysterious foreshadowing in the story, or some plot twist that will be resolved only much later, i cannot think of anything else but how that was, and how it will end.
Thus, spoiler-less-ness ruins my experience, as i do not focus on anything beside the thing that i have my attention for. That's why second-runs are much better and easier for me to watch or play.
Everytime i start a videogame, and when story becomes thrilling after the middle, i just stop my exploration of the world and side-quests, and just focus on the story. And i can keep playing that story for hours, and my brain becomes pressured with thrill. Especially when there's one game segment that doesn't let me to go to the end easily, like a hard boss-fight. I get so worked up that i start to cheat fo finally finish the game! Yes! I get so worked up in wanting to see the conclusion, that i just start to straight out cheat the game, so i finally could experience that story! ><
And only after that i can restart the new game, and then play it fairly, slowly, enjoyablengly.

Also spoilers make myself more ready for character deaths. As i can prepare myself to cry.

...BTW, most of the stories i've played got spoiled even before i played them. I knew that everyone will die in (--)Part 6, i knew that (--) will die at the end of (--) war, i knew that main character will die in (--), and the bad guy is basically won. But those spoilers don't ruin the fun for me.
Instead, they add more thrill.

[shannonberp]

I actually enjoy stories much more when I spoil the endings for myself. Although of course there are certain things I enjoy discovering on my own (so few it's not worth mentioning).

I enjoy starting a story without much or any premise at all, to decide for myself if I could be interested in said story. However once I find myself asking "OHH WILL THIS HAPPEN OR WILL THIS HAPPEN? WILL THIS PERSON DIE? WILL THIS PERSON END UP MARRYING THIS PERSON OR THIS PERSON? etc.", I find myself being way too fixated on wanting to know the ending that my consumption of the story becomes way too obsessive. Resulting in lost sleep and an incapacity to do or think about anything else until I know the ending.

Since I began spoiling certain parts of a story for myself early on in the story, I found it is much easier and more pleasurable for myself, so that I can enjoy the scenery of the story much more. The character developments, the relationships, the tragic and/or happy endings..

Knowing the spoilers prior to seeing the story unfold actually helps me be more critical of what I read, watch and listen to. As well as be more appreciative of the time it takes to come up with such an enticing story. It makes me point out the parts that stuck out the most to me, and ask myself why, and most importantly, take my time with the process in which the creation of the story required.

Spoilers VS. no spoilers for me is easily comparable to two scenarios: 1 - Golfing down a delicious meal because I'm afraid I won't be hungry anymore if I eat it too slowly... when in reality, your body that enjoys the taste of something will always become hungry again, even if it's not all in one sitting. 2 - Taking a photo of a beautiful masterpiece or scenery and walking away to see the next one VS. standing in front of this work of art and analyzing all the minute parts of it all, even if it does take me more time.

I personally really like spoilers (usually the big endings, or the conclusions). They help me appreciate the story much more.

And as is mentioned in this video, the ending of a story is not the only reason to spend so much time on a story! The ending is simply the conclusion the author/storyteller chose to tell. If I focus on the other details, I can appreciate and come to understand the result ending much more than I would have otherwise.

HAPPY SPOILING!

[batsoupgobrrr]

I never used to give a fuck about spoilers. But when I watched some gameplay from the walking dead(by telltale games)and played the final season (4) afterwards it really did ruin the experience.

[LuffyfanbestAiyana]

One of my siblings keep spoiling me one piece manga even though I told them to stop it makes me very mad 😢

[ParallelPenguins]

Some things suck when spoiled. Like I had 6th Sense spoiled for me, and it kinda ruined it because I could see the whole time all the things pointing out the twist ending, but I might not have noticed them in quite the same way if I didn't know the twist going in. Most things though can be spoiled at least in minor ways and it's not gonna ruin it. Actually there was one spoiler I needed. I was reading a book series and one of my favourite characters gets trapped on an island alone at the end of book one, seemingly for the rest of eternity, and I couldn't read the other books until some one told me if he ever got to leave the island even for a while. I begged my friends to tell me, and after a few tears they finally did. I was just so distraught over the idea that he'd be stuck there all alone forever.

[Aqi_momo]

(NO SPOILERS)
This guy actually made me rationally think about this, I got spoiled for last of us 2, but I want to actually watch it and see how this happens and sht, , wow thank u to this guy

[KrisWorld]

Imagine yourself in 1980, waiting in line to see The Empire Strikes Back. You've been anticipating this movie for months, and you're wondering how they will top the original Star Wars (which you loved), then some asshole blurts out that Darth Vader is Luke's father! All of a sudden, you feel robbed of the full enjoyment you would have had going in knowing nothing. Sure, you'll know everything about the plot on subsequent viewings, the the first time should be special. The first viewing should be full of surprises, then when you watch it a second time, you can still enjoy it because when a movies's "I am your father" moment comes up again, you can reminisce how that made you feel on your first viewing.