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StorySpoilers: Story Spoilers

Description

Raitngs for stories with and without spoilers

Arguments

Format

A dataset with 12 observations on the following 3 variables.
  • Story ID for story
  • Spoiler Average (0-10) rating for spoiler version
  • Original Average (0-10) rating for original version

Source

Leavitt, J. and Christenfeld, N., "Story Spoilers Don't Spoil Stories," Psychological Science, published OnlineFirst, August 12, 2011.

Details

This study investigated whether a story spoiler that gives away the ending early diminishes suspense and hurts enjoyment? For twelve different short stories, the study's authors created a second version in which a spoiler paragraph at the beginning discussed the story and revealed the outcome. Each version of the twelve stories was read by at least 30 people and rated on a 1 to 10 scale to create an overall rating for the story, with higher ratings indicating greater enjoyment of the story. Stories 1 to 4 were ironic twist stories, stories 5 to 8 were mysteries, and stories 9 to 12 were literary stories.