Daniel M. Shafer

Who they are

Daniel M. Shafer is cited on this site for his work with Arthur A. Raney on antihero narratives.

Key papers

Exploring how we enjoy antihero narratives (2012). Shafer and Raney note that affective disposition theory explains enjoyment of traditional hero narratives but is limited for antihero narratives because of the protagonists' moral complexity. Recent work proposes that viewers develop story schemas over time that allow antihero enjoyment despite immoral characters. Three studies support this. Moral judgment may matter less than the theory predicts, previous exposure to an antihero narrative changes responses to similar ones, and cues encouraging moral disengagement affect enjoyment. The paper appeared in the Journal of Communication, volume 62, issue 6, pages 1028 to 1046.

Key ideas

The central idea is that viewers learn how to enjoy antiheroes. After enough exposure to such stories, they build a schema that lets them follow and even root for a character they would judge harshly in life. The article on villains uses this to explain why audiences often prefer the complicated lead over the plainly good one.

---