Villains, Victims, and Heroes in Character Theory and Affect Control
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Social Psychology Quarterly 00(0) 1–20 Villains, Victims, and Heroes Ó American Sociological Association 2018 DOI: 10.1177/0190272518781050 in Character Theory and journals.sagepub.com/home/spq Affect Control Theory Kelly Bergstrand1 and James M. Jasper2 Abstract We examine three basic tropes—villain, victim, and hero—that emerge in images, claims, and narratives. We compare recent research on characters with the predictions of an established tradition, affect control theory (ACT). Combined, the theories describe core traits of the vil- lain-victim-hero triad and predict audiences’ reactions. Character theory (CT) can help us understand the cultural roots of evaluation, potency, and activity profiles and the robustness of profile ratings. It also provides nuanced information regarding multiplicity in, and sub- types of, characters and how characters work together to define roles. Character types can be strategically deployed in political realms, potentially guiding strategies, goals, and group dynamics. ACT predictions hold up well, but CT suggests several paths for extension and elaboration. In many cases, cultural research and social psychology work on parallel tracks, with little cross-talk. They have much to learn from each other. Keywords affect control theory, character theory, heroes, victims, villains On October 9, 2012, 15-year-old Malala including one attack in December 2014 Yousafzai went to school, despite the Tali- that killed 132 schoolchildren and another ban’s intense campaign to stop female in January 2016 where 22 people were education in her region of Pakistan and gunned down at a university. Why did despite its death threats against her and Malala’s story touch Western audiences, her father. On the ride home, a masked resulting in widespread sympathy, charity, gunman boarded the bus, asked for and political action, while other attacks Malala by name, and shot her in the garnered far less attention? Why do some head. This event inspired an outpouring cases spark extensive concern and activism of support and political action, with pro- while others never make the newspapers? tests in Pakistan and a global petition that garnered two million signatures in 1 support of Malala and her right to an edu- University of Texas, Arlington, TX, USA 2 cation. She survived, won a Nobel Peace The Graduate Center, City University of New York, USA Prize, and started the Malala Fund, an advocacy group for girls’ rights to educa- Corresponding Author: Kelly Bergstrand, Department of Sociology and tion across the globe. Anthropology, University of Texas at Arlington, P.O. Malala was just one of many young vic- Box 19599, Arlington, TX 76019, USA. tims of Taliban violence in Pakistan, Email: [email protected] 2 Social Psychology Quarterly 00(0) The image or story of an individual and folk psychology (Gilbert 1998; Jasper, often grabs more attention than statis- Young, and Zuern forthcoming). tics. Slovic and colleagues find that peo- Diverse genres such as myth, fiction, ple are more willing to help one person advertising, and politics offer familiar than many; even moving from one to characters, especially the villain, victim, two needy children decreases positive and hero (Cle´ment, Lindemann, and San- feelings about donating and actually low- gar 2017). Villains focus blame, provide ers donations (Slovic 2007; Va¨stfja¨ll et al. a clear target for action, intensify 2014). In a numbing effect, numbers negative emotions, and solidify group mask individuals, and without that identities. A correctly cast victim—good, humanizing element, people seem less innocent, and in need of protection—can inclined to send a check or join a protest. also motivate action and encourage recruit- Statistics run the danger of depicting ment to a cause; it can help to increase per- ‘‘‘human beings with the tears dried off,’ ceptions that a particular problem is an that fail to spark emotion or feeling and injustice worth combatting. Heroes form thus fail to motivate action’’ (Slovic a rallying point, increase agreement among 2007:1). members, and boost commitment to a cause. One way to reattach the human to the Villain-victim-hero is the ‘‘essential triad’’ statistic so that it sparks attention and of protest, mobilization for war, construct- compassion is to tell a compelling story ing social problems, and many other that makes sense of the world; narratives instances of political oratory (Jasper et al. can paint details about abstract, distant 2018). Minions—malevolent but weak— issues and help them resonate with are less central, but they are useful tropes everyday lives. They bring tension and for ridiculing opponents. suspense, compelling notice and interest. Although they rarely address charac- In political arenas, storytelling can be ters directly, sociologists use concepts a powerful strategy, especially for vulner- like charisma and reputation in ways able and marginalized populations that help us understand character work, (Swerts 2015). Narrative theory—which the construction of these moral charac- identifies the elements of stories that res- ters. Sociology’s attention to character onate with audiences—has become a cen- lies mostly in its understanding of the tral tool in social and political analysis pathways along which reputations spread (Amsterdam and Bruner 2000; Polletta (Fine 2001). In politics, these run primar- 2006). ily through the media, although personal Less understood are the characters networks also carry gossip and jokes, who populate the stories and drive their influential bits of character work action. Stories interest us because of the (Hunzaker 2014, 2016). Social inequal- humans who make choices, feel torn ities also shape reputations, not only in between competing actions, attach and access to resources but through the detach themselves from others, suffer, tri- deployment of group stereotypes (Fiske umph, and have a good time in between. 2012). Are women strong enough to be They do things; but they also are certain proper heroes? Are stigmatized minorities kinds of people. They are familiar to us good enough to be sympathetic victims? both from real life and the fictional and This paper compares new research into political tropes that we construct. We characters, which with hopeful exaggera- find characters in narratives but also out- tion we will call character theory (CT), side them, drafted through images, facts, with the well-established tradition of Character Theory and Affect Control Theory 3 affect control theory (ACT) to understand the value-added of building nuance into how and why characters are constructed. identities, suggesting an expanded use of From CT, we see that people easily relate modifiers in understanding events. to characters and that two traits—good- In many fields of sociology, cultural ness and power—prevail in defining char- analysis and social psychology have cov- acter types (Jasper et al. 2018, forthcom- ered the same ground but with different ing). It focuses on the active character methods, classic references, and units of work that corporations, media, lawyers, analysis (Jasper 2017). As complemen- and political players do. From ACT, we tary traditions, each should benefit from find that characters tap into widely engaging the other more. We hope to pro- shared cultural identities and that indi- vide an example of that dialogue. viduals are motivated to maintain these meanings. ACT also details the impor- tance of a third dimension, active versus BACKGROUND passive. Although both are cultural approaches and highlight emotions, CT Character Theory comes out of the analysis of cultural prod- A theory of moral characters has devel- ucts, while ACT speaks to the social psy- oped in recent years out of cultural chology of individuals and their motiva- analyses of politics and protest. Jasper tions (although ACT has also been et al. (2018, forthcoming) weave together applied to news texts: Ahothali and threads from rhetoric, cognitive psychol- Hoey 2015; Joseph et al. 2016). We can ogy, literary theory, visual analysis, use the findings of CT to test ACT predic- rumor theory, and performance theory, tions for these three identities. And applying them to characters found today because CT was developed largely to in political arenas ranging from elections understand political rhetoric, we can bet- to wars to protest campaigns. Partly an ter see how ACT applies to politics. extension of narrative theory and partly We briefly summarize CT and ACT, a critique of narrative theory’s focus on integrate the two theories, and analyze plots to the exclusion of characters, these what ACT data show about the basic authors revive a sociological tradition character tropes. We then discuss sugges- that saw basic characters as embodiments, tions from CT that we feel might extend attacks, or mockery of a society’s basic val- ACT, including the special nature of polit- ues (Goode 1978; Klapp 1962). Unlike ical arenas, in which players try to influ- ACT, much of its analysis is of visual ence sentiments for strategic purposes, images of characters (Bonnell 1997). the use of visual as well as verbal infor- This emerging character theory (CT) mation, and understanding multidimen- uses two basic dimensions to define char- sionality, nuance, and ambiguity in iden- acters traditionally found in literature tities. CT also helps us understand the and still found today in political rhetoric. cultural roots of evaluation-potency- The first is moral quality as shown activity profiles: how fundamental senti- through good or bad intentions and ments come to be established and actions. The second dimension concerns maintained. EPA profile ratings are power, separating those who are rela- remarkably consistent, but understand- tively weak or ineffectual from those ing their origins in historical eras, artifacts, who can get things done. Table 1 shows and cultural conflict could suggest when we the main characters and some subtypes mightexpectthemtobemorestable,when derived from crossing these dimensions less stable. Characters also demonstrate (Jasper et al. forthcoming). 4 Social Psychology Quarterly 00(0) Table 1.