The Spoiler Paradox

People who give spoilers are annoying as hell. Apparently, though, spoilers may not be that big of a problem (LOL, Sure)?!

Avengers: Endgame releases in 2 days. Don’t do it. Don’t give spoilers. Yes, hats off to you, you got tickets for the first day and flaunting it off is necessary, but don’t be that guy. Even the directors Anthony and Joe Russo said, “Remember. Dr. Strange watched the “Endgame” fourteen million six hundred and five times. And he didn’t spoil any of it. Be like Dr. Strange.”

Marvel fans who did not get tickets for the first day are going to be saying this on repeat in the coming few days. We all feel that knowing spoilers ruins the entire experience of excitement and thrill. But does it really?

I mean, don’t we all sit and re-watch FRIENDS hundreds of times without getting bored? Even shows like Little Things, and Made in Heaven? We all know what is going to happen, yet we experience the same event the same way each time.

This is where the concept of spoiler paradox comes in. According to the latest research published in the journalPsychological Science says that knowing the ending of a story before reading it doesn’t hurt the experience of the story. It actually makes the story more enjoyable. This is what the “Spoiler Paradox” is.

This concept was given by researchers Nicholas Christenfeld and Jonathan Leavitt from the University of California. They conducted three experiments with twelve short stories which included ironic-twists, mysteries, and evocative literary stories. In two of the conditions the endings of the stories were given. One story gave away the ending with the spoiler as independent text before the story, and in another story the spoiler was incorporated as an opening paragraph for the story. The last story had no spoiler.

It was found in results of this study that in each type of story, the participants preferred the spoiled versions over the unspoiled ones, and the stories with the spoiler was included as introductory text separate from the story were more preferred.

Kahaani did an amazing job of giving away a spoiler in the beginning of the movie. I remember sitting in the theater so hooked onto the story of pregnant Vidya and her quest to finding her husband in the streets of Kolkata that I completely forgot about the opening scene. Not once did it cross my mind that her husband (played by Abir Chatterjee) was the man in the metro. The writing and direction of that film was truly brilliant! I loved the fact that everything was right there in front of me, yet the experience was still thrilling.

I guess this is a lot like life isn’t it? All the answers are usually in front of us, yet we don’t notice!