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Category: Project

Description: Cognitive responses to crime drama received little attention in communication research compared to affective responses. This study builds on the integrated model of enjoyment for crime drama and examines the role of viewer’s ‘judgment of justice’ – the viewer’s moral judgment of the fairness and propriety of the punishment received for a crime committed – for enjoyment. Furthermore, we theoretically discuss the role of the ‘judgment of others’ as trigger for reflective moral reasoning and the stability of the viewer’s moral judgment. We conducted a lab experiment with N=148 students watching an interactive movie and an online follow-up survey after one week. Results confirm that viewer’s enjoyment is a function of the viewer’s judgment of justice. Furthermore, the judgment of others served as a moral compass for the individual viewer as they adjusted their moral judgment if it was not in line with others’ judgment.