One of the things I hear every day as a prosecutor is the complaints of parents lamenting what they describe as the decline of healthy entertainment choices. Whether they are parents of lawbreakers or crime victims, they wonder how they are expected to be good role models when they are competing with drug-addicted, violent heroes infiltrating the lives of their children through the electronic devices that for many teens—are joined to them at the hip—often both literally and figuratively.
Within the last decade alone, some parents attempting to exercise some modicum of control over the television programming their children are exposed to argue that our entertainment preferences have slid from beautiful is good, to the trendy notion that bad is the new good.
They point out that the light, wholesome comedies they enjoyed in their youth such as I Love Lucy and The Honeymooners have been replaced with dark shows like Twilight, Dexter, and Breaking Bad. How did this happen and is there anything that can prevent their children from embracing characters who behave badly as heartthrobs and role models?
The Evolution of Modern Entertainment: From Social to Solo
One view is that the changes in viewing preferences have evolved with the cultural role of entertainment. Long gone are the days when television entertainment involved a nuclear family gathered together after dinner in the living room in front of a large box with rabbit ears called a TV. Now, a significant percentage of people—both children and adults—enjoy entertainment as a solo activity, viewed from the comfort of their computer screen or smart phone.
The shift to experiencing entertainment sans the rest of the family affords a greater opportunity for content self-selection, especially for young viewers. The resulting uncensored level of individual choice may reflect a more accurate assessment of what “turns on” contemporary consumers.
Others argue that people have always been fascinated by the concept of bad, and modern society is simply more accepting of people admitting their preferences. The enduring popularity of characters such as James Bond who are both good and bad, is one of many pieces of evidence supporting this theory. Nonetheless, even if this is true, we have to admit there are certainly an increasing number of modern programming choices through which one can indulge a penchant for “bad.”
Modern Day Bad: The Dark Hero
“Antiheros” such as James Bond,[1] embody what psychologists have dubbed the Dark Triad personality characteristics—consisting of Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy.[2] Although you wouldn’t believe it considering the negative features of each personality disorder, research reveals that the Dark Triad personality is attractive to women.[3]
But when we consider the wide range of television shows, movies, and books portraying bad as the new good, there appears to be something more. Why do bad people turn good people on? Researchers attempting to answer this question have revealed some very interesting results.
In A Billion Wicked Thoughts: What the World’s Largest Experiment Reveals About Human Desire (2011),[4] Ogi Ogas and Sai Gaddam examined a billion different web searches which included 500,000 personal search histories, and examined five million sexual solicitations posted in online classified sections.[5] They also looked at thousands of romance e-novels, hunderds of online erotic stories, and read through the text of thousands of individuals who were revealing their desires online using message boards.[6]
They describe what they term erotic illusions, achived through combining arousing cues in a fashion similar to the ways in which sensory cues are combined to create cravable foods. [7] They use Twighlight’s Edward Cullen as an example of this phenomenon—a character who present a powerful combination of danger, masculinity, and strenth with the softness of love.[8]
When Dark is Desirable: The Bad Influence
What worries many modern parents, however, is that beyond watching what they perceive as objectionable content, they are concerned their children may be induced to mimic what they see. Whether to fit in with their peers or capture the attention of the young man from the wrong side of the tracks, parents worry about the bad influence of modern “dark heroes.”
Research supports this concern. Out of a desire to become closer to the object of one’s romantic desire, some people may incorporate negative features of a romantic interest into their self-concept.[9] Bad boys (or girls) who are accepting of their negative attributes may be especially likely to prompt admirers who are interested in them romantically to incorporate their negative qualities.[10]
Remember the final scene in the movie Grease—when good girl Sandy trades in her wholesome image to conform to an image more similar to her boyfriend Danny? Researchers cite this rebellious transformation from cheerleader to a cigarette-smoking vision in black leather as an example of this phenomenon.[11] Most parents would have much preferred an ending where Danny’s endearing effort in conforming to the “good boy” image carried the day.
The Silver Lining: Good as the Perpetual Trend
Many people who lament the unwholesome range of modern entertainment choices might benefit from researching the large amount of healthy, wholesome entertainment choices available—and preferred by most consumers. Instead of espousing a “garbage in garbage out” philosophy, there is much to gain by increasing exposure to the wide range of popular G rated family-oriented programming that continue to grace our airwaves.
Perhaps our fascination with bad is here to stay. But so is our love of good. Justice, righteousness, altruism, and benevolence are as popular now as ever. In fact, it is the addition of positive characteristics that temper the darkest of heros—adding to their allure. Thankfully, just like in the entertainment choices we select, even in a socity where bad is the new good . . . good always triumphs in the end.
[1] Peter K. Jonason, David P. Schmitt, Gregory D. Webster, Norman P. Li, and Laura Crysel, “The Antihero in Popular Culture: Life History Theory and the Dark Triad Personality Traits,” Review of General Psychology 16, no. 2 (2012): 192-199. The authors adopt the definition of “antihero” as for example, “a protagonist whose character is conspicuously contrary to an archetypal hero.” Jonason et al., “The Antihero in Popular Culture,” 192.
[2] Peter K. Jonason, Norman P. Li, and Emily A. Teicher, “Who is James Bond? The Dark Triad as an Agentic Social Style,” Individual Differences Research 8, no. 2 (2010): 111-120.
[3] See, e.g., Gregory Louis Carter, Anne C. Campbell, and Steven Muncer, “The Dark Triad Personality: Attractiveness to Women,” Personality and Individual Differences 56 (2014): 57-61.
[4] Ogi Ogas and Sai Gaddam, A Billion Wicked Thoughts: What the World’s Largest Experiment Reveals About Human Desire (New York: Dutton, 2011).
[5] Ogi and Gaddam, A Billion Wicked Thoughts, 22.
[6] Ogi and Gaddam, A Billion Wicked Thoughts, 22.
[7] Ogi and Gaddam, A Billion Wicked Thoughts, 213-215.
[8] Ogi and Gaddam, A Billion Wicked Thoughts, 220-225.
[9] Erica B. Slotter and Wendi L. Gardner, “The Dangers of Dating the ‘Bad Boy’ (or Girl): When Does Romantic Desire Encourage Us to Take on the Negative Qualities of Potential Partners” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 48 (2012): 1173-1178, doi: 10.1016/j.jesp.2012.05.007.
[10] Slotter and Gardner, “The Dangers of Dating the ‘Bad Boy’ (or Girl),” 1177.
[11] Slotter and Gardner, “The Dangers of Dating the ‘Bad Boy’ (or Girl),” 1173.