Why watching "Star Wars" and "Silence of the Lambs" makes us good people

Darth Vader. Hannibal Lecter. Lord Lord Voldemort. In literature and film is wicked rivet our attention. In the novel, John Milton's "Paradise Lost" beautiful and charming Satan managed to upstage even God. No matter how terrible the desire of heroes, we seem to be experiencing a contradictory pleasure watching them.

Danish scientist Jens Keldgaard-Christensen (Jens Kjeldgaard-Christiansen) has decided to shed some light on the dark literary figure, having considered them in the light of evolutionary psychology, and find out why we love hate the villains.

To understand the attraction of evil, we must first examine its exact opposite - good. In the past, people living with friendly groups had to decide who is good and who badAnd punish the villain. Today we do not do this with the help of intuition, and through rational thought.

We are able to assess how much a person is willing to sacrifice for the good of the group. Anyone who is not ready for such a charity and does not want to compromise with the other members of society, regarded by us as dangerous and unreliable type. So we do not trust.

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It is obvious that to continue to communicate with unreliable people - means to subject the whole of society in danger. After all, they can provoke emotional reactions such as disgust, fear and anger. These feelings can be so strong that we can justify the killing of such a villain, because thereby eliminating the danger to society.

We accurately determine the traits inherent villains. These characters are not capable of self-sacrifice, they selfish. And this makes evolutionary sense: the relationship with the community is destroyed, and the possibility of the spread of immoral behavior on the other members of the group is minimized.

In the movie "The Exorcist," we have seen on the screen is incredibly frightening image of the evil demon possessed in the body of an innocent child. The only person able to resist this devil incarnate, was the father Merrin, who said the important words:

I think that the goal is not the demon possessed, and all of us... The observers... Everyone in this room. And I think that the main thing - to get us to despair and lose faith in the own humanity.

These words - the cornerstone. After all, it can be described as a threat, which is felt by our ancestors in the distant past. They were guided by the fear that one villain can destroy the fabric of society, lead to anarchy.

We know a lot about his own psychology and can stop to feel disgust for amoral hero, begin to analyze his actions and accept his point of view.

Most interesting in this regard, the hero - Hannibal Lecter, is incredibly complex and contradictory personality, Believable and infinitely evil. We have no doubt that bad Lecter, though imbued with interest to his person. Other villains also have the mark of an outsider, they are definitely strangers in our world.

In order to strengthen the human instinctive reaction to the villain, writers and directors carefully chosen tools. they often confer evil characters characteristic, repulsive appearance.

Here, for example, Leatherface from "Texas Chainsaw Massacre". He is clearly a nasty look, and it makes us at once feel disgust and hatred for him not only the physical, but also on an emotional level. His roar and simian gait immediately warn a hero, there is something very wrong, this legendary hermit is very dangerous.

The same goes for Lord Voldemort (he has a snake, scary face) or Raul Silva of "007: Coordinates" Skayfoll "ulterior motive is covered with terrible scars.

In all these tales, novels, there is a much deeper and more important purpose than mediocre tickle nerves.

Making the short journey to the dark side and watching the triumph of good, we confirm that they are able to be good, and learn to cooperate with others.

This is how, according to Jens Christensen Keldgaarda-working image of the villain. I wonder if the scientist can test the theory in practice. A good way to test it - to show the participants of the experiment, "Silence of the Lambs", and then check on them prisoner's dilemma. Assessing the extent to which they are able to cooperate, we could understand how much influence us images of villains on the screen.

Prior to that, Dr. Travis Prul (Travis Proulx) from the University of Tilburg has shown that work-absurdists writers, such as Franz Kafka and Lewis Carroll, which violate all the laws of the real world, having a destabilizing us impact. As a result, we begin to look for confirmation of our morals and beliefs.

Some people worry that the picturesque villains on the screen can badly affect us. Well, Jens Keldgaard-Christensen believes otherwise. Perhaps, looking into the darkness, we return back to get better.