Why We Love Movie Villains (According to Psychology)
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Sometimes we find ourselves falling for the cute vampire or German bank robber, and this might say a lot about how we think about ourselves.
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#Love #Movie #Villains #Psychology
No! Wakanda 4eva
i need him to say: suffering succotash
Over thinking, film villains are just cooler, more interesting people than the Hero usually is. Can't say I think of myself as an overly nice person. I believe I can be decent and willing to help others but I also recognise that if I thought I could get away with something I probably would. EG not leaving a note if I hit a car.
No one will ever like Umbridge.
I really like this host, btw. He's very pleasant to listen to and highly charismatic.
Because Hollywood heroes are hyper-moralistic goodigoodies and unrealistic while villains say and do things we're dying to
Really great job
The theory in your video sounds like the basis behind shadow work.
Are you sure people dont just call their children georgia, becuase they live in georgia, not the other way around?
you don't need a megamind to figure this out.
I do the under toilet paper thing. I AM A VILLAIN!
Bwhahahaha!
My name is Kuba but I deff don't wanna move to Cuba sorry lol
I think this makes sense. I am always drawn to villains who have a hard time understanding other people. I think my biggest problem is that while I am compassionate (as in I care about other people feeling sad, and trying to do things to alleviate their suffering), I can have a hard time understanding other people’s motivations. For example, while I don’t judge people for following certain religions, I have a really hard time understanding why people are religious. I don’t judge them for being religious, I just don’t get it. You know what I mean?
That hoodie is amazing
Since I like a lot of characters with dark personalities (not necessarily villains though), I thought about this subject a lot and reached similar conclusions. 1- sometimes I tend to like characters that resemble me in some way (and I guess people tend to do that in general), but that depends on how they're portrayed and written (sometimes it's the opposite where I'd hate a character that's too like myself and love the character that represents what I admire and want to become). That goes for "good guys" too.
2- something being fictional allows us to distance ourselves from things like morality and freely explore our feelings about characters and events that would be considered immoral irl.
(I also admittedly tend to like characters I'm attracted to more.. If not physically, then emotionally. Doesn't matter if they are "good" or "bad")
So the conclusion that it frees us from some criticism of ourselves and allows us to temporarily accept it from a more neutral or even positive point of view is understandable. Or at least empathize with those characters.
And then of course, there's the fact that many villains tend to have more believable personalities as well as be more complex and flawed and interesting in a lot of cases, which would both explain why people are often more able to connect with them, as well as identify with them.
(Also, from a modern writer's pov, you'd usually want to make antagonists charismatic, good looking and charming, otherwise people would just hate them from the beginning and not care or manage to feel conflicted about them. It wouldn't work very well).
Garou makes a good point in the anime, One Punch Man, why he loves the villains and monsters more than humans, why the humans are the real monsters
4:14 So fans of villains are just dickheads then.
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anti-heroes are the most compelling characters.
I'd like to see what kind of episode SciPsych would produce if they read the author's note in Ayn Rand's book "Virtue of Selfishness"
I really like Joker. Well…
Where can I get that hoodie!!
I actually generally despise villains. I want the same fate for them that I do real life villains. Utter and complete annihilation.
Agent of chaos checking in
When I laugh I sounds like a villain
This is easy. We seemingly, (and often secretly,) root for the antagonist, or "bad guy," in any particular story because they are a physical manifestation of the inhibitions we are all largely prevented, either socially, ethically, or even legally, from acting upon ourselves.
It's the same reason most of us slow down when driving past a car wreck on the highway, secretly hoping to catch even the slightest glimpse of the carnage in that set of circumstances.
It's also the same reason Horror movies are so popular, and images of violence and death are tolerated in our society while images of a sexually suggestive nature are considered, "taboo." Despite one being antagonistic to human survival and the other being fundamental.
We like to act out those inhibitions through watching the events and deeds of others, a concept called, "vicarious."
It's an extremely powerful concept, as far as people are concerned, the antagonist of a story isn't limited by the same factors as we are. Most of us who try to emulate them are typically not around, participating in society along with everyone else, for very long, anyway.
We appreciate a well conceived "bad guy" because he/she/they represent the obstacle that the story's protagonist has to overcome. Besides being the physical representation of the dichotomy implied in any dualistic narrative. Like, we wouldn't be aware of the concept of, "heads" if the coin didn't also have, "tails."
There would be no, "day" without, "night." No, "dark," without, "light." No, "Hate," without, "Love." And no, "pleasure," without, "pain."
The protagonist is only ever as useful in any given story as their antagonist. So, it becomes something fundamental to storytelling, and often a film, or movie, or book, or any narrative story can so often stand or fall on how well developed its antagonist.
Eye on the TV,
'Cause tragedy thrills me.
Whatever flavor it happens to be, like;
Killed by the husband,
Drowned by the ocean,
Shot by his own son,
She used a poison
In his tea,
And kissed him goodbye.
That's my kind of story;
It's no fun until someone dies.
Don't look at me like,
I am a monster.
Frown out your one face,
But with the other,
Stare like a junkie,
Into the TV.
Stare like a zombie,
While the mother
Holds her child,
Watches him die,
Hands to the sky crying;
"Why, oh why?"
'Cause I need to watch things die,
From a distance.
Vicariously I live
While the whole world dies.
You all need it too, don't lie.
Why can't we just admit it?
Why can't we just admit it?
We won't give pause until the blood is flowing.
Neither the brave nor bold
Were writers of the stories told.
We won't give pause until the blood is flowing.
I need to watch things die
From a good safe distance.
Vicariously I live while the whole world dies.
You all feel the same, so
Why can't we just admit it?
Blood like rain come down
Drum on grave and ground
Part vampire,
Part warrior,
Carnivore,
and voyeur.
Stare at the,
transmittal,
Sing to the,
Death rattle.
Credulous at best,
Your desire to believe in
Angels in the hearts of men.
Pull your head out of your hippie haze
And give a listen.
Shouldn't have to say it all again.
The universe is hostile, so impersonal.
Devour to survive, so it is,
So it's always been!
We all feed,
On tragedy.
It's like blood to a vampire!
Vicariously I
Live while the whole world dies.
Much better you than I.
Ohhhh the symbolism between joker and Batman seriously applies to everything. Looks at Kennedy and Obama.. yup. Both sides are frienemies.
The sources listed are a huge help to my thesis paper… which is on the topic of why we tend to root for the villain even with knowing they’re not good people.
Well that's a lie. I don't like nor even root for movie villains. Highly doubt that most people do that either.
TLDR – "good" people like to live vicariously through evil imaginary characters
You're wrong about the toilet roll. Back hanging is correct.
Does anyone else feel like this charactour study sounds kind of flimsy? There's so much subjectivity in assigned traits like that. It sounds promising but…
This field is full of studies which fail to be reproduced. I'm sure it's fun and pretty cool but it doesn't sound very scientific.
"people in the under-toilet-paper-camp are agents of chaos."
Hey now! No need to go insulting chaos like that.
Batman villains always and forever. Two-face, Joker, Harley Quinn, Catwoman, Poison Ivy, etc.
The audio sounds wavy in this video.
A question about complicit egotism and needing to see yourself as a good person: how does it affec the portion of the population that has low self worth and/or a mental illness, those who dislike or even hate themselves? Is it just the switch of love and hate creating an anathema with your own psyche?
villains give me the dark serotonin
This is fantastic! 💖