The Psychology of Dexter - Bella DePaulo [104]
Of course, this dissonance-free state can endure only until Dexter provides new complications. In season four, Dexter killed Jonathan Farrow, a photographer who Dexter believed was a murderer. Viewers later find out that Jonathan Farrow was not a murderer and are once again faced with a conflict. In the past, has Dexter ever accidentally killed somebody else who was not a murderer? Will he do it again in the future? Does Dexter feel remorse?
The opening monologue of “Road Kill” (4-8) revealed that Dexter was experiencing a conflict about Farrow that mirrored the dissonance of the viewer, drawing a direct connection between Dexter and the viewer. Dexter tried to justify the murder by saying that accidents happen to everybody and that his victim was a bad person anyway. But in the end, Dexter still appeared to feel guilty about having wrongfully murdered Farrow. Throughout the rest of the episode, viewers are given multiple opportunities to relate to and feel sympathy for Dexter. While Dexter was on a trip with Trinity, Dexter’s neighbor Elliot flirted with Rita over a drink. During this flirtation, viewers probably felt upset that Dexter’s family life was being threatened (even though, if viewers considered the big picture, it would be clear that Rita was probably better off being with Elliot, who is not a serial killer). During Dexter’s trip, as we noted earlier, Trinity decided to commit suicide but was prevented from doing so by Dexter, who planned to kill him later on his own terms. As he witnessed Trinity’s suicide attempt, Dexter wondered to himself if he’d also attempt suicide in the future because of his crimes, further revealing his own sense of guilt. By the end of the episode, Dexter admitted that he felt remorse and that he might be human instead of a monster, though he was still hesitant to actually call himself human. The viewer, who had been experiencing a conflict over Dexter’s actions, was given the opportunity to once again see him as a sympathetic character. We cannot say exactly how viewers will reflect on this complex tangle of information. Our only certainty is that dissonance is a source of motivation—and viewers will, therefore, feel internal pressure to reconcile their real-world moral values with the sense that Dexter is, somehow, a hero.
Why would viewers choose to watch Dexter when it frequently requires them to experience and resolve dissonance? Dissonance is accompanied by a strong state of arousal.45 Although this state is often an unpleasant experience, within the context of a narrative, it may actually be pleasurable. Unlike the participants in most cognitive dissonance studies, Dexter viewers are choosing to watch Dexter for entertainment. When people read for entertainment, higher levels of arousal are related to higher levels of enjoyment.46 We assume that this pattern extends to viewers’ experience of Dexter: Dissonance should lead to greater arousal and, as a consequence, greater enjoyment. We suggest that Dexter viewers take pleasure in the dissonance it provokes!
We have suggested that readers quite naturally get caught up in stories. They develop and then mentally express strong preferences for characters to achieve their goals. As each episode of Dexter unfolds, viewers actively participate in ways that often support Dexter’s agenda. When viewers reflect upon their experiences, they might experience cognitive dissonance. However, the complexities of Dexter’s unfolding story arcs provide fertile grounds for dissonance reduction while, at the same time, periodically calling attention to the contradiction between viewers’ support for Dexter and their ordinary moral values. In “Dex Takes