Spoiled Stories

Lisa Dusenbery bio ↓ · August 11th, 2011 · filed under Other

Do you want someone to come along and spoil that short-story you’re about to begin? Yes you do, says this study. The “Hedonic Ratings of Spoiled & Unspoiled Stories” chart, compiled by U.C. San Diego researchers, addresses three distinct genres—ironic twist stories (that’s a genre?), mysteries and literary stories. The conclusion: “readers preferred a spoiler paragraph before diving into short fiction, as opposed to just enjoying it as is.”

Let the self-reflection and psychoanalysis commence.

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Lisa Dusenbery is the assistant editor at The Rumpus. Besides writing, her interests include dancing, practicing winking, and the smell of basements. She is a recent convert to San Francisco, CA. More from this author →

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