The death effect in literary evaluation: reverence for the dead?
It is commonly believed that the value of art and other creative works increases after the death of the artist. In an attempt to examine this so-called death effect we presented a short story to N = 431 undergraduate students asking how much money they would hypothetically spend to purchase a literary work. We experimentally manipulated: 1) whether the author died or moved after publishing a short story, and, 2) the gender of the author. Participants randomly received one of four possible biographical descriptions about the author. We predicted that participants would offer higher purchase prices and subjectively evaluate the work more positively when they believed the author was dead. Results were consistent with this hypothesis perhaps reflecting a certain reverence for the dead. We also found that evaluations of the story were more favorable when the purported gender of the author matched that of the participant.
Joseph P
JP
Green
Eric W
EW
Mohler
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D001293:Attitude to Death; D001319:Authorship; D003243:Consciousness; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008093:Literature, Modern; D008297:Male; D012649:Self Concept; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D014956:Writing; D055815:Young Adult