The current manuscript presents a study that examines contextual factors that can explain two distinct types of viewer responses to death in narratives. Using procedures developed in past research, we explore why some narrative character deaths elicit poignant, eudaimonic responses while others elicit joyful, hedonic responses. We incorporate a control group to examine whether freely-recalled memorable deaths are more closely associated with feelings of meaning or pleasure. Results suggest that meaningful deaths lead to appreciation; befall liked, moral characters; and elicit mixed/negative affect, whereas pleasurable deaths lead to enjoyment; befall disliked, immoral characters, and elicit positive affect. In addition, freely-recalled character death is more closely aligned with meaningful death and its correlates than pleasurable death and its correlates. We conclude with a discussion of how the current findings can improve the use of mediated death in clinical settings, particularly as a strategy for approaching instances of disenfranchised grief.

目前的手稿提出了一项研究，该研究检查了可以解释两种不同类型的观众对叙事中死亡的反应的背景因素。使用过去研究中开发的程序，我们探讨了为什么一些叙事人物的死亡会引起痛苦的、幸福的反应，而另一些会引起快乐的、享乐的反应。我们加入了一个对照组来检查自由回忆的难忘死亡是否与意义感或快乐感更密切相关。结果表明，有意义的死亡会导致欣赏；受人喜欢，品德高尚；并引发混合/负面影响，而令人愉快的死亡导致享受；不喜欢，不道德的性格，并引起积极的影响。此外，自由回忆的角色死亡与有意义的死亡及其相关物比愉快的死亡及其相关物更紧密地结合在一起。最后，我们讨论了当前的研究结果如何改善在临床环境中使用介导死亡，特别是作为处理被剥夺权利的悲伤实例的策略。