張玉佩

Yu-Pei Chang

媒體暴力、道德、道德基礎理論、道德解離、閱聽人、數位遊戲

media violence, morality, moral foundation theory, moral disengagement, audience, digital games

媒體裡的性與暴力，觸及人類社會的道德議題。閱聽人在享受媒體娛樂時，也遊走於道德禁忌的挑戰。本文研究目的，在於瞭解閱聽人使用媒體時的道德啟動機制，探索閱聽人道德的啟動要素與其後之媒體使用途徑。研究架構結合道德基礎理論、道德解離機制與數位遊戲特質，研究方法則結合深度訪談與遊戲行為影像日誌法。

研究發現，媒體文本是閱聽人道德觸發的情境因素，但文本透過敘事合理化的過程，降低觸發閱聽人道德感的可能。閱聽人的道德直覺與媒體文本的價值體系相互衝撞後，媒體使用的途徑分為三種。第一種，閱聽人未啟動道德閥，繼續愉悅地使用媒體。第二種，媒體文本啟動閱聽人的道德閥，但閱聽人順從媒體，在不安的道德解離狀態下使用媒體。第三種，閱聽人啟動道德判斷，決定維持道德直覺而拒絕使用媒體。

研究結果顯示，複合式的道德違背，較容易觸發閱聽人的道德閥。媒體內容結合性與暴力的強暴議題，會同時誘發關懷、公平與聖潔的道德面向，讓閱聽人在焦慮感暴增的狀態下選擇放棄媒體使用。

Sex and violence are two prominent tools often used by mass media to capture an audience’s attention. The seductive and exposed female body, often seen in advertisements next to products, utilizes sexual appeal to attract consumers’ gaze. Similarly, in digital games the heroic warrior wielding a heavy sword and slashing at enemies with blood splattering everywhere is a common and prominent scene. Violence, sexual provocation, and other types of media content all capture viewers’ attention while simultaneously challenging societal taboos.

This research explores how audiences make moral choices when confronted with these societal taboo topics. Specifically, it asks the following. What moral dimensions form the foundation of audience members’ moral reasoning? How do these moral dimensions influence their media choices? When media content triggers an audience’s moral sensibilities, how do viewers process the feelings of guilt that arise from their morals being violated? If they choose to ignore their guilt and continue consuming media, how do their emotions and behaviors manifest? More critically, what type of media content challenges the moral boundaries of audiences, possibly prompting them to discontinue using such media?

This study adopts an ethnographic research approach, combining in-depth interviews with diary methods. The first step involved conducting in-depth interviews to better understand digital game players’ moral concerns and gaming experiences. The second step asked players to record their gaming behaviors at home using a computer camera, while also keeping a gaming diary. The third step analyzed the recorded gaming footage and players’ behaviors, focusing particularly on moments of laughter, self-talk, excitement, and high emotional engagement. Finally, the fourth step covered interviewing the players again, discussing the moral conflicts recorded in the game, as well as their feelings and perspectives about these moral issues.

This study employs the Moral Foundations Theory as the primary framework to evaluate the audience and game content nexus. This theory explicitly divides moral feelings into five key aspects: Care/Harm, Fairness/ Cheating, Loyalty/Betrayal, Authority/Subversion, and Sanctity/Degradation. These five moral intuitions are considered universal in the structure of societal order and form the basis of people’s moral understanding. The research finds that the game media texts themselves serve as situational triggers for the audience’s moral intuitions. Without such situational factors, their moral intuitions may not be activated at all. Game content therefore acts as a trigger for moral responses. For example, encountering grotesque, disgusting monsters, violent robbers, or criminals who sexually assault frail girls in a game can challenge the audience’s moral values. These types of game content might provoke moral discomfort. When audiences come across game content that violates their moral sensibilities, there are three primary ways they engage with the media as noted below.

The first way is when the audience’s moral sensibilities are not triggered, and they do not perceive any threat to their moral values. In this case, they continue to enjoy the game world without hesitation. The key factor in players adopting this engagement is that the game text, through a narrative rationalization process, constructs a game world that diminishes the likelihood of triggering the players’ moral sensibilities. The game provides an environment separate from the real world - one filled with various evils such as curses, plagues, monsters, and wars, requiring the player to act as a hero. In this context, the game world creates an environment in which a hero is needed to fight these evil forces, and within such a harsh environment players can disregard the moral norms of the real world. Most players adopt this engagement, whereby they happily immerse themselves in combat and violence within the game world, treating them as separate, imaginary realms where real-world moral concerns do not apply.

The second path is when players vaguely feel that their moral sensibilities have been offended, but they continue to comply with the game’s logic, even though they experience anxiety and discomfort. This represents a state of moral disengagement during media consumption. While using media, the audiences cannot predict the situations they will encounter. For example, game missions may appear suddenly, and players must immediately decide whether to accept or refuse them. At that moment, they may face moral dilemmas. For example, a mission might require them to kill a little girl. To progress in the game, they might feel compelled to accept the task, even though this triggers feelings of guilt and discomfort related to moral care. In this case, even though the players continue the mission, they may experience moral anxiety. This results in a state of moral disengagement, where players’ internal moral conflict becomes evident. In such a state, they may also experience anger, frustration, or other strong emotional reactions, as they wrestle with the tension between continuing the game and their moral discomfort.

The third outlet is when players cannot accept the moral violations within the game and decide to maintain their moral intuitions by refusing to engage with the media or avoid similar games. The moral issues that most frequently lead to players rejecting games are those that violate multiple moral dimensions at once. For example, the issue of rape is one of the most prominent moral violations in media, as it transgresses the moral foundations of Care, Fairness, and Sanctity. This type of content is often rejected by players who find it impossible to reconcile such violations with their moral framework. When faced with such content, players may choose to stop playing the game altogether and avoid similar games in the future.

Through these three pathways, the paper highlights how the moral decisions of players are intricately linked to the game content they encounter. The extent to which players are willing to engage with morally challenging content depends on a variety of factors. They encompass how the content is presented, the emotional and cognitive responses it elicits, and the moral framework that guides players’ choices.