We are what we like to watch?

It would not be an exaggeration to aver that villainous characters in movies tend to steal the show these days, with the term ‘antagonist’ being the preferred term. Mesmerising screen villains come to mind faster than goody-two-shoes ‘heroes’ — that arcane Bollywood term for ‘protagonists’ — and they find more fervent fans too. The fact is, today’s villains are paradoxically perceived to be cool, or at least cooler than the good guys. After all, even ‘wicked’ is used as acompliment now. But just as we are said to be what we eat —according to the 19th-century French epicure Brillat-Savarin — a recently published study by researchers in a Danish university avers that people who prefer villains to heroes are likely to be quite nefarious themselves.

In a scientific leap of faith, the researchers have also concluded ‘some individuals may come to engage positively with villainous characters because they are like them, that is, because they share the villains’ immoral outlook to some degree’. The study professes that such people possess the ‘dark triad’ of personality traits: narcissism, psychopathy and Machiavellianism. Judging by the success of certain films, our societies may then be awash with subconscious Voldemorts and Jokers. But, of course, the survey for the study was done among only people living in North America.