The breaking bad effect: Priming with an antihero increases sensation seeking.

Antiheroes are characters that share features with both heroes and villains, typified as selfish and rule breakers, but who end up doing something good for society. In this research, we examined how priming people with antiheroes (vs. heroes) affected their sensation seeking. We reason that antiheroes (vs. heroes) are more associated with temporally close (vs. past and future) events. Given that sensation seeking is related to being focused on the present (vs. past or future), we hypothesized that if people are primed with antiheroes (vs. heroes) they are more likely to seek sensation. Findings from a series of five experimental studies provide insights into the effect of priming with an antihero on people's sensation seeking, providing directions for future research in psychology and practical applications in the areas of marketing strategy and consumer behaviour.

Benefits of heroes to coping with mortality threats by providing perceptions of personal power and reducing unhealthy compensatory consumption.

Mortality threats are among the strongest psychological threats that an individual can encounter. Previous research shows that mortality threats lead people to engage in unhealthy compensatory consumption (i.e., overeating), as a maladaptive coping response to threat. In this paper, we propose that reminders of heroes when experiencing mortality threat increases perceptions of personal power, which in turn buffers the need to engage in unhealthy compensatory consumption. We test and find support for our predictions in a series of four studies that include real-world Twitter data after a series of terrorist attacks in 2016-2017, and three experimental studies conducted online and in the field with behavioral measures after Day of the Dead and during COVID-19 pandemic. These findings advance the literature on compensatory consumption, mortality threats, and the psychological functions of heroes.