19.00 - 19.20 hrs | Middenschip | Thursday 11 September 2025
Why are stories and series with morally vague main characters so popular?
About 20 years ago, we shifted from a preference for stories where there are very clear good guys and bad guys, to a love for stories with ambiguous main characters.
Tony Soprano, for example, killed people for his job and had a mistress - and yet we loved him. Since then, morally vague main characters have been tumbling over each other: the people in Dexter, Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad and 13 Reasons Why aren't just good or just bad. Communication scholar Serena Daalmans explains why we go so well on such stories and whether we learn anything from them.
The language of discussion will be Dutch.
About the speaker
Serena Daalmans is a lecturer in Communication Science and a researcher at the Behavioural Science Institute at Radboud University.
Infinity. Science Festival on and around the Stevens' Skywalk
This program is part of Infinity, Radboud University's science festival on, in and around the Steven's Church in downtown Nijmegen on Thursday, September 11 and Friday, September 12, 2025. Join us to a great height and be surprised.