What's the thought process or cognitive bias that makes morally wrong characters so lovable?

[maitreyagem]

So I’m writing a novel about a bunch of very morally ambiguous characters committing crimes and having fun in their meantime...
And of course, if I’m writing about this, it’s definitely because I love this trope.

But I’ve been wondering, what makes it so endearing?
Maybe it’s the way we fantasize about some way of life, in a different social contract than ours?
Living the dangers like an emotional rollercoaster, but from a safe space?

Do you enjoy this trope, if yes, why?
Feel free to share your thoughts!

Here is my novel, by the way:

There are Two Gods in Heaven | Tapas

[godfrey_narcisso]

For me, this trope is the best when the characters are unpredictable and unapologetic with the way they do things while also having a human side that does not involve with them wrestling with their own morality. Some of the most morally bankrupt characters I've loved in fiction knew what they're doing but they're not sorry for it. Patrick Bateman from American Psycho, Bronn from ASoIF, Phantom Troupe from HxH. They'd stab someone to death in the morning and play cards with their friends after lunch.

[maitreyagem]

That's exactly it!!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

I haven't read American Psycho yet, but I plan to... Love the phantom troupe from HxH though, york shin city was by far my favorite arc!

[maitreyagem]

I’ll also just copy and paste the reflection I had on Twitter…

I think one of the reasons is that we fantasize about being able to commit crimes and get away with them in real life, so it’s easy to self-insert as characters who are able to do that when they also have very human behaviors.
They are happy or sad, they laugh and cry, they have fun and on top of that, they have an exciting way of life.
They live outside of society’s boundaries, and that makes them exceptional.
Their way of life is fascinating because they keep being human despite doing “wrong” things, and that reassures us.
Thanks to them, we can keep being human despite all our mistakes and failures.

I want to add that when karma finally catches up with them, it also feels incredibly cathartic.
This helps us believe that we can’t get away with everything, and justice will always strike back.
It’s a fantasy but it’s ethically helpful.
Karmic justice in crime stories makes you want to believe that there is a god in this world, even for atheists…

[bluejamtoast]

Rather than their specific morals (cos 99% of the time I disagree with em) for me its these two main characteristics that aren't exclusive to morally bankrupt characters but fairly common, that make them so endearing/entertaining

1 -UNPREDICTABLE

Self explanatory. They often deliver those jaw dropping wtf story beats that get you hooked.

2 -PROACTIVITY

Maybe it's just the stuff I read but a lot of the straight laced moral characters tend to just react, like its the antagonist/morally dubious chara that brings the sauce of the story and good guy just deals with it in retrospect. Since morally gray guy is often in a world/setting that has rules that constrain them from getting their goal, they have to do something to achieve it

Again these characteristics aren't exclusive to morally wrong characters just common traits I noticed in my favourite morally wrong characters

Also I think I tend to have a lower standard/expectation of these 'bad' characters. Very generalised but most people consider themselves morally right, right? It's part of our identity, so when presented a 'right' character you cross reference with your own personal morals in order to empathise, as a result when there is a difference in ideology one is less forgiving. Have you ever read/watched a story where the show is trying so hard to frame character A as a good person and you just aint buying it. Its pretty off-putting. Morally wrong characters don't have the pressure of meeting the readers personal standards for good morals which is very subjective

[DokiDokiTsuna]

I'd like to try the analytical approach here: to figure out what makes morally wrong characters lovable (assuming that this is the 'unexpected' outcome), start with morally wrong characters who AREN'T lovable, and figure out what's missing.
Or rather, characters that aren't supposed to be lovable...'lovability' is pretty subjective, but you can usually tell whether an evil character is written to be the kind you 'love to hate' or the kind you just hate. :T

I think, in a nutshell, those you should love to hate have lots of positive traits on top of their baseline badguy traits; while those you should just hate have far fewer...or maybe none. They're missing those enjoyable character elements-- charm, cleverness, beauty, creativity, humor, compassion, etc.-- that contrast with the bad ones and/or make them seem less important. Without them, you have nothing to focus on except the bad things that they do; so there's a lot less to love.

And this is slightly beside the point, but: to be honest, I don't really go for that idea of liking a 'bad' character because they represent something you can't have; 'unfulfilled subconscious desires' and fantasies and whatnot.
I love villains and 'morally wrong characters', but I don't dream of doing horrible things and suffering no consequences. I also don't wish that people would love me for hurting others. I just...don't. =/ My lifestyle and my enjoyment of a character are two separate things..

If there are cognitive processes at play here, my opinion is that they're the same ones that make humor work: expectations, and the subversions thereof.
People naturally associate likeable traits, like the ones I listed above, with goodness-- we tend to assume that someone who appeals to us is morally superior to someone who doesn't. What a (subconscious) surprise, then, to find characters who impress us and make us laugh and swoon...and yet, are not 'good'. They do very obviously bad things, and we have to reconcile that with how good they make us feel.
One way to do that is to find them funny. ^^ Or just fun, in a way that's unique to these kinds of characters.

[Lensing]

That´s an interesting topic.
People who are doing morally wrong things and who have a dark side feel more realistic
because we all do morally wrong things all the time

[EverydayWonderlander]

I think it has to do with the fact that they're characters we'd never want to run into in real life.
The fantasy of someone who does "bad" things while having a ball is very appealing to many people, because RL morals generally keep us from being intersted in real people who act that way. Basically everything is safe in fiction, so these characters are a great way to explore the darker impulses humans have.

I also think that godfrey_narcisso and bluejamtoast have really good insights. Characters who are unpredictable are more fun, and even if they are predictable in a way (like "fightsexual" characters, such as Hisoka) they still operate way outside of what we expect.

[system]

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