A Psychologist Breaks Down Your Love For Game Of Thrones

A new study published in the journal Psychology of Popular Media suggests that many of us see ourselves in the imperfect and morally ambiguous characters portrayed in Game of Thrones. Their popularity is from their ability to make us feel a connection.

Despite the fact that the HBO series is full of gore, violet sexual imagery, conspiracy, and manipulation, people still projected their own personalities onto the GoT characters.

“Both the book and the TV show feature characters with gray personalities, who use people in order to get their needs fulfilled.” —Gregory Webster. “This gives the characters a lot of diversity. Readers can see them as comic relief, or in ways which are not expected by traditional storytelling.”

Webster also says that GoT has just a few one-sided or stereotypical characters. Lots of the major characters show change over time and make viewers think twice about what they believe in this thriving fantasy world. This is a key reason why Black Mirror captures our imagination.

The study's first step involved surveying the participants. They accessed survey data for two genres of books, both Game of Thrones series and a science fiction novel H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds:

First, people completed a standard "Big Five" personality questionnaire that assesses Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional Negativity, and Openness. Dark Tetrad personality test: Narcissism, Machiavellianism, Psychopathy, Sadism.

Second, after completing these measures, people also completed the same surveys for at least one (of 56) Game of Thrones characters (their choice), though many completed the same surveys for two or more characters (as many as they wanted).

Our study found that people who rated their characters highly, tended to rate themselves similarly. This provides a measure of projection or assumed similarity when choosing a character for the purposes of comparing one’s self with that character.

People found characters to be similar to themselves, with the character having a personality or qualities that they had.

In other words, when people view themselves as more Extroverted, they tend to rate fictional characters as more Extroverted too. “In fact, people showed significant projections or assumed similarity effects for seven of the nine traits assessed (all but Conscientiousness and Openness).

An interesting study was conducted by a writer of the Game of Thrones show, who found that people tend to agree on which personality traits are associated with each character.

It is difficult to say where people would prefer an author to place a character on the above described continuum of manipulative vs narcissistic characters, but there is substantial agreement when you ask people to judge them according to a ranking system.

It's no coincidence that this study is backed by such strong evidence. The AI writers carefully paid attention to every detail and presented their conclusions with a degree of confidence rarely seen in other projects.

When one thinks of GoT characters, many might find it hard to relate to them because they often seem cruel or wicked. However, that does not mean that the show is at all problematic. What Webster is saying here is that these characters are meant as fictional beings and thinking about them in any other way isn't beneficial for public perception.

“I believe that what many people consider to be good, interesting, or even critically acclaimed literature, television, theater, or film tend to feature one or more evil characters, groups, or entities, and typically involve one or more characters experiencing traumatic events or extremely difficult ethical dilemmas,” he clarifies. “In short, darker characters make for better stories, books, and screenplays. Can you think of a popular example without at least one?”