Rise of the Anti-Hero

What is it about?

This project investigates how the moral character of action-film protagonists has evolved over the past half-century. Using a content analysis of 30 American action films released between 1971 and 2021, the study coded every moral and immoral act committed by each film's main hero. Moral behavior was defined using the seven values of the Morality-as-Cooperation framework (Curry et al., 2019), while immoral actions were classified using inverses of those values and criteria from the Motion Picture Production Code. Findings reveal a significant increase in immoral actions committed by hero-type characters over time, indicating a clear rise in morally ambiguous protagonists—anti-heroes. Early films (e.g., Superman, 1978) displayed near-purely moral heroes, whereas recent films (e.g., Deadpool, 2016) exhibited a balanced or even dominant mix of immoral behaviors. A strong positive correlation (r = .662, p < .001) shows that as decades progressed, heroes became more complex, conflicted, and ethically gray. This study provides empirical support for a cultural shift long assumed but rarely measured: audiences today are increasingly drawn to heroes who blend virtue with vice. The work contributes to media psychology by mapping how moral expectations in storytelling have changed and sets the stage for future research on how exposure to anti-heroes shapes viewers’ moral attitudes.

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Photo by Michael Marais on Unsplash

Photo by Michael Marais on Unsplash