Narrative content and social cues (e.g., others' opinions, context) are powerful determinants of audiences' appraisals of entertainment, such as enjoyment and appreciation (Nabi & Krcmar, 2004; Tamborini, 2013). However, few studies examine the interaction effect of content and social cues on audience appraisals. The model of intuitive morality and exemplars (Tamborini, 2013) and its narrative enjoyment and appreciation rationale (Lewis et al., 2014) suggest that social cues could influence appraisals by either reinforcing or conflicting with content appraisals. In this project, I tested the extent that social cues, e.g., social norm messages (Lapinski & Rimal, 2005) moderate narrative appraisals. Across two studies, participants read or listened to stories with either positive or mixed endings. The endings were accompanied by norm cues that indicated others' overwhelming dis/liking of the story. In Study 1, reinforcing social cues (others' liking of positive endings) solidified audiences' enjoyment of the narrative content, whereas conflicting social cues (others' disliking of positive endings) decreased enjoyment and lengthened evaluation times. For mixed endings, norm cues led audiences to dis/like content in line with others' opinions. Study 2 explored how moderators of normative influence affect appraisals and social sharing. Few hypotheses received support, but the findings overall suggest that social norm cues increased participants' enjoyment and social sharing of narrative conflict. Taken together, social norm cues affect enjoyment because these cues provide social information that satisfies intuitive needs that reinforce, conflict with, or resolve initial appraisals.
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