Who can resist a villain? Morality, Machiavellianism, imaginative resistance and liking for dark fictional characters

•Dark fictional characters (DFCs) include villains & immoral or morally ambiguous protagonists.•Imaginative resistance (IR) is the perceived inability to engage with immorality in fiction.•3 studies explored associations among liking for DFCs and Machiavellianism, IR, and morality.•Liking for DFCs was associated with greater Machiavellianism and lower IR and moral purity concern.•Results suggest the need to include these variables in models explaining audience involvement with DFCs. The purpose of this research was to explore the association between preferences for dark fictional characters, such as villains or morally ambiguous protagonists, and individual differences in related variables, particularly Machiavellianism and imaginative resistance (a reluctance to imaginatively engage with immoral fictions). Past research suggests that liking for morally ambiguous and evil fictional characters is a function of identification and moral disengagement (e.g., Janicke & Raney, 2017; Sanders & Tsay-Vogel, 2016), but does less to address why some people are more likely to successfully morally disengage and identify with such dark characters. Here, in a series of three studies, we found a robust association between liking for dark characters, self-reported imaginative resistance, moral purity concerns, and Machiavellianism. Such results suggest a need to include these constructs in models of fictional engagement.