Hey did you catch the latest episode of…? TV and media have been known to generate a sense of community around those who follow the same series or sagas, however, recent research has shown that media may hold a greater influence on our personal schemas. Dr. Matthew Grizzard is exploring how our judgment of story characters mirrors the way we assess real-life moral situations. He suggests that we apply similar moral frameworks when evaluating fictional characters’ actions and that by analyzing characters’ choices and motivations, we reveal the underlying moral assumptions that guide our broader ethical decision-making. Matthew Grizzard (PhD, Michigan State University) is an Associate Professor in the School of Communication at The Ohio State University. Situated within media psychology and communication, his research program examines moral judgments processes as they relate to evaluations of narrative characters and narrative plots. Current projects explore how viewers come to like or dislike story characters, why viewers prefer some types of narrative endings over others, and what types of media content elicit moral emotions such as anger and guilt. Dr. Grizzard is a member of the editorial boards for Human Communication Research, Media Psychology, and Psychology of Popular Media, and he is an associate editor of Journal of Media Psychology. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx