Social Learning, Outcome Expectations & M. Night Shyamalan

     The films and reputation of M. Night Shyamalan illustrate how outcome expectations and the social learning theory have a mass effect on his audience and their reactions to his movies, which range from praise at his initial hits like the Sixth Sense and Unbreakable, to ridicule for The Happening and The Last Airbender, some of his recent critical bombs.

     Social learning theory explains how mass media may affect the behavior and attitudes of audiences. A more specific facet of this theory - that of outcome expectations - explains that we consume and enjoy specific media based on how we predict that media will positively or negatively affect us. For example, someone in the process of reading the Harry Potter books will probably read the entire series, as they expect to be entertained, gratified, or fulfilled by each subsequent volume, based upon their previous experience with Harry Potter. They will probably go see the movies as they come out, expecting a similar feeling of enjoyment that they got out of reading the book.

     M. Night Shyamalan's films are a great representative of this effect. His first film, The Sixth Sense, was a critical and commercial success, praised and loved by many. When Shyamalan released his second film, Unbreakable, many of the people who went to see it were expecting to be gratified by another great movie, based upon their experience and satisfaction gained from watching the Sixth Sense. These films were both great successes and established Shyamalan's reputation as a powerfully creative and entertaining filmmaker. When we look at his reputation now, however, we see a man who is popularly seen as a fluke, unable to make any good films at all, and far past his prime. This is due to a series of critical failures he released, which include Lady In The Water and The Happening to name a few. Because audiences have been so repeatedly disappointed by Shyamalan's consistently bad films, whenever a new film of his is announced, it is immediately met with critical skepticism. The Last Airbender and Devil (although Shyamalan didn't actually direct or write its screenplay) are examples of this - many people took neither film seriously due to Shyamalan's regrettable track record. Outcome expectations dictates that the audiences who were so disappointed by Shyamalan's films will expect any subsequent releases of his to be equally disappointing, thus destroying the reputation he had gained from the few good movies he made.