LAWRENCE — If you've watched popular movies or television shows in the last decade, there's a good chance you've found an Easter egg or two: not an actual brightly colored egg but a subtle reference to another movie or story in the form of a character in the background or object that also appears in other stories.
While fan discussions abound online about what such clues might represent, little research has examined which types of fans are most likely to find them and whether they influence enjoyment.
New research from the University of Kansas has found that people with strong connections to a character or story were more likely to spot Easter eggs, and when they did, it not only heightened their enjoyment, but they were more likely to engage in fan behavior, such as posting about the experience online or rewatching.
Many Pixar fans have spotted the same toy ball showing up in "Toy Story," "Brave" and "Inside Out," while Marvel fans have noted Captain America's shield appearing in "Iron Man" movies. Such instances are common in transnarrative media, or stories told across formats like movies, television shows, video games and books.
"We know Easter eggs are something that people come across and seem to enjoy, so we wanted to better understand how they experienced them and what they meant to them," said Judy Watts, assistant professor of journalism & mass communications at KU and an author of the study. "But the interesting thing about Easter eggs, at least to us, is that it's almost like an opt-in experience. You don't have to look for an Easter egg. You don't have to correctly identify it. Will the people who do identify them connect them to other media, what is that feeling like for them? Do they enjoy it?"
For the study, Watts and Hannah Wing of Wichita State University surveyed more than 950 people. When participants were asked whether they had found an Easter egg within the past year, 41% responded yes. They were also asked about their level of fandom, if they sought explanations of these subtle or hidden surprises and if they enjoyed the challenge of finding them.
The study was published in the journal PLOS One.
Results showed that among those who could recall finding an Easter egg, those with parasocial relationships or a connection strong enough to feel part of the story's world and those who took part in fan behavior also reported higher levels of intrinsic reward and enjoyment upon spotting these subtle clues.
"I felt excited, like I found some hidden treasure. I was also eager to see if anyone else saw the Easter egg/parallel," one respondent replied.
The findings suggest that filmmakers and storytellers can engage fans in a way that will enhance their enjoyment and engagement with the media without negatively affecting the enjoyment of those who don't seek out or notice such hidden or subtle references. The clues also can add layers to what might otherwise be considered light fare.
"People were really excited to see an Easter egg, and they felt a sense of pride, which is kind of a cool finding, because it does kind of suggest that something that is really like lighthearted and maybe a popcorn film could be a little cognitively challenging if you chose to make it harder for yourself to watch," Watts said. "But we also read some comments that people felt like when they found the Easter egg that the creators were doing it for them, like they were being spoken to. So, I think for a certain type of audience, it can be really special to come across one, and you can really feel like you kind of almost like stitched a puzzle together in a way."
For her part, Watts said she is not good at finding Easter eggs but is intrigued by them both as a researcher and a fan. She said she recently finished the series "Stranger Things" and was as entertained by reading fan theories about the meaning of such subtle callbacks contained in the series as she was by the show itself.
The study's findings are not meant to tell film and television makers what sort of content they should or should not include in their work, but to help understand how people enjoy media, Watts said.
Watts and colleagues plan to further study links between exposure to such Easter eggs and viewers' enjoyment when people are shown examples instead of recalling their own experiences. For now, the research shows fans, especially those strongly connected to a show or movie, enjoy finding hidden references and acting upon that excitement.
"We're humans. We tend to want to share that information with other people. And so that can be in forums or in social media posts," Watts said. "Or we want to know more or want to maybe confirm that we did find one, so we might do a little internet research and look it up and see if other people found it as well, or maybe what the hidden meaning could have been. It shows there are a lot of pathways to enjoying media. Beyond the content of the plot or characters, what other factors might be enjoyable?"
