PhD alumna Rebecca Frazer, Associate Professor Matthew Grizzard, and Professor Emily Moyer-Gusé published a study in Media Psychology introducing a new way to measure how “deep” a character feels to audiences. They define character depth as the extent to which a story “evokes a detailed and multi-faceted mental conception of a character’s psyche, behavior, and experience.” The team developed and validated a six-item scale that quantifies this perception, helping explain why some characters feel more real and emotionally engaging than others.

Grizzard was also recently honored by the Provost’s Midcareer Scholars Program as a Scarlet and Gray Associate Professor. This prestigious university-wide program recognizes excellence in scholarship, teaching, and service, and supports faculty recently promoted to associate professor with tenure.

In addition, Grizzard gave a TEDx Talk this spring exploring the ways people’s judgments of story characters reflect how they evaluate real-life moral situations. He argues that people use similar moral frameworks to assess fictional characters’ actions, and that analyzing viewers' responses to characters’ choices and motivations can reveal the moral principles that shape broader ethical decision-making.