Does being told how a suspenseful story will end ruin the experience for the reader? Movie and book critics are careful to avoid giving too much away in their reviews. But the impact of such “spoilers” has only recently been tested scientifically (Leavitt and Christenfeld 2011). Students were asked to read a variety of crime-mystery stories. Some were told the ending before starting to read, whereas others were not told. At the end, readers were asked to rate their enjoyment of the stories on a scale from 1 to 10, with 10 indicating greatest enjoyment. The mean enjoyment score was 7.3 in the group of students told the endings beforehand, while average enjoyment score was 6.6 in the other group. A test of the statistical null hypothesis of no difference between the means of the two groups yielded P=0.001.

a. State the appropriate conclusion of the test.

b. Do the data support the idea that knowing the ending reduces the mean enjoyment of the stories?

c. The authors used a two-sided test. Is this appropriate? Explain.

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P = 0.001.