suspension of disbelief

Coined by English poet, literary critic and philosopher Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1817.

suspension of disbelief (usually uncountable, plural suspensions of disbelief)

1. People's acceptance, for the sake of appreciation of art (including literature and the like), of what they know to be a nonfactual premise of the work of art.

   In science fiction films, suspension of disbelief is essential.

   • 1955, Donald Keene, “The Japanese Theatre”, in Japanese Literature, page 63:

     On the other hand, Chikamatsu could induce a suspension of disbelief with the same means, thus producing an effect of reality within basic unreality. (The suspension of disbelief is, of course, nothing new to Western audiences.)

   • 2010 June 17, John Landis, “John Landis on why Ray Harryhausen's effects are still so special”, in The Guardian‎, →ISSN:

     All films require "suspension of disbelief" to work effectively. And every film creates its own unspoken rules to accomplish this.

   • 2022 January 7, Jordan Calhoun, “The One Thing TV Characters Don’t Talk About”, in Humans Being‎, The Atlantic:

     Characters are either rich, comfortable, or struggling, but we rarely know how rich, how comfortable, or how much they struggle in concrete-enough terms to relate to. Money is involved in every important decision in one’s life; TV characters simply frown at a bank statement or gasp at a hidden figure on a piece of paper. The topic of money requires the most awkward suspension of disbelief in fiction.

• willing suspension of disbelief

• suspend one's disbelief

• suspension of disbelief on Wikipedia.Wikipedia