Suspension of disbelief  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

Suspension of disbelief is an aesthetic theory intended to characterize people's relationships to art. It refers to the alleged willingness of a reader or viewer to accept as true the premises of a work of fiction, even if they are fantastic, impossible, or contradictory. It also refers to the willingness of the audience to overlook the limitations of a medium, so that these do not interfere with the acceptance of those premises. According to the theory, suspension of disbelief is a quid pro quo: the audience agrees to provisionally suspend their judgment in exchange for the promise of entertainment.

Further, inconsistencies or plot holes that violate the initial premisees, established canon, continuity, or common sense, are often viewed as breaking this agreement. For particularly loyal fans, these dealbreakers are usually accompanied by a sense of betrayal. However, the extent to which the suspension can be called compromised is often dependent on the beholder. A physicist, for example, may be more likely to question a fantastical breach of known physics, while an architect's suspension of disbelief may be damaged by being introduced to a building of unrealistic proportions. Similarly, 'common sense' is a relative term, and so the same piece of fiction may stand up or not, depending on the particular audience.

Though, as a theory, suspended disbelief is pervasive amongst critics — particularly film critics — most aesthetic philosophers reject it.