A fascinating new study into murder mysteries has concluded that those with low self-esteem should shy away from stories with a surprise ending.

Those with higher self-esteem, by contrast, tend to be delighted by stories that unsettle preconceptions and go against expectations, according to a report published in the Media Psychology journal.

The researchers asked 84 German students to take a range of written personality tests that had been designed to gauge self-esteem. They all then read a one-page mystery about a murdered businessman, in which his wife and his lover were the two key suspects.

Three separate versions of the story were produced, all with significantly different endings. In the first, both suspects were portrayed as equally likely to have committed the crime. The second version suggested that one of the suspects was much more likely than the other to have killed the businessman and this later transpired to be the case (confirmation ending). The third version of the story again suggested that one suspect was more likely than the other to have committed the crime, but the story ended with a twist when the other suspect was revealed to be the guilty party (surprise ending).

When the students were asked to rate the endings of the story, those with low self-esteem indicated that the confirmation ending was preferable to the surprise ending. Those with high self-esteem reported that they had preferred the surprise ending, stressing that they had not particularly enjoyed the confirmation of their suspicions.

Silvia Knobloch-Westerwick, co-author of the study and assistant professor of communication at Ohio State University, said: "Mysteries that thwart or confirm expectations in the end only pleased some of the mystery readers.

"If you have a bad day at work that threatens your self-esteem, you might enjoy a confirming mystery resolution more than you would normally," she added.

Interestingly, students that were particularly susceptible to boredom tended to be those that thrived on the story based on a high level of uncertainty and surprise.

The advice, it would seem, is to choose your reading list on the basis of your estimation of not only your self-esteem, but also how likely you are to drift off into reverie as you turn the pages.

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