Does it matter if a story character lives or dies?: a message experiment comparing survivor and death narratives.
Psychol Health
; 37(4): 419-439, 2022 Apr.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-33464969
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE:
In narratives, characters often face threats where they either live (survivor narratives) or die (death narratives). Both outcomes have the potential to persuade, and are frequently utilised in mass communication campaigns, yet more research is needed examining the relative effectiveness and underlying mechanisms of each strategy.DESIGN:
U.S. adults (N = 1010) were randomly assigned to a 2 (survivor, death) × 2 (non-foreshadowed, foreshadowed) × 2 (within-study replication narrative 1, narrative 2) between-participants experiment with melanoma stories as stimuli. MAIN OUTCOMEMEASURES:
Intentions to engage in sun safe behaviour and skin self-examination behaviour were assessed in the pre- and posttest, and then transformed into change scores.RESULTS:
Death narratives increased sun safe behaviour intentions. Consistent with the entertainment overcoming resistance model, foreshadowed death narratives were found to increase sun safe behaviour intentions via increased transportation and decreased counterarguing.CONCLUSION:
Compared to survivor narratives, death narratives increase intentions to engage in sun safe behaviour. The findings offer support for character death as a key feature of narrative persuasion, and narrative transportation and counterarguing as important mediational pathways.Palabras clave
Texto completo:
1
Colección:
01-internacional
Base de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Comunicación Persuasiva
/
Narración
Tipo de estudio:
Clinical_trials
/
Prognostic_studies
/
Qualitative_research
Límite:
Adult
/
Humans
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Psychol Health
Asunto de la revista:
PSICOLOGIA
Año:
2022
Tipo del documento:
Article
País de afiliación:
Estados Unidos
Pais de publicación:
ENGLAND
/
ESCOCIA
/
GB
/
GREAT BRITAIN
/
INGLATERRA
/
REINO UNIDO
/
SCOTLAND
/
UK
/
UNITED KINGDOM