Effects of Character Accent on Perceived Similarity, Transportation, and Narrative Persuasion

ABSTRACT

Guided by narrative transportation theory and the social identity approach, this study examined the effects of character accent on perceived similarity, transportation, and narrative persuasion. Cigarette smokers from Kentucky (N = 492) listened to a first-person narrative about smoking-induced lung cancer. The character spoke either with a Southern American English (SAE; ingroup) or a General American English (GAE; outgroup) accent. Opposite to predictions, the GAE-accented character was perceived as more similar overall, engendered greater transportation, elevated lung cancer risk perceptions, and promoted higher intentions to quit smoking than the SAE-accented character. Consistent with predictions, the effects of character accent on risk perceptions and intentions to quit were mediated by perceived similarity and transportation. Taken together, these findings indicate that narrative character accent is a potent cue to similarity judgments, but that actual linguistic similarity is not isomorphic with perceived overall similarity. Theoretical and practical implications for narrative persuasion are discussed.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2023.2185926

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Actual and perceived similarity are not isomorphic, as actual similarities may not be perceived as such (see J. Cohen et al., 2018; Ooms et al., 2019).

2. At the request of one reviewer, we also tested an alternate model in which perceived similarity, transportation, and perceived risk were all treated as parallel (and uncorrelated) mediators of the effect of source accent on intent. This model fit the data poorly, χ²(4) = 214.83, p < .001, RMSEA =.33, 95% CI [.2937], PCLOSE <.001, CFI =.47, TLI = 0.00, SRMR =.17.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a Speed Dating for Researchers-X Collaborative Funding grant from the College of Communication and Information at the University of Kentucky.