Setting the Stage for Social Change: Using Live Theater to Dispel Myths About Intimate Partner Violence

Abstract

Research has demonstrated the ability of fictional narratives to educate about social and health issues. Although some entertainment-education efforts have used live theater as a mechanism for social change, very few use social science methods to demonstrate exposure effects. This project used live theater to increase understanding and knowledge about intimate partner violence, a pervasive and costly social and health problem. Audiences watched either a play about abusive relationships—emphasizing psychological abuse and the role of coercion and control—or a control play. Compared with controls, those who watched the abuse play were more knowledgeable and less accepting of myths about abusive relationships in a way that mirrored play content. Although both plays were highly transporting, transportation did not explain a significant amount of variance in the attitudes toward intimate partner violence. These results provide rare evidence for theater as a tool for social change.

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Kelly Allison, chair of the University of Alabama-Birmingham Department of Theatre for making this research possible. The authors also thank Dennis McLernon (director) and Stephen Webb (playwright) for allowing them to study their audience members. The authors thank the staff of the Alys Stephens Performing Arts Center. Also, the authors give thanks to Lissa Behm-Morawitz and Melinda Burgess for comments on an earlier version of this article.

Notes

¹Participants responded to additional items related to demographics and to character identification, which are not addressed in this article. These results were addressed by Dill, Shackleford, Green, Scharrer, and Wetterer (2012, July).