Transportation and Need for Affect in Narrative Persuasion: A Mediated Moderation Model

Abstract

Two experiments investigated the idea that individual differences in need for affect are critical for narrative persuasion. Need for affect, that is, the disposition to approach emotions, was assumed to facilitate the experience of being transported into the mental world of the narrative. An intense experience of transportation, in turn, should enhance the persuasive impact of narrative information on readers' beliefs. A mediated moderation analysis was used to test these assumptions. In both experiments (N = 314), need for affect (approach) and transportation moderated the persuasive effects of a fictional narrative compared to a belief-irrelevant control story (Experiment 1) and the persuasive effects of a story with high emotional content compared to a story with low emotional content (Experiment 2). The moderator effects of need for affect were shown to be mediated by the moderator effects of transportation. In sum, the magnitude of a person's need for affect determines whether and to what extent the person experiences transportation into the story world and is persuaded by the information presented in the narrative.

Notes

^a Contrast coding (−1 vs. 1).

^b Need for affect and transportation were z-standardized for computing the interaction terms.

***p < .001

**p < .01

*p < .05 (one-tailed).

^a Contrast-coded (Experiment 1: control story without emotional details = −1, experimental story with emotional details = 1; Experiment 2: story with low emotional content = −1; story with high emotional content = 1).

^b z-standardized.

***p < .001

**p < .01

*p < .05 (one-tailed).

1. We are grateful to Marcello Gallucci (2005) for pointing out this type of mediated moderation model to us.

2. Although not based on our theory, at least two alternative mediated moderation (or moderated mediation) models are conceivable and statistically testable. The first of these alternative models assumes an interaction between text and need for affect to predict transportation. The second one assumes an interaction between need for affect and transportation to predict beliefs. According to the first alternative model, the text factor would moderate the impact of need for affect on transportation as the criterion variable. To test for this interaction, transportation was regressed on text (effect-coded), need for affect (z-standardized), and the product of both variables. Need for affect predicted transportation (B = 0.23, SE _B = 0.08, p < .01, ΔR ² = .06) irrespective of the text presented, as indicated by a nonsignificant interaction term (B = 0.02, SE _B = 0.09, p = .82, ΔR ² = .00). According to the second alternative model, need for affect would moderate the impact of transportation on beliefs as the criterion variable. To test for this interaction, the belief score was regressed on transportation (z-standardized) and need for affect (z-standardized), and the interaction term of both variables. The interaction between both variables did not have a significant effect on beliefs (B = −0.06, SE _B = 0.06, p = .17, ΔR ² = .01). Thus, neither the first nor the second alternative model was supported by our data.