Testing the Explanatory Power of Two Measures of Narrative Involvement: An Investigation of the Influence of Transportation and Narrative Engagement on the Process of Narrative Persuasion

Abstract

Achieving a more sophisticated understanding of narrative persuasion requires an examination of how the experience of narrative involvement influences persuasive resistance. In this study, we used a multiple message design approach to test two models of narrative involvement, one with transportation and the other with narrative engagement, with programs featuring persuasive stories about sexual and reproductive topics from primetime television. Although both transportation and the narrative engagement influenced processes related to changes in participants’ (N = 362) beliefs, attitudes, and behavioral intentions, the two scales influenced different cognitive and affective responses to the narratives. Transportation was positively related to enjoyment and the perception that the narrative topic was personally relevant. Narrative engagement predicted enjoyment and reduced reactance. Neither transportation nor narrative engagement significantly influenced cognitive elaboration or counterarguments, based on the application of a thought-listing procedure designed to measure counterarguments related to the realism of the narratives. Put together, these findings suggest that the study of narrative persuasion necessitates the use of different measurement instruments that can adequately assess the multidimensional nature and influence of narrative involvement.

Notes

1. The Sentinel for Health Awards were developed by the Centers for Disease Control to “recognize exemplary achievements of TV writers who inform, educate and motivate viewers to make choices for healthier living and safer lives through their storytelling” (Hollywood, Health, and Society, 2010). The Sentinel for Health Awards are given every year by the University of Southern California Annenberg’s Hollywood, Health and Society program to recognize television program producers and writers for their efforts in creating high quality health storylines in television programming. Television programs are judged by more than 65 topic experts who evaluate the accuracy of health depictions, after which the top finalists are evaluated by an expert panel that determines both the entertainment value and the potential benefit of the storyline to the audience (Hollywood, Health, and Society, 2010).

2. Green and Brock’s (2000) transportation imagery scale contained a three additional questions designed to have participants rate the vividness of the image they had of specific characters from a printed story. Because this question was not relevant to this study, it was dropped from the scale.

3. There were four duplicate items from the transportation and narrative engagement scales. A paired sample means test revealed that the mean scores for two of those items, “I found my mind wandering while the program was on,” were not statistically different, t(359) = –.44, M_diff = –.02, p > .05. As a result, the transportation item was dropped from the exploratory factor analysis. A paired sample means test did reveal that the mean scores for the other two items, “The story affected me emotionally” and “The program affected me emotionally” were statistically different, t(359) = 4.46, M_diff = .24, p < .01. We included both of those items in the EFA (and both items loaded on the “emotional engagement” factor).