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Article published In:
Scientific Study of Literature
Vol. 8:2 (2018) ► pp.239–260

What if two involving stories contradict each other?

Transportation and robustness of narrative persuasion

| Shitennoji University

This study investigated the relationship between individual differences in narrative transportation and attitude robustness. A total of 840 respondents participated in a web survey. In the first phase of the survey, respondents indicated their attitudes toward social issues after reading supporting or opposing texts with narrative and persuasive messages. After two weeks, the same participants read another text expressing the opposite perspective on the same issue, and again indicated their attitudes. Attitude robustness (i.e., degree of change in attitude between phases) was significantly predicted by transportability and mediated by transportation-related concepts of situational involvement. Additionally, whereas situational involvement with narrative text was predicted by transportability, situational involvement with persuasive text was consistently predicted by self-involvement with the issues. Implications of the findings for narrative transportation and persuasion research and limitations of the study are discussed.

Keywords: narrative, story, transportation, attitude change, attitude robustness, situational involvement
Article outline
  • Narrative persuasion and narrative transportation
  • Attitude change strength of narrative persuasion
  • Present research
  • Method
    • Participants
    • Texts
    • Procedure and questionnaire
  • Results
    • Preparations for analysis
    • Analysis of situational involvement with narrative and persuasive messages
    • Attitude robustness
  • Discussion
    • Limitations and future implications
  • Acknowledgements
  • Note
  • References
Published online: 12 June 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ssol.18013.kom
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