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Understanding Media Enjoyment: The Role of Transportation Into Narrative Worlds
Abstract
“Transportation into a narrative world” is an experience of cognitive, emotional, and imagery involvement in a narrative. Transportation theory (Green & Brock, 2000, 2002) provides a lens for understanding the concept of media enjoyment. The theory suggests that enjoyment can benefit from the experience of being immersed in a narrative world, as well as from the consequences of that immersion. Consequences implied by transportation theory include connections with characters and self-transformations.
... The psychological foundation of E-E lies in the way narratives encourage viewers to immerse themselves in storylines and connect with characters. As a result, viewers are likely to accept educational information embedded in these narratives with little resistance (Green et al., 2004;Slater & Rouner, 2002). ...
... This allocation of mental resources, known as cognitive load, can vary depending on the method of presenting information (Brünke et al., 2010). In the context of E-E, engaging with a narrative might require some cognitive resources to grasp the storyline and character dynamics (Green & Brock, 2000;Green et al., 2004). Additionally, viewers might need to make extra cognitive effort to understand and remember the educational information embedded in the narrative. ...
... Our findings provide empirical evidence about the role of cognition in learning and persuasion through E-E. This contrasts with previous research, which mainly highlighted the influence of narrative engagement on emotional states such as affect and enjoyment (e.g., Das et al., 2017;Green & Brock, 2000;Green et al., 2004;Moyer-Gusé & Nabi, 2010). Similarly, other studies about narrative content retention have primarily focused on narrative attention (e.g., Marcus et al., 2010) rather than the connection between cognitive load and the persuasive impact of E-E. ...
Entertainment-education (E-E) is widely recognized in media research as an effective tool for persuasion, particularly through its unique impact on comprehensive mental processes such as narrative transportation. However, there is a notable gap in understanding how viewers cognitively engage with and learn from E-E content while simultaneously enjoying it. Addressing this gap, this study proposes an empirical model to assess cognitive load in processing both narrative content and embedded educational information. An online experiment (N = 496) is conducted with two abridged versions of a medical drama episode: one with and one without open captions containing explicit educational material. The results indicate that cognitive load associated with learning can enhance the appreciation of narrative content through knowledge acquisition and narrative content recall, particularly when relevant information is integrated unobtrusively into the narrative via open captioning. These findings support the notion that carefully incorporating educational information in E-E content can promote narrative engagement and facilitate educational knowledge acquisition. This can be achieved not by demanding additional cognitive effort, but by efficiently allocating available cognitive resources across two distinct cognitive load pathways: one for narrative processing and another for processing educational information.
... TV drama, as a genre of drama, is typically conveyed to the audience through storytelling, with the primary objective of immersing the audience in the storyline. Scholars of narrative immersion assert that "narrative" presentation engenders audience engagement with the story, facilitating enjoyment through resonance with characters or ideas (e.g., Green et al., 2004;Busselle and Bilandzic, 2008;Tamborini et al., 2021aTamborini et al., , 2021b. Transportation is a well-established psychological theory and framework utilized to elucidate and anticipate audience engagement and enjoyment in the cognitive process of experiencing a narrative text (Eyal and Rubin, 2003;Escalas, 2007;Slater et al., 2006;Lu et al., 2019;Sadeghzadeh Fesaghandis, 2021;Thompson et al., 2021). ...
... To explore audiences' enjoyment of the story world, scholars have focused on the narrative experience itself Green, 2008;Escalas, 2007;Slater et al., 2006). Subsequently, scholars shifted their attention to the narrative experience to assess the degree of enjoyment audiences derive from the story world (Kim, 2020), with other researchers also confirming this (Jang et al., 2016;Jang et al., 2016;Green et al., 2004;Escalas, 2007). Green and Brock (2000) were the first to develop a structural model of the transportation scale to explain the cognitive and emotional immersion of audiences or readers when engaging with text-based narratives (Busselle and Bilandzic, 2009). ...
... Raney (2004) posited that audience's knowledge and experience serve as the foundation for evaluating characters. Green et al. (2004) posited that audience immersion in a narrative necessitates a connection with the characters. When the audience cultivates familiarity with the actors in the play, it facilitates deeper engagement with the story (Moyer-Guse, 2008) and enhances enjoyment (Raney, 2004). ...
Background
The globalization of the media market is forcing decision-makers to understand the psychological processes behind local audiences’ enjoyment of foreign TV dramas. Transportation is a well-established psychological theory and framework utilized to elucidate and anticipate audience engagement and enjoyment in the cognitive process of experiencing a narrative text. Although there is a substantial body of literature on transportation and media enjoyment, there is a noticeable absence of studies on the relationship between audiences being “transported” into the narrative world of TV dramas and, particularly, the pleasure audiences derive from interacting with media content within a cross-cultural acceptance context.
Method
The research employs a quantitative design, with responses collected from 353 students enrolled at a Malaysian public university. It aims to validate the influence of social norms, cultural identity, and affective disposition on narrative immersion while watching foreign TV dramas, as well as the subsequent enjoyment of media among local audiences.
Results
The results indicate that social norms, cultural identity, and affective disposition significantly influence transportation and enjoyment. Furthermore, the influence of cultural identity on social norms has a positive moderating effect on transportation.
Discussion
Storytelling that complies with social norms while offering new perspectives can maximally engage audiences, potentially altering their narrative cognition and deepening their immersion in fictional narratives. Cultural identity can shape audience perceptions and reactions to cross-cultural media consumption, ultimately influencing the degree to which audiences are drawn into the narrative. Furthermore, the audience’s emotional connection to characters in the narrative or to situations in the drama significantly influences the overall cognitive and immersion levels.
... Cinema therapy encourages people to experience hidden emotions and relieves emotional numbness, which is the main symptom of depression (Hatzipapas et al., 2017 In essence, emotional engagement forms the bedrock of chemotherapeutic interventions, providing a safe and controlled space for individuals to navigate and express complex emotions. By leveraging the immersive and emotive potential of films, cinematherapy sets the stage for subsequent therapeutic processes, making it a valuable tool for promoting mental well-being and alleviating the burdens of depression and stress (Hatzipapas et al., 2017;Green et al., 2004;Niemiec and Wedding, 2014 ...
... of films, driven by well-developed characters and compelling storylines, draws viewers into a shared emotional journey. As the storyline unfolds, viewers experience a range of emotions, creating a cathartic release that can be particularly beneficial in addressing symptoms of depression and stress(Hatzipapas et al., 2017;Green et al., 2004;Niemiec and Wedding, 2014).The aesthetic and cinematic elements employed in filmmaking contribute significantly to emotional engagement. Visual and auditory stimuli, such as cinematography, lighting, and soundtracks, are carefully crafted to elicit specific emotional responses. ...
... Visual and auditory stimuli, such as cinematography, lighting, and soundtracks, are carefully crafted to elicit specific emotional responses. The deliberate manipulation of these elements creates a mood that enhances the overall emotional impact of the cinematic experience(Hatzipapas et al., 2017;Green et al., 2004;Niemiec and Wedding, 2014). Additionally, the shared humanity portrayed in films, which addresses universal themes and experiences, fosters empathy and connection among viewers. ...
... W hen you listen to music on a streaming platform, what are you truly experiencing? The narrative paradigm of human communication (Fisher, 1987), particularly the narrative transportation theory (Green and Brock, 2002;Green et al., 2004;McQueen et al., 2011;Thomas and Grigsby, 2024), argues that audience's emotions and memories evoked by cultural products drive audience engagement. Narrative transportation, defined as "an experience of cognitive, emotional, and imagery involvement in a narrative" (Green et al., 2004, p. 311), effectively enhances media enjoyment. ...
... Drawing on narrative transportation theory (Green and Brock, 2002;Green et al., 2004), we argue that users can be transported into their own memories by consuming cultural products, prompting them to share their stories. We conceptualize autobiographical narratives in user comments as collective storytelling. ...
... We argue that collective storytelling contributes to cultural products' popularity and positive ratings. Audience involvement in a cultural product is influenced not only by its popularity but also by how users elaborate on it based on their emotions and the narrative world (Green and Brock, 2002;Green et al., 2004;McQueen et al., 2011). Thus, cultural products' influence is shaped by the product's features and the users' reflections. ...
Drawing on narrative transportation theory, we propose that when people consume a cultural product, they consume their emotions and memories through collective storytelling. Such emotions and memories are amplified by user comments on social media, enhancing the product’s influence and triggering audience engagement. We collected public data from NetEase Cloud Music—a major music streaming platform in mainland China—to investigate how the emotions and memories expressed in user comments influence the songs’ impact. Findings indicate that autobiographical narratives and negative emotions in user comments significantly boost a song’s influence. Moreover, user comments are particularly effective in promoting emerging artists with limited resources compared to their more established counterparts. This study advances the narrative transportation theory by emphasizing the role of active audiences and collective storytelling. Empirically, it extends the existing literature on the factors influencing cultural products on music streaming platforms in a non-Western context.
... The study employed a qualitative content analysis method wherein the researchers observed the film's mise-en-scene in relation to its dialogues to better understand how 'Sakristan" portrayed the LGBTQ+ community. By utilizing Burke's (1945) Pentadic Analysis, Green and Brock's (2000, as cited in Green et al., 2004) Narrative Transportation Theory, and Queer Theory, results show that there is a pervasive presence of stereotyping and mockery as prominent ideologies within the series, the portrayal of oppression through the mise-en-scene of Sakristan (2020) varied across different scenes, and negative implications constructed various forms of oppression that were evident in the whole series which were powerlessness, exploitation, violence, and marginalization. Within the context of globalization and expanding reach of media, cinematic productions possess the capacity to transcend geographic and cultural limitations, diffusing LGBTQ+ identities to a global audience. ...
... In addition, critical tradition sought to answer questions such as who had the voice to speak up and who did not get to speak, what did and did not get said, and who benefited from the particular system (Littlejohn & Foss, 2011). This study is specifically guided by Van Leent and Mills (2017) Queer Critical Media Literacies Framework which challenges heteronormativity, and on Green andBrock's (2000, as cited in Green et al., 2004) Narrative Communication Framework which has three main concepts in storytelling, namely transportation, realism, and identification. ...
... Through the lens of queer theory, the researchers focused on LGBTQ+ representation in dialogues, while miseen-scene elements were examined to decipher the storytelling. Using Green andBrock's (2000, as cited in Green et al., 2004) narrative theory conceptstransportation, identification, and realism-the study uncovers the struggles faced by the LGBTQ+ community. By critically analyzing dialogues and miseen-scene, the researchers aimed to challenge oppression of queers in media, bringing attention to the challenges of LGBTQ+ individuals. ...
Sakristan" is a 20-minute film series with eight episodes directed by Darryl Yap; it shows that love goes beyond religion and gender. The research analyzed if there are sources of inaccurate portrayals that may have harmful repercussions such as hatred, oppression, and stereotypes toward the LGBTQ+ community. The study employed a qualitative content analysis method wherein the researchers observed the film's mise-en-scene in relation to its dialogues to better understand how 'Sakristan" portrayed the LGBTQ+ community. By utilizing Burke's (1945) Pentadic Analysis, Green and Brock's (2000, as cited in Green et al., 2004) Narrative Transportation Theory, and Queer Theory, results show that there is a pervasive presence of stereotyping and mockery as prominent ideologies within the series, the portrayal of oppression through the mise-en-scene of Sakristan (2020) varied across different scenes, and negative implications constructed various forms of oppression that were evident in the whole series which were powerlessness, exploitation, violence, and marginalization. Within the context of globalization and expanding reach of media, cinematic productions possess the capacity to transcend geographic and cultural limitations, diffusing LGBTQ+ identities to a global audience. Furthermore, this serves as a reference to develop a deeper understanding toward the community and how society can promote inclusivity worldwide. This also allows the media to know their potential to exert influence on international perceptions and attitudes toward queer individuals.
... enjoying updates about the celebrity or sharing news with friends) but also by forming deep connections that blur the boundaries between their identity and the celebrity's. This allows fans to internalize the celebrity's experiences as their own (Green, Brock, and Kaufman 2004), closely linking their identities to those of their favourite celebrities (McCutcheon, Lange, and Houran 2002;Sun and Wu 2012). ...
... Fans often form parasocial relationships with celebrities, characterized by intense emotional connections and a strong sense of identification (Claessens and Van den Bulck 2015). These relationships blur the boundaries between the celebrity's actions and the fan's self-concept, making fans more sensitive to any perceived threat to the celebrity's image (Belk 1988;Cheng, White, and Chaplin 2012;Green, Brock, and Kaufman 2004). In contrast, non-fans engage with celebrities from a more detached standpoint, primarily driven by entertainment motives, reducing their likelihood of perceiving incongruence as a personal threat (Hung 2014). ...
Limited research has explored how Korean pop (K-pop) fans respond to incongruent celebrity endorsements, where the celebrity’s image conflicts with the brand they endorse. This study, conducted with 525 consumers of Hallyu (Korean Wave), reveals that fans react angrily when a celebrity’s image does not align with the endorsed brand. Such anger significantly reduces their willingness to purchase products or services associated with these celebrities. The findings highlight the critical importance of aligning celebrities’ images with their endorsed brands to maintain fan support and achieve business success.
... Conversely, interactions with VIs through fictional storylines (Audrezet and Koles 2023;Rasmussen 2021) may offer followers an escape from daily stress by letting them immerse into VIs' story worlds, a phenomenon known as narrative transportation (Green and Brock 2000). Research on narrative transportation shows that it can facilitate entertainment and enjoyment (Green, Brock, and Kaufman 2004;Riddle, Liao, and Minich 2022), suggesting that VIs' impact on followers' well-being could be positive. Moreover, some research on HIs suggests that influencers can foster parasocial relationships that fulfill social connectedness needs, inspiring followers (Ki, Park, and Kim 2022). ...
... Two key outcomes of narrative transportation indicate how experiencing transportation may support followers' well-being. First, the state of transportation may result in story consumers experiencing entertainment that engenders enjoyment (Busselle and Bilandzic 2008;Green, Brock, and Kaufman 2004;Riddle, Liao, and Minich 2022) and positive affect (Ha, Huang, and Park 2019), supporting the hedonic well-being of followers. Second, consumers may develop a positive disposition toward the story character (the HVI) when experiencing narrative transportation and, as a result, become susceptible to adopting the story characters' beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors (Van Laer et al. 2014). ...
With recent advancements in technologies such as artificial intelligence and computer‐generated imagery, virtual influencers (VIs) have become prominent branding tools that command high engagement rates. Most extant research explores the marketing outcomes of using VIs in brand campaigns. However, little is known about how interacting with VIs on social media platforms may affect consumers' well‐being. This research takes a comprehensive approach, developing a nuanced understanding of whether (and how) human‐like VIs (HVIs) impact consumers' well‐being. We employ a conceptual development approach drawing on scholarship from influencer marketing, narrative transportation, and consumer well‐being and gather additional support for the conceptual framework from data collected by interviewing 25 followers of HVIs. The conceptual framework proposes that when interacting with influencers' social media posts, followers experience narrative transportation, which positively influences followers' hedonic and eudaimonic well‐being. However, the conceptual framework also proposes that these relationships are moderated by the type of influencer (human vs. virtual) sharing the post. Specifically, we suggest that interactions with HVIs provide followers with enjoyment (hedonic well‐being) and support their self‐acceptance, personal growth, relationships, and autonomy (eudaimonic well‐being). We also provide initial evidence of the favorable marketing outcomes of enhanced well‐being from engagement with HVIs, including contemplation of brand purchase. The study thus advances extant VI literature by proposing a theoretically and empirically informed conceptual model that examines HVIs' influence on consumer well‐being. Also, it contributes to addressing the broader calls for research on the impact of social media and influencer marketing on consumer well‐being.
... Os estudantes que leram o conto apresentaram uma mudança maior nas classificações dos cinco traços de personalidade (extroversão, conscienciosidade, afabilidade, estabilidade emocional, neuroticismo e abertura a experiências) do que os estudantes-controle que assistiram ao documentário. Outros pesquisadores descobriram que estar mentalmente envolvido em histórias com imagens visuais e afeto emocional motiva os estudantes a fazerem uma viagem mental ao mundo da narrativa, o que ajuda a explicar o impacto positivo das histórias(Appel; Malečkar, 2011;Green;Brock; Kauffman, 2004).TÉCNICAS DE COMBINAÇÃO DE STORYTELLING E MINDFULNESSMarusya Price (2019), professora de inglês, compartilhou na plataforma Thrive Global técnicas que mostram como pais e professores podem combinar storytelling e mindfulness. Ela afirma que storytelling é uma ferramenta poderosa para se conectar com os outros, olhar profundamente para dentro de si e se curar. ...
... Os estudantes que leram o conto apresentaram uma mudança maior nas classificações dos cinco traços de personalidade (extroversão, conscienciosidade, afabilidade, estabilidade emocional, neuroticismo e abertura a experiências) do que os estudantes-controle que assistiram ao documentário. Outros pesquisadores descobriram que estar mentalmente envolvido em histórias com imagens visuais e afeto emocional motiva os estudantes a fazerem uma viagem mental ao mundo da narrativa, o que ajuda a explicar o impacto positivo das histórias(Appel; Malečkar, 2011;Green;Brock; Kauffman, 2004).TÉCNICAS DE COMBINAÇÃO DE STORYTELLING E MINDFULNESSMarusya Price (2019), professora de inglês, compartilhou na plataforma Thrive Global técnicas que mostram como pais e professores podem combinar storytelling e mindfulness. Ela afirma que storytelling é uma ferramenta poderosa para se conectar com os outros, olhar profundamente para dentro de si e se curar. ...
As intensidades emocionais de estudantes com altas habilidades/superdotação afetam não apenas seu aprendizado, mas também a forma como vivem e enxergam o mundo. Este artigo examina a Teoria da Desintegração Positiva de Dabrowski para explorar o mundo interior de pessoas com altas habilidades/superdotação. Os cinco níveis de desenvolvimento e as cinco sobre-excitabilidades de Dabrowski representam uma abundância de energia física, sensorial, criativa, intelectual e emocional que causa turbulência interna, mas que também pode levar a iniciativas criativas. Os benefícios da prática de mindfulness para atender às necessidades emocionais de estudantes com altas habilidades/superdotação são apresentados com exemplos de escuta profunda, gratidão e storytelling como práticas de mindfulness. Um projeto final de storytelling ilustra a integração da escuta profunda e da gratidão, além de seu efeito sobre o senso de identidade de estudantes com altas habilidades/superdotação.
... Green and Brock (2002) expand on their earlier definition to define transportation as a 'convergent process', where all mental capacities become focused on events within the narrative (5 of 24 papers). Green et al. (2004) further propose that the key psychological ingredients of transportation can exist in nearly any media format. These two definitions have been used in 6 and 5 papers respectively. ...
... The conceptual definition of immersion and transportation often overlaps when the research context involves narratives or stories. Hartung et al. (2016) proposed several factors that often occur during the immersion in narratives, such as the experience of mental imagery, emotional engagement with protagonists, transportation into the story world, and attention during reading (Kuijpers, 2014), which are similar to the definition of transportation, a distinct mental process that combines ''attention, imagery, and feelings'' resulting from an intense focus on story events (Green, 2004;Green et al., 2004;Green & Brock, 2002). Ma (2019) also reconciled that the idea of psychological immersion, the feeling of being absorbed in the mediated environments and engaging with the events depicted in the media (Lombard & Ditton, 1997), is conceptually similar to narrative transportation. ...
Media allow individuals to feel ’whisked away’ from their surroundings and absorbed into another world. Constructs such as immersion, presence, transportation, and flow have been used to delineate and describe this experience, but few efforts have been made to understand their conceptual overlap or shared and distinct underlying processes. Two studies were conducted to create a model of the immersive experience applicable across media technologies and contexts. First, a scoping review shows these constructs are deeply intertwined and often seen as precursors, subcomponents, or outcomes of one another. Second, re-examining the literature from a complex systems perspective, we identify three key processes: interactivity, boundary alteration, and motivation, as especially promising for developing an integrative ontology of the immersive experience.
... Moreover, the visual appeal of an ad, including high-quality cinematography and pleasing esthetics, can amplify these effects (Pieters, Wedel, and Zhang 2007). These elements do not just grab attention; they deeply engage viewers, immersing them into the ad's narrative world (Green, Brock, and Kaufman 2004). As postulated by the elaboration likelihood model (Petty and Cacioppo 1984), esthetic appeal encourages deeper processing of content. ...
... As postulated by the elaboration likelihood model (Petty and Cacioppo 1984), esthetic appeal encourages deeper processing of content. High-quality visual elements, reflecting production excellence, magnetize viewer attention (Rossiter and Percy 1983;Pieters, Wedel, and Zhang 2007), facilitating their transportation into the narrative universe (Green, Brock, and Kaufman 2004;Feng, Xie, and Lou 2019). Esthetically rich elements also elicit positive emotions, in line with esthetic response theories (Leder et al. 2004). ...
... Users' entertainment and informativeness will trigger positive feelings with the story. This will also be related to attitude towards the brand that embedded the story (Yang et al., 2017) and will make the story more worth sharing (Green et al., 2004;Zhao and Renard, 2018). It can therefore be assumed that the informativeness and entertainment motivated by gamified brand storytelling will lead users to respond to it in terms of brand attitude and WOM. ...
... When individuals experience a state of narrative transportation, they also experience heightened affective responses (Tanouri et al., 2021;Van Laer et al., 2014). This heightened emotional state can be attributed to the entertainment aspect of being fully absorbed in a narrative environment, which provides an escape from one's own reality and allows for temporary immersion in an alternative life (Green et al., 2004). Based on these findings, the following argument is presented: ...
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of gamifying brand storytelling on user immersion in the brand narrative, a concept referred to as “narrative transportation”. The aim is to comprehend how transportation influences users’ experience and their responses to the brand, with particular focus on brand attitude and WOM. The study also explores the role of interactivity in brand storytelling and its effects on transportation and user engagement.
Design/methodology/approach
Four experiments were conducted to sequentially test the proposed hypotheses. Each experiment involves ad hoc gamified brand stories for different product categories (wine, museum, glasses and frozen fruit).
Findings
Findings indicate that including gamification elements in brand stories heightens narrative transportation and enhances the information obtained by users as well as their entertainment. Users thus respond more positively to the brand in terms of attitude and WOM. The study also reveals that high levels of interactivity in the game may actually decrease narrative transportation in the story, although this is offset by the perception of greater entertainment.
Originality/value
This research contributes to current understanding of brand storytelling and its impact on branding. It highlights the importance of offering users a gamified experience that can provide them with information about the brand whilst also offering them entertainment. The results also hold implications for gamification literature by emphasizing the need to ensure a balance between game and story vis-à-vis enhancing the impact of gamified storytelling on brand response.
... Media, literary, and library research has extensively explored narrative engagement, and several metaphorical terms and theoretical concepts have been proposed to characterize the sensation of being "lost" in the world of a story [22], depending on the type of narrative materials encountered. These include "narrative engagement" in film [23], "absorption" [24] and "transportation" in textual narratives [3,25,26], and "immersion" [27] and "presence" [28] in video games and virtual reality. Encompassing multiple forms of experiences, narrative engagement can thus be understood as a psychological state in which an individual perceives "a story in an immediate, emotionally and cognitively intense fashion" [29]. ...
... Narratives are ubiquitous in everyday life and have, for millennia and amongst diverse peoples, served to transmit knowledge and culture from one generation to another [1]. As foundational communication forms that enable investment in daily conversations and leisure activities [2], literary research proposes that narratives are appealing in their capacity to facilitate immersion in a story world-a rich and complex experience influenced by our emotional and cognitive faculties [3,4]. ...
Using naturalistic spoken narratives to investigate speech processes and comprehension is becoming increasingly popular in experimental hearing research. Yet, little is known about how individuals engage with spoken story materials and how listening experiences change with age. We investigated absorption in the context of listening to spoken stories, explored predictive factors for engagement, and examined the utility of a scale developed for written narratives to assess absorption for auditory materials. Adults aged 20–78 years (N = 216) participated in an online experimental study. Participants listened to one of ten stories intended to be engaging to different degrees and rated the story in terms of absorption and enjoyment. Participants of different ages rated the stories similarly absorbing and enjoyable. Further, higher mood scores predicted higher absorption and enjoyment ratings. Factor analysis showed scale items approximately grouped according to the original scale dimensions, suggesting that absorption and enjoyment experiences may be similar for written and spoken stories, although certain items discriminated less effectively between stories intended to be more or less engaging. The present study provides novel insights into how adults of different ages engage in listening and supports using naturalistic speech stimuli in hearing research.
... Narrative transportation is a person's ability to process, visualise and respond emotionally to a story and is key to its effectiveness (Green et al., 2004;Oatley, 2002). Narrative transfer occurs when the reader is immersed in the story, connects with the characters, and then imagines what will happen next (Thomas & Grigsby, 2024;Van Laer et al., 2014). ...
Brand storytelling, as an important communication method for conveying and shaping brand perception and brand image, has been applied more and more widely in recent years in corporate marketing and management, among other aspects. This study investigates the effect of brand stories of agricultural products on consumers’ purchase intention, and also examines the conditions under which they are applicable. Through three experiments, this study found that brand stories increase consumers’ willingness to buy agricultural products, and the sales method plays a moderating role in this. Emotional stories increase consumers’ purchase intention when the sales method is individual sales, and experiential stories increase consumers’ purchase intention when the sales method is chain store sales. The findings of this study enrich the branding theory and are of great significance in shaping the brand image of agricultural products.
... Etkili bir hikâyede birey zamanın nasıl geçtiğinin farkına varamayabilir, fiziksel ortamdan kopabilir ve tamamen hikâyenin içindeymiş gibi hissedebilir. "Anlatı dünyasına aktarılma" şeklinde tanımlanan bu süreçte aktarılmanın, anlatı etkisi işleyişinin temeli olabileceği savunulmaktadır (Green, 2004). Anlatıya dahil olma kavramı, anlatıyla meşgul olma olarak tanımlanır (Busselle ve Bilandzic, 2009). ...
This study aims to present a modern approach to environmental education, emphasizing the importance of using virtual reality technology, an empathy machine, through the lens of visual fluency.
... Etkili bir hikâyede birey zamanın nasıl geçtiğinin farkına varamayabilir, fiziksel ortamdan kopabilir ve tamamen hikâyenin içindeymiş gibi hissedebilir. "Anlatı dünyasına aktarılma" şeklinde tanımlanan bu süreçte aktarılmanın, anlatı etkisi işleyişinin temeli olabileceği savunulmaktadır (Green, 2004). Anlatıya dahil olma kavramı, anlatıyla meşgul olma olarak tanımlanır (Busselle ve Bilandzic, 2009). ...
In this study, it was tried to explain the importance of gaining empathy and environmental ethics approach in healthcare workers through virtual reality supported video-based environmental health education.
... One prominent example is narrative appeals. Narrative appeals are distinguishable from affective appeals because they rely on stories to elicit a transportation process that not only influences a recipient's emotions but also their beliefs (Green et al., 2004;see Green, 2021). That is, narrative appeals can be especially persuasive because it reduces counterarguments, encourages the misconstrual of stories as actual memories, or induces identification with the story characters. ...
People are frequently exposed to different extents of affective and cognitive appeals, but it remains unclear whether appeals targeting emotions or beliefs are differentially effective across cultures. Hence, this meta-analysis investigates the relative influence of affective versus cognitive appeals for persuasion outcomes as a function of individualism-collectivism. Using 133 samples across 22 countries (N = 29,338), we found affective appeals to be relatively more effective than cognitive appeals in collectivistic societies, but both appeals were similarly effective in individualistic societies. These analyses demonstrate the fruitfulness of examining affective–cognitive appeals through a cultural lens, and suggest new directions for future research.
... Sensations describe a product's ability to offer stimulation by appealing to basic human needs for change and variety (Zuckerman, 1971) via new, innovative, unprecedented experiences, such as when Steven Spielberg brought dinosaurs to modern life in Jurassic Park (1993). By contrast, familiarity refers to consumers' sense of connection with a product typically instilled by using well-known characters, stories, settings, and other narrative elements (e.g., Green et al., 2004). Entertainment science's sensations-familiarity framework states that balancing both factors is important; a proposition that has also been validated empirically in the context of video game platforms by Allen et al. (2022). ...
For over four decades, scholars have developed the field of entertainment science, establishing a thorough understanding of the business behind filmed, recorded, written, and programmed media products and services, encompassing consumer behavior and strategic decision-making. Building on six foundational characteristics that jointly define entertainment offerings (i.e., their hedonic, narrative, cultural, creative, innovative, and digital nature), we synthesize key findings from entertainment science research. Since each of these characteristics can be found individually in various industries, this review offers substantial potential for learning beyond the entertainment world. Leveraging the entertainment industry’s pioneering role in major cross-industry trends, including virtual worlds and generative AI, we then provide best practices for adapting to these developments. We conclude by proposing a comprehensive agenda for future research on each of the foundational entertainment characteristics within the field of entertainment science and beyond.
... sets an example for the public to emulate in their relations with other cultural groups. Another study supporting this view is by Green et al. (2004) who asserts that as students read stories, they leave their own world and are transported into the story's and this leads them to sympathize with the characters and consider their perspectives and values. This reading experience allows them to open up to opposing views or new perspectives they may have come across for the first time. ...
Objectives: This study examines ways through which the discourse of the European centrality can be challenged to combat inequality and discrimination against “the other.” The study also aims to demonstrate the positive impact that literature and cinema, with their diverse cultures, can have in teaching students how to question European central thought by understanding the lifestyle and worldview of “the Other,” highlighting their counter-narrative, and fostering empathy and tolerance toward “the other.” Methods: To achieve this purpose, Paulo Freire’s critical pedagogy was employed to equip English language students with critical thinking skills to critique facts. Works of multicultural literature and corresponding activities were chosen to enhance the ability to disrupt the discourse of European centrality. Students' responses were recorded and analyzed to track changes in empathy levels. Additionally, through critical and analytical readings of literary texts, the study sheds light on social disparities and criticizes oppressive structures that reinforce discrimination. Results: The study revealed ways to challenge the discourse of European centrality and resist discrimination against “the Other.” It also showed the positive role played by multicultural literary texts and cinema in training students to question European central discourse by exposing them to counter-narratives and the lifestyle of "the Other." The study further confirmed that increased awareness of injustice led to improved levels of empathy and tolerance towards others, inspiring a desire to contribute to social change. Conclusions: The study contributes to expanding knowledge about using multicultural literature and cinema in educating students about discrimination and combating Islamophobia and “the Other.” This is achieved by involving students in the process of liberating their minds through questioning European central discourse and the prevailing narrative of oppression, thereby enhancing their sense of empowerment, empathy, and tolerance.
... This state involves a deep engagement with the narrative, where individuals experience a suspension of disbelief, heightened emotional involvement, and a sense of being part of the fictional world (Hamby and Jones 2022). The term "transportation" suggests a mental shift from one's current reality to the world of the story (Green, Brock, and Kaufman 2004). During this process, individuals may lose awareness of their surroundings, disregard the passage of time, and experience emotions and thoughts consistent with the world and characters of the narrative (van Laer et al. 2014). ...
Marketers often use narrative ads as a powerful tool to shape consumer attitudes. These ads deliver key messages through storytelling, but what makes a story effective in the eyes of the consumer remains largely unexplored. Using a Facebook field study and a series of four experimental studies, we examined the interaction between the narrative's temporal type (nostalgia vs. forestalgia) and the characters' self‐construal (interdependent vs. independent) on consumer attitudes. Drawing on regulatory focus theory and regulatory fit theory, we found that consumers prefer forestalgia (vs. nostalgia) narrative ads when paired with an independent (vs. interdependent) character. In addition, this effect was mediated by narrative transportation, which enhanced consumers' attitudes toward the ad. These findings advance our understanding of effective narrative advertising and offer practical insights for marketers by highlighting the importance of aligning the narrative temporal type with the character's self‐construal to create more impactful ads.
... Narrative engagement typically involves spontaneous processing where the individual reports being transported into the story and has little or no awareness that they are processing a message (Green et al., 2004;Vorderer, 2011). This corresponds to a situation where a text is highly coherent (Busselle & Bilandzic, 2008). ...
... In general, transportation is described as a pleasant state, even if negative emotions (e.g., sadness, fear) are evoked. The enjoyment of transportation is thought to come from the process of temporarily leaving one's own reality behind (Green et al., 2004) rather than from the particular emotions experienced. The experience of presence (e.g., Lombard & Ditton, 1997) and narrative engagement (Busselle & Bilandzic, 2008) are thought to involve similar emotional processes. ...
... Further, other reader-based factors, including empathy and identification, may relate to perspective-taking during reading (e.g., Bortolussi et al., 2018;Green et al., 2004;Oatley, 1999), and these factors may relate to text-based elements, such as the nature and amount of detail about the protagonist's emotions, goals, and thoughts included by the author (Cohen, 2006). Further experimental research is required to understand the nature of these processes and determine causality. ...
Research suggests that individuals have different phenomenological experiences across various tasks. However, little is known about how these experiences vary by task or over time. This study examined participants’ experiences of task-unrelated thoughts (i.e., TUTs), visual, and verbal thoughts across two experimental sessions and two different tasks. In addition, we examined relations between participants’ thoughts and key individual difference factors. In Session 1, participants (n = 85) engaged in a focused-attention meditation and a reading task, then completed a second identical session with a new text. Throughout both tasks, participants were prompted to report on the characteristics of their thoughts. Participants’ ratings of TUT, visual, and verbal thoughts were subject to change over time. Furthermore, on average, participants visualized more and had fewer TUTs while reading compared to meditation; however, no task difference was found for verbal-thinking reports. This suggests that visual imagery is more malleable than verbal-thinking. There was a strong negative correlation between visual and verbal thoughts, suggesting that at any given time, individuals’ thoughts tended to be either predominantly visual or verbal. Finally, individual differences in the tendency to become immersed in narratives and motivation to engage with other people’s perspectives (i.e., mind-reading motivation) were related to higher reports of visual imagery during reading, whereas verbal-thinking was negatively associated with mind-reading motivation and unrelated to TUT. Overall, this study revealed that individuals’ phenomenological experiences vary during tasks and across time, providing a foundation for future work to examine why and how variability in these phenomenological experiences emerge.
... Early entertainment media scholars have generally approached media enjoyment from a hedonic perspective, arguing that enjoyment of media is derived from approaching pleasure and avoiding pain (Vorderer et al., 2004). Studies in this tradition have examined how entertainment media supports various physiological, affective, or cognitive experiences such as flow (Sherry, 2004), mood management (Knobloch-Westerwick, 2006;Zillmann, 1988), transportation (Green et al., 2004), recovery, and escape Reinecke, 2009). ...
Many entertainment media theories highlight justice as a key element affecting media narratives and audience enjoyment. According to the justice motive theory, individuals have an innate need to perceive the world as orderly and fair, where actions yield commensurate consequences. This study argues that unlike the real world or many other media which may or may not adhere to justice principles, video games inherently operate on rule-based systems that foster predictability and justice experiences. Through an online survey, this research explores how individuals’ beliefs in a just world for themselves and others relate to various video game attributes and potential adverse effects. The results indicate that the belief that the world is just to oneself correlates with playing strategy games and reduced loneliness. In contrast, the belief that the world should be just for others is associated with restorative actions such as playing moral characters, engaging in violence to restore justice, and playing multiplayer games that involve collaboration and competition. Belief in a just world shows no significant association with escapism or problematic gaming.
... It is vital to identify the narrative tools in advertisements to understand how storytelling affects the consumer. Narrative tools also describe how they create engagement in the story (Green et al., 2004). Drawing on past studies, the method of netnography, which is an ethnographic inquiry of the online platforms or the internet cultures and actors, is suitable for this qualitative triangulation (Kozinets, 1997(Kozinets, , 2002. ...
Storytelling is a strategic marketing tool for building customer engagement by anecdotally structuring branded content to grab their attention. The present study renders a scholarly narrative of a transformational ad campaign and its resultant customer engagement on social media. The study follows a netnographic approach, using a qualitative triangulation method to observe the engagement around this campaign. Data are collected from online platforms, namely, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. The study identifies the sentiments of customer engagement in the campaign. Furthermore, a semiotic analysis has appraised the storytelling elements in the campaign videos. The findings suggest that storytelling can effectively connect with audiences and drive home critical messages by using narratives and emotional elements. The findings have implications for marketing professionals who want to understand the impact of storytelling on transformational advertising campaigns.
... Transportation occurs when an individual becomes absorbed in a narrative, which is cognitively and emotionally experienced as if it was real life (Busselle & Bilandzic, 2008;Green et al., 2004). In the case of PNC, individuals can become absorbed into news narratives, such that they become highly invested in the unfolding drama while losing awareness of the here and now (see McLaughlin, 2020). ...
The present research draws from the work in narrative transportation to examine the impact of problematic news consumption (PNC) on increased political hostility among partisans. Because individuals with high levels of PNC tend to become absorbed and fixated on the mediated political world, which is filled with exaggerated depictions of political conflict, they should be more prone to view those who disagree with them as “enemies,” leading to an increased likelihood of getting into fights, flaming, and even becoming radicalized. We explore this relationship, along with the role of dispositional mindfulness as a protective mechanism that reduces susceptibility toward PNC and, in turn, political hostility, across two surveys—a cross-sectional survey and a two-wave longitudinal survey. Our findings provide strong support for our hypothesized model: dispositional mindfulness relates to lower levels of political hostility indirectly through its relationship to PNC, particularly among those with higher levels of conflict-approach orientation.
... 69 We aim to investigate whether providing active perspective taking instructions and writing exercises can enhance narrative engagement and therefore its effect on intergroup helping. According to Green et al., 70 traditional narratives may involve relatively passive engagement. By asking participants to actively imagine or write about an outgroup person's experience, perspective taking may stimulate a deeper immersion into a story and internalization of the story events, leading to greater transportation. ...
... As has been noted through the ndings, participants unanimously emphasised with the experiences portrayed and those with a nursing background could emotionally identify. Shaffer's (23) nal stage of narrative processing is immersion, which requires a transportation into the narrative and processing incoming information from the perspective of the character involved (35,39). The ndings con rm that most participants were immersed in the video-based monologues, given the language used "brought me back", "a ashback". ...
Background –
Nurses were at the forefront of managing the COVID-19 pandemic. In response, Royal College of Nursing in Northern Ireland commissioned a longitudinal qualitative survey using the Cognitive Edge SenseMaker® tool to capture nurses' experiences of delivering care from April 2020 to March 2021.
Aim -
To explore the impact of a co-designed video based on the findings of SenseMaker® the lived experience of nurses in Northern Ireland during the 2020/2021 global pandemic.
Method -
Quotes were systematically selected from the SenseMaker® report of nurses’ (n = 676) experiences during COVID-19. Two co-design workshops were conducted (1) Content development and script writing and (2) Feedback and revisions. The video was filmed and edited in the School of Drama, Queen’s University Belfast. The live launch event took place in the Royal College of Nursing conference venue on 8th February 2024. Data to gauge the impact of the video was gathered via audience participation, MS Teams Version 1.7. chat participation, Mentimeter poll and MS forms survey. The link for the video and survey was accessible to the public via the School of Nursing and Midwifery, Queens University Belfast website after the launch event. The findings were analysed using systematic text condensation using NVivo version 1.6. The study was approved by the Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences research committee at Queen’s University Belfast following peer review (REC Reference: MHLS 23_100).
Results −
28 participants completed the survey; 30 participants attended the live event. Overall, the video-based monologues effectively conveyed the emotional impact and lived experiences of nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic. Four themes emerged - personal reflection and emotional impact, connection and solidarity amidst disappointment, moral injury and resentment, lessons learned and the need for change.
Conclusion -
Wider dissemination of the co-created video-based narratives, with focus on advocacy to policy makers is needed to prioritise the emotional well-being of nurses and other professionals. There is potential in using video-based monologies to facilitate positive change and better support for professionals, including nursing students in future crises. Further research is needed to assess the broader impact of such healthcare-related research methodologies.
... Wang et al., 2023) found that they reduce stress and anxiety (Pallavicini et al., 2022;Russoniello et al., 2009), and they help to maintain emotional stability (Przybylski et al., 2013). Additionally, as players tend to want to stop negative thinking, playing games can act as a form of escapism (Green et al., 2004); in turn, during the process of playing games, players are able to generate positive emotions, such as fulfillment. ...
Extant mobile game research has paid great attention to men who play mobile games while ignoring female players. Although “willingness to pay” (WTP) is regarded as an important dependent variable in gaming research, few studies have explored this variable from an anthropomorphic perspective. To fill these gaps in the literature, this study aims to study the antecedents of WTP, with a focus on virtual in-game items and the mediating effect of work/play motivation. Based on the determinants of anthropomorphism, this work examines certain aspects of mobile games, including servant role in mobile games, a sense of communion, and the attractiveness of the characters. This study explores the effects of such characteristics on work/play motivation, as well as its influence on WTP. A game called “Love and Producer” was selected for this study, and the feedback from 230 female respondents was analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The results show that the servant role and the attractiveness of the characters affect female players’ desire to work with the characters, and the communion and the attractiveness of the characters affect female players’ desire to play with these characters. The female players’ desire to work and play with the characters directly influenced their willingness to pay for virtual game items. Moreover, the mediating effect that playing games has on female players’ desire to work/play with the characters was also validated. This article introduces new information on female game character design and interactivity in games.
... Designers can utilize these elements to amplify the game, create unexpected events, and introduce subtle complexities (Liu et al., 2014) to increase student interaction and engagement. Physical features include narrative (story and strong player interaction with the story) and environmental (cultural context, realism, and simulation) elements (Alexiou et al., 2022;Liu et al., 2014;Gupta and Kim, 2014;Wouters et al., 2013;Egenfeldt-Nielsen et al., 2013;Parrish, 2009;Green et al., 2004). Generally, the game's story and narrative, as well as the type of interaction the player has with it, should be influenced by the cultural context and realism. ...
... From Paleolithic cave paintings to centuries of literature or today's immense media landscape, stories seem to be ever-present around us. Even more fascinating is our ability to be transported into a narrative in such a way that we forget, for a moment, its fictitious nature (i.e., narrative transportation, Green et al., 2004). Some scholars have theorized that this inclination could stem from our deeply social nature as humans (Oatley, 1999). ...
Humans' inherent fascination for stories can be observed throughout most of our documented history. If, for a long time, narratives were told through paintings, songs, or literature, recent technological advances such as immersive virtual reality have made it possible for us to interact with storylines and characters in a completely new manner. With these new technologies came the need to study how people interact with them and how they affect their users. Notably, research in this area has revealed that users of virtual environments tend to display behaviors/attitudes that are congruent with the appearance of the avatars they embody; a phenomenon termed the Proteus effect. Since its introduction in the literature, many studies have demonstrated the Proteus effect in various contexts, attesting to the robustness of the effect. However, beyond the first articles on the subject, very few studies have sought to investigate the social, affective, and cognitive mechanisms underlying the effect. Furthermore, the current literature appears somewhat disjointed with different schools of thought, using different methodologies, contributing to this research topic. Therefore, this work aims to give an overview of the current state of the literature and its shortcomings. It also presents a critical analysis of multiple theoretical frameworks that may help explain the Proteus effect. Notably, this work challenges the use of self-perception theory to explain the Proteus effect and considers other approaches from social psychology. Finally, we present new perspectives for upcoming research that seeks to investigate the effect of avatars on user behavior. All in all, this work aims to bring more clarity to an increasingly popular research subject and, more generally, to contribute to a better understanding of the interactions between humans and virtual environments.
... Students may seek solace in movies, television shows, music, or other forms of entertainment to momentarily distance themselves from academic stressors. Engaging in the immersive experience of escaping reality and immersing oneself in a fictional realm is a source of joy for numerous individuals (Green et al., 2004;Moscardo, 2020). Watching a TV series is more than a passive activity; it can be interpreted as an intentional quest for enjoyable moments woven into a narrative (Woodside, 2010). ...
People tend to show greater liking for expressions of sadness when these expressions are described as art. Why does this effect arise? One obvious hypothesis would be that describing something as art makes people more likely to regard it as fictional, and people prefer expressions of sadness that are not real. We contrast this obvious hypothesis with a hypothesis derived from the philosophical literature. On this alternative hypothesis, describing something as art makes people more inclined to appropriate it, i.e., to see it as an expression of their own sadness. Study 1 found that describing the exact same sad text as art (e.g., a monologue) as opposed to not-art (e.g., a diary entry) led to increased liking for the work. Study 2 showed that this effect is not mediated by fictionality. Study 3 showed that the effect is mediated by appropriation. Study 4 looked at the impact of a manipulation of fictionality. Describing a work as fictional did lead to increased liking, but this effect was completely mediated by appropriation. These results provide at least some initial support for the appropriation hypothesis.
Content creators increasingly use self-disclosure to shape their personas and build strong connections with their audiences. This trend calls for focused scholarly attention on the outcome and underlying mechanism of content creators’ self-disclosure. However, there is a lack of systematic research on how audiences react to these disclosures, and insights from psychology, sociology, communication, and organizational science are often studied separately. This research, which is inherently interdisciplinary, systematically reviewed literature on audience appraisals and responses to self-disclosures. By analyzing 166 influential articles published between 1973 and 2023 using the Web of Science database, we identify key dimensions, impacts, mechanisms, and contextual factors of self-disclosure. Drawing on appraisal theory, our review synthesizes insights from across disciplines and develops an integrative framework. We categorize the findings into seven thematic areas, highlighting the processes involved in audiences’ primary and secondary appraisals of content creators’ self-disclosure and their responses to related efforts. By organizing these themes within a holistic framework, we reconcile inconsistencies in previous research and provide strong foundations for future research. Additionally, we identify gaps and under-researched areas, offering a clear roadmap for future investigations.
The affordances of different media technologies can affect how users develop parasocial relationships with the media figures they encounter on those devices. This study examined the relationship between mobility and parasocial relationships with podcast hosts. Participants from Amazon Mechanical Turk ( n = 165) responded to a survey on a memorable podcast listening experience. The results revealed a conditional indirect effect of mobility on parasocial relationship strength through narrative transportation. Media multitasking moderated this effect. Specifically, there was a positive effect of mobility on transportation that increased incrementally at moderate and high levels of multitasking.
How are entrepreneurs able to optimize their ability to persuade angel investors to commit resources? Narrative transportation theory suggests that familiar elements of a story can change an audience's perceptions of, and attitudes about, the opportunity by influencing their cognition. When experiencing the effects of narrative transportation, individuals are “transported” into the story and begin to accept the narrative world as created by the story in lieu of personal knowledge, experiences, or real-world facts. In an entrepreneurship context, we posit that if investors are narratively transported through a familiar pitch narrative, they may envisage a favorable outcome of what is pitched and adapt the opportunity in their minds with the result of, ultimately, committing resources. The findings from our study of investors who watched and reported on multiple pitches suggest that cognitive processes induced by narrative transportation explain the relationship between familiarity and entrepreneurial opportunity adaptation, which—in turn—increase the likelihood of angels' resource commitment. The key insight of our study reveals that when the investors are mentally transported into the story contained within a pitch narrative, they will be more likely to adapt the opportunity and more likely to commit their resources.
The metaverse is the next-generation Internet (Web3) that facilitates social connections and collaborations in a virtual world environment. Given the potential of the metaverse to provide more satisfying and effective means of remote collaborations, exploring the possibility of leveraging the metaverse for these endeavors is warranted. Therefore, an important question to address is whether greater engagement occurs when tasks are completed collaboratively versus individually in the metaverse. We address this question by drawing on flow and transportation theories to hypothesize the effect of carrying out a creative task in the metaverse collaboratively versus alone on one's cognitive absorption, a contextually relevant proxy for the flow experience. In the context of the metaverse, cognitive absorption refers to the heightened enjoyment experienced when one is immersed and “transported” into the metaverse while maintaining a sense of curiosity and control as well as perceiving a distorted sense of time. We conducted a laboratory experiment to test our research hypotheses. The results indicate that collaborations in the metaverse enhance cognitive absorption. Cognitive absorption, in turn, increases outcome satisfaction and intention to use the metaverse. The findings provide theoretical contributions by enhancing the nomological network of cognitive absorption as well as explaining how computer-mediated collaborations can facilitate the virtual transportation of users into the metaverse. The findings also offer insights and guidance for enhancing cognitive absorption and outcome satisfaction in the metaverse as well as the intention to use the metaverse.
Viewing artworks through virtual reality (VR) offers a unique experience, yet understanding how individual traits and motivations affect this process requires further exploration. In this study, we empirically examined the factors influencing aesthetic experiences when viewing artworks in VR. We conducted two experiments using a between-subjects design with VR and 2D videos based on a virtual tour of the Sydney Opera House and an artistic interpretation of Vincent van Gogh's paintings as stimuli. Our moderated mediation analyses identified two pathways through which VR influences aesthetic experiences: a cognitive pathway and an affective pathway. The cognitive pathway reveals that VR enhances the sense of agency and immersion, enriching the aesthetic experience for individuals with a high affinity for technology. The affective pathway shows that VR increases narrative transportation and immersion, enhancing the aesthetic experience particularly for those with strong hedonic motivations.
Considering the increasing public fascination with virtual worlds, such as virtual reality, augmented reality and the metaverse, virtual influencers have emerged on social media platforms as computer-generated imagery avatars with credible and authentic identities that resemble humans. They are equipped with artificial intelligence and rendered visually as an immersive, real-time constructed human being in a digital world. The virtual influencer landscape not only allows consumers to connect in more authentic and dynamic ways but also provides brands many opportunities to experiment with new marketing approaches. However, as we become more engrossed in online spaces, the lines between our physical existence and online presence become increasingly blurred in such digital coexistence environments. In many ways, this virtual construction of identity raises numerous questions regarding the evolution of marketing techniques, ethics, motivation and communication. Among the characteristics of a virtual identity, its ability to construct and imitate human identities leads to both play with and an attack on social media users. At the intersection of multi-identities, this chapter goes on to explore and contextualise the conundrum of the conception of identity and the interplay between the real and unreal, focusing on its impact on identity construction on both personal and societal levels among social media users.
The media has a strong influence on young people, particularly moving pictures or as well as other media elements. Young adults encounter a range of emotions that can be managed by watching movies, which in turn affects empathy, also known as the ability to mimic the feelings and thought processes of another person. By watching movies, this research hopes to better understand how young adults control their emotions and how that affects their sense of empathy. The study comprised young adults, defined as those between the ages of 18 and 25. The participants were chosen using a purposive sampling technique from various educational institutions.
Stigma is one of the chief reasons for treatment-avoidant behaviour among people with mental health conditions. Stigmatising attitudes are spread through multiple determinants, including but not limited to: (i) individual beliefs; (ii) interpersonal influences; (iii) local cultural values and (iv) shared culture such as depictions in television shows. Our research indicates that popular television shows are currently understudied vectors for narratives that alternately reify or debunk assumptions and stereotypes about people with mental health conditions. Although such shows are fictional, they influence perception by normalising ‘common sense’ assumptions over extended periods of time. Consequently, representations of patients, psychiatrists and treatments influence knowledge and understanding of mental health and treatment-seeking behaviour. While storytelling about sickness can inspire possibilities and bestow meaning on traumatic experiences, fictional narratives written without sufficient care can have the inverse effect of curtailing horizons and limiting expectations. Problematic portrayals of patients, mental health professionals and psychological interventions are often reductive and may increase stigma and prevent treatment-seeking behaviour. This article analyses the representation of hypnotherapy and electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) in Singaporean television dramas that attract a wide, mainstream audience. Our diverse team investigated dramas in all four of the official languages of Singapore: English, Mandarin Chinese, Bahasa Melayu and Tamil. We found that depictions of hypnotherapy tend to produce problematic images of mental health professionals as manipulative, able to read minds, engaging in criminal behaviour, lacking in compassion and self-interested. Meanwhile, representations of ECT typically focus on the fear and distress of the patient, and it is primarily depicted as a disciplinary tool rather than a safe and effective medical procedure for patients whose condition is severe and refractory to pharmacotherapy and behavioural interventions. These depictions have the potential to discourage treatment-seeking behaviour—when early intervention has found to be crucial—among vulnerable populations.
Tehnološki napredak koji televizijskoj seriji omogućuje emancipaciju od linearnoga rasporeda emitiranja donosi nov način gledanja serija nekoliko epizoda zaredom, kada i koliko gledatelj želi (binge-watching). Dosadašnja istraživanja sugeriraju da taj način gledanja serija odlikuje angažirani užitak u priči. Komunikološki koncept narativnoga angažmana pruža uvid u mehanizme angažmana pri susretu s narativnim tekstom, povezujući intenzitet narativnoga iskustva i užitak. Cilj nam je bio analizirati intenzitet narativnoga iskustva tijekom binge-watchinga u smislu istaknutosti i povezanosti triju temeljnih procesa koji ukazuju na intenzitet narativnoga angažmana: teleprisutnosti (senzorne „prisutnosti“ u artificijelnome okružju), transportacije (uživljenosti u priču) i identifikacije (preuzimanja perspektive likova). Analizirali smo originalne ljestvice koje mjere intenzitet tih procesa. Proveli smo anketno digitalno istraživanje metodom grude snijega na 833 odrasla ispitanika koji upražnjavaju binge-watching. Naši nalazi ukazuju na istaknutost i statistički značajnu snažnu povezanost svih triju ispitivanih procesa, sugerirajući da je praksa binge-watchinga povezana s izraženim narativnim angažmanom gledatelja i potvrđujući tako rezultate dobivene drugim metodama koji naglašavaju imerzivnost binge-watchinga i intenzivan užitak kao posljedicu takva načina gledanja serija. Predstavljeno istraživanje dio je opsežnijega istraživanja fenomena binge-watchinga. Ključne riječi: binge-watching; transportacija; identifikacija; teleprisutnost; narativni angažman
A needless dichotomy exists in almost all mass media content: That mass media programs must either be entertaining or educational. In this book, we detail how the entertainment-education strategy abrogates this arbitrary dichotomy. Entertainment-education is the process of purposely designing and implementing a media message to both entertain and educate, in order to increase audience members’ knowledge about an educational issue, create favorable attitudes, and change overt behavior. Entertainment-education seeks to capitalize on the popular appeal of entertainment media in order to show individuals how they can live safer, healthier, and happier lives.
America is fascinated by violence—where it comes from in ourselves, how it spreads through society, what effect it has on younger generations, and how it looks, in all its chilling and sanguine detail. This arresting collection of essays examines numerous facets of violence in contemporary American culture, ranging across literature, film, philosophy, religion, fairy tales, video games, children’s toys, photojournalism, and sports. Lively and jargon-free, Why We Watch is the first book to offer a careful look at why we are drawn to depictions of violence and why there is so large a market for violent entertainment. The distinguished contributors, hailing from fields such as anthropology, history, literary theory, psychology, communications, and film criticism, include Allen Guttmann, Vicki Goldberg, Maria Tatar, Joanne Cantor, J. Hoberman, Clark McCauley, Maurice Bloch, Dolf Zillmann, and the volume’s editor, Jeffery Goldstein. Together, while acknowledging that violent imagery has saturated western cultures for millennia, they aim to define what is distinctive about America’s contemporary culture of violence. Clear, accessible and timely, this is a book for all concerned with the multiple points of access to violent representation in 1990s America.
Historically, at least 3 methodological problems have dogged experimental social psychology: the experimental control-mundane realism trade-off, lack of replication, and unrepresentative sampling. We argue that immersive virtual environment technology (IVET) can help ameliorate, if not solve, these methodological problems and, thus, holds promise as a new social psychological research tool. In this article, we first present an overview of IVET and review IVET-based research within psychology and other fields. Next, we propose a general model of social influence within immersive virtual environments and present some preliminary findings regarding its utility for social psychology. Finally, we present a new paradigm for experimental social psychology that may enable researchers to unravel the very fabric of social interaction.
This paper considers the phenomenon of parasocial interaction (PSI) used by media researchers to describe the relationship between media users and media figures (from celebrities to fictional characters). Although the concept has been used consistently across the past two decades in media research, it is argued here that it has not been sufficiently developed at a theoretical level to be taken up by psychologists. A number of key issues have not been addressed: firstly, how PSI might, as its originators put it, be "integrated into the matrix of usual social activity" (Horton & Wohl, 1956); secondly, how PSI might vary according to different types of media figure; and thirdly, what processes over time and media use bind user and figure into a "parasocial relationship." In this paper the existing literature on PSI is extensively reviewed, and an original model of PSI is developed for use in future social psychological research, which places PSI within the realm of ordinary social interaction and suggests ways in which different media use and different types of media figure interact to produce different styles of relationship. Finally, some applications of more detailed research into PSI are suggested.
Introduces the concept of possible selves (PSs) to complement current conceptions of self-knowledge. PSs represent individuals' ideas of what they might become, what they would like to become, and what they are afraid of becoming, and thus provide a conceptual link beteen cognition and motivation. PSs are the cognitive components of hopes, fears, goals, and threats; they give the specific self-relevant form, meaning, organization, and direction to these dynamics. It is suggested that PSs function as incentives for future behavior and to provide an evaluative and interpretive context for the current view of self. The nature and function of PSs and their role in addressing several persistent problems (e.g., the stability and malleability of the self, the unity of the self, self-distortion, the relationship between the self-concept and behavior) are discussed. (143 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
In Exp I, 183 undergraduates read a persuasive message from a likable or unlikable communicator who presented 6 or 2 arguments on 1 of 2 topics. High involvement (HI) Ss anticipated discussing the message topic at a future experimental session, whereas low-involvement (LI) Ss anticipated discussing a different topic. For HI Ss, opinion change was significantly greater given 6 arguments but was unaffected by communicator likability. For LI Ss, opinion change was significantly greater given a likable communicator but was unaffected by the argument's manipulation. In Exp II with 80 similar Ss, HI Ss showed slightly greater opinion change when exposed to 5 arguments from an unlikable (vs 1 argument from a likable) communicator, whereas LI Ss exhibited significantly greater persuasion in response to 1 argument from a likable (vs 5 arguments from an unlikable) communicator. Findings support the idea that HI leads message recipients to employ a systematic information processing strategy in which message-based cognitions mediate persuasion, whereas LI leads recipients to use a heuristic processing strategy in which simple decision rules mediate persuasion. Support was also obtained for the hypothesis that content- vs source-mediated opinion change would result in greater persistence. (37 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2004 APA, all rights reserved)
Within an embodied cognition framework, it is argued that presence in a virtual environment (VE) develops from the construction of a spatial-functional mental model of the VE. Two cognitive processes lead to this model: the representation of bodily actions as possible actions in the VE, and the suppression of incompatible sensory input. It is hypothesized that the conscious sense of presence reflects these two components as spatial presence and involvement. This prediction was confirmed in two studies (N = 246 and N = 296) assessing self-reports of presence and immersion experiences. Additionally, judgments of “realness” were observed as a third presence component. A second-order factor analysis showed a distinction between presence, immersion, and interaction factors. Building on these results, a thirteen-item presence scale consisting of three independent components was developed and verified using confirmatory factor analyses across the two studies.
A hypothesized need to form and maintain strong, stable interpersonal relationships is evaluated in light of the empirical literature. The need is for frequent, nonaversive interactions within an ongoing relational bond. Consistent with the belongingness hypothesis, people form social attachments readily under most conditions and resist the dissolution of existing bonds. Belongingness appears to have multiple and strong effects on emotional patterns and on cognitive processes. Lack of attachments is linked to a variety of ill effects on health, adjustment, and well-being. Other evidence, such as that concerning satiation, substitution, and behavioral consequences, is likewise consistent with the hypothesized motivation. Several seeming counterexamples turned out not to disconfirm the hypothesis. Existing evidence supports the hypothesis that the need to belong is a powerful, fundamental, and extremely pervasive motivation.
Transportation was proposed as a mechanism whereby narratives can affect beliefs. Defined as absorption into a story, transportation entails imagery, affect, and attentional focus. A transportation scale was developed and validated. Experiment 1 (N = 97) demonstrated that extent of transportation augmented story-consistent beliefs and favorable evaluations of protagonists. Experiment 2 (N = 69) showed that highly transported readers found fewer false notes in a story than less-transported readers. Experiments 3 (N = 274) and 4 (N = 258) again replicated the effects of transportation on beliefs and evaluations; in the latter study, transportation was directly manipulated by using processing instructions. Reduced transportation led to reduced story-consistent beliefs and evaluations. The studies also showed that transportation and corresponding beliefs were generally unaffected by labeling a story as fact or as fiction.
Three studies explored the role of television viewing in eliciting subjective self-awareness and positive self-feelings. Study 1 assessed the effects of self-awareness manipulations via exposure to a neutral television program on actual-ideal discrepancies. Those who watched television showed significantly smaller self-discrepancies than those who did not, independent of mood. Study 2 demonstrated the ecological validity of this finding by replicating it with people watching television in their own homes. Study 3 investigated whether manipulations of self-feelings affected television watching. Results indicated that those who received failure feedback watched television longer than those in a control condition who likewise watched television longer than those who received success feedback. Television appears to be an effective stimulus to direct the focus away from oneself and to render people less aware of how they are falling short of their standards.
The impact of entertainment-education messages on beliefs, attitudes, and behavior is typically explained in terms of social cognitive theory principles. However , important additional insights regarding reasons why entertainment-education messages have effects can be derived from the processing of persuasive content in narrative messages. Elaboration likelihood approaches suggest that absorption in a narrative, and response to characters in a narrative, should enhance persuasive effects and suppress counterarguing if the implicit persuasive content is counterattitudinal. Also, persuasion mediators and moderators such as topic involvement should be reduced in importance. Evidence in support of these propositions are reviewed in this article. Research needed to extend application of these findings to entertainment-education contexts, to further develop theory in the area of persuasion and narrative, and to better account for other persuasive effects of entertainment narrative, such as those hypothesized in cultivation theory, are discussed.
Previous research has shown that if commercials showcase higher levels of humor, they can enhance the viewer's enjoyment of the program in which the commercials are contained. The theory of excitation transfer has been used to explain this phenomenon. This experimental research suggests some modifications to its application in this setting, suggesting that there must be an adequate level of TV program appeal initially for the appeal to be enhanced by commercials. In this study, men's enjoyment of a sitcom was enhanced when high humor commercials were included in the program.
The goal of the study is to better understand the relationship between factors involved in moral judgment of entertainment and the enjoyment of crime drama. After completing numerous social-justice measures, the 139 participants viewed one of two clips from a crime-punishment movie and then responded to survey items regarding their enjoyment of the clip. The clips differed in the type of crime presented. It was predicted that the different crimes would elicit different levels of moral judgment about the punishments for those crimes, which would then impact enjoyment. Although the levels of enjoyment reported for the two clips were similar, enjoyment was predicted by different factors of moral judgment in each condition, as predicted. The results lend further support to disposition theory and the integrated model of crime-drama enjoyment, as well as identify factors of moral reasoning that consistently serve as predictors of crime-drama enjoyment.
A survey was conducted to determine the antecedents of the exposure to and appeal of horror films. Audience members leaving the theater after viewing Halloween II were interviewed using a questionnaire that contained measures of specific reasons for liking horror films as well as measures of several individual-difference variables. A model emerged from structural equation analysis indicating that three important factors in the appeal of horror films are (a) the audience's desire to experience the satisfying resolutions usually provided in these films, (b) the audience's desire to see the destruction often found in these films, and (c) the sensation-seeking personality traits of audience members for these films. In addition, age and gender were important predictors. Horror films were enjoyed more by males and by younger viewers.
In the process of surveying the various technologies involved in the enterprise of filmmaking, Steve Neale offers what may seem a most obvious reminder, that the very “existence of cinema is premised upon the existence of certain technologies”: those we use for capturing image and sound, for mechanically reproducing them, and for presenting them to a mass audience (1). That reminder is needed in large part because those technologies are, for the most part, meant to be overlooked, as film, especially in its dominant classical mode, usually tries to seem like nothing more than a window onto reality, thereby making its constructed nature practically invisible. The reminder has a special import, I would suggest, because this primary level of invisibility or transparency usually begets another. For in our commonplace employment–and enjoyment–of those “certain technologies,” we are invariably engaged in a kind of unspoken “deal” with technology, in striking a bargain, as Neil Postman puts it, in which we have something both to gain and to lose.
The present investigation explores the enjoyment of cinematic tragedy. In particular, it examines the seemingly paradoxical relationship between the intensity of empathic distress during exposure, on the one hand, and the magnitude of enjoyment following exposure to the entire drama, on the other. In a quasi-experimental design, trait empathy (low, high) was cross-varied with gender of respondent. Empathic reactions of negative hedonic valence were obtained at three points during the film. After film exposure, respondents indicated their enjoyment of the film as a whole. Results showed proportional hedonic reversals from distress to enjoyment. High empathizers experienced more empathic distress during the film than low empathizers, but also enjoyed the film as a whole more than low empathizers did. Additionally, females experienced more empathic distress than males, but also enjoyed the film as a whole more than males did. Those who experienced greater hedonic lows during exposure to tragic happenings thus came to experience greater hedonic highs after the resolution of tragic drama.
"Transportation into a narrative world" (Green & Brock, 2000, 2002) has been identified as a mechanism of narrative impact. A transported individual is cognitively and emotionally involved in the story and may experience vivid mental images. In the study reported here, undergraduate participants (N = 152) read a narrative about a homosexual man attending his college fraternity reunion, rated their transportation into the story, rated the perceived realism of the story, and responded to statements describing story-relevant beliefs. Transportation was positively correlated with perceived realism. Furthermore, individuals with prior knowledge or experience relevant to the themes of the story (e.g., had homosexual friends or family members, were knowledgeable about American fraternities) showed greater transportation into the story. Highly transported readers showed more story-consistent beliefs, and the positive relationship between transportation and story-consistent beliefs held for those both with and without previous relevant experience.
Despite the general presence of reality-based television programming for more than a decade and its recent increasing popularity, the extant literature on the phenomenon is limited. In Study 1, we considered how the viewing public constructs the so-called genre of reality-based TV. Multidimensional space analysis based on the Q-sort responses of 38 city residents indicated reality-based TV shows (a) are largely distinct from most major programming genres, although they do not form a particularly cohesive genre of their own, and (b) are viewed as only moderately real. In Study 2, we evaluated the lay hypothesis that reality-based TV is popular because it appeals to the voyeuristic nature of the U.S. population. We also considered other gratifications received from viewership as well as personality traits that might predict reality-based TV consumption. The results of a survey of 252 city residents suggested that (a) the role of voyeurism in the appeal of reality-based television is questionable, (b) regular viewers receive different and more varied gratifications from their viewing than do periodic viewers, and (c) impulsivity seeking and need for cognition do not predict overall reality-based TV viewing, although they might predict viewing of particular programs. Future research directions proposed include investigating dimensions that might distinguish different breeds of reality-based programming and studying the more specific cognitive and emotional elements that contribute to the "genre's" appeal.
The basic premise of self-discrepancy theory is that it is the relations between and among different types of self-beliefs or self-state representations that produce emotional vulnerabilities rather than the particular content or nature of the actual self or of any other individual self-belief. To distinguish among different types of self-state representations, self-discrepancy theory proposes two psychological parameters: the domains of the self and the standpoints on the self. The chapter presents the reports of associations between particular types of discrepant self-beliefs and particular kinds of discomfort that are generally consistent with the predictions of self-discrepancy theory. However, the effect of the magnitude of different types of self-discrepancies on the intensity of different kinds of discomfort has been tested. For the vulnerability associated with a particular self-belief pattern to eventuate in an episode—that is, an occurrence of suffering—the self-belief pattern must be activated. The chapter explains the various factors that can increase the likelihood that a stored construct will be activated. One source of activation is the applicability of the construct to a stimulus event. According to self-discrepancy theory, the interrelations among attributes constituting an actual/ownself-guide discrepancy represent, as a whole, a negative psychological situation that functions as a construct. Thus, the negative psychological situation represented by such a discrepancy and the emotional-motivational state associated with it are more likely to be activated when the negative psychological situation is applicable to a stimulus event than when it is nonapplicable.
Introduces the concept of possible selves (PSs) to complement current conceptions of self-knowledge. PSs represent individuals' ideas of what they might become, what they would like to become, and what they are afraid of becoming, and thus provide a conceptual link beteen cognition and motivation. PSs are the cognitive components of hopes, fears, goals, and threats; they give the specific self-relevant form, meaning, organization, and direction to these dynamics. It is suggested that PSs function as incentives for future behavior and to provide an evaluative and interpretive context for the current view of self. The nature and function of PSs and their role in addressing several persistent problems (e.g., the stability and malleability of the self, the unity of the self, self-distortion, the relationship between the self-concept and behavior) are discussed. (143 ref)
In this article, we review previous conceptualizations of perceived reality judgments of television content. We argue that the perceived reality literature suffers from conceptual inconsistencies that have the potential to interfere with understanding the research taken as a whole and with the success of future studies. We analyze 3 major variants in perceived realism judgments. The first consists of conceptual dimensions (e.g., magic window and social realism). We argue that labels and definitions have been assigned inconsistently in previous research. Redundancies and inconsistencies are addressed. Six primary dimensions are identified and described. The second is measurement features. We point out that perceived realism judgments may vary in specificity (e.g., the realism of television in general or the realism of a specific program) and object of judgment (e.g., the realism of characters or the realism of issues). The third variant is processing characteristics. Realism judgments may be made while reflecting back, with memory-based judgments, or while viewing, with online judgments. The implications of considering each variant when conducting research are discussed. An overall conceptual structure for perceived reality judgments is proposed. Finally, the application of this organizational scheme to 3 areas of future research is presented.
This is a book about readers and for them. It describes the delights of reading and the psychological mechanisms that take skilled readers out of the world and lead them, absorbed or entranced, into the world of the book. Students of reading—librarians, critics, cognitive psychologists, and reading specialists—may also find it helpful.
Part I explores the social forces that have shaped reading: the growth and consolidation of the reading habit, the social value system, and the pervasive appeal of narrative. Reading for pleasure is often light reading, but not always: one of pleasure reading's paradoxes is that for many sophisticated readers, a wide range of materials, from the trashiest to the most literate and demanding works, may induce reading trance, and such readers are intrigued by the pleasure they derive from material they know to be culturally worthless.
Reading for pleasure ("ludic reading") is an enormously complex cognitive act that draws on an array of skills and processes in many different domains—attention, comprehension, absorption, and entrancement; reading skill and reading-rate variability; readability and reader preferences; and reading physiology. These component processes of ludic reading are the subject matter of Part II.
Ludic reading is a consciousness-changing activity, and Part III relates reading to fantasy processes such as dreaming and hypnotic trance, on the one hand, and to the sovereignty of the reading experience and the uses readers make of it, on the other, in order to show how the components of reading relate to one another in achieving the capture of consciousness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Three studies were conducted to examine possible explanations for sex differences in enjoyment of sad films. The first two studies examined enjoyment of prototypical "female" and "male" sad films (Beaches and Brian's Song); the third study utilized film descriptions to examine the impact of gender identity (i.e., gender role self-perceptions) and film characteristics (theme and characters' sex) on anticipated enjoyment. Overall, females and communal (feminine) viewers reported greater enjoyment, particularly of films featuring relational themes.
Previous discussions of the evolution of the self have diverged greatly in their estimates of the date at which the capacity for self-thought emerged, the factors that led self-reflection to evolve, and the nature of the evidence offered to support these disparate conclusions. Beginning with the assumption that human self-awareness involves a set of distinct cognitive abilities that evolved at different times to solve different adaptive problems, we trace the evolution of self-awareness from the common ancestor of humans and apes to the beginnings of culture, drawing upon paleontological, anthropological, biological, and psychological evidence. These data converge to suggest that that modern self-thought appeared just prior to the Middle-Upper Paleolithic transition, approximately 60,000 years ago.Recto running head: Evolution of the Self.
The impact of entertainment—education messages on beliefs, attitudes, and behavior is typically explained in terms of social cognitive theory principles. However, important additional insights regarding reasons why entertainment—education messages have effects can be derived from the processing of persuasive content in narrative messages. Elaboration likelihood approaches suggest that absorption in a narrative, and response to characters in a narrative, should enhance persuasive effects and suppress counterarguing if the implicit persuasive content is counterattitudinal. Also, persuasion mediators and moderators such as topic involvement should be reduced in importance. Evidence in support of these propositions are reviewed in this article. Research needed to extend application of these findings to entertainment—education contexts, to further develop theory in the area of persuasion and narrative, and to better account for other persuasive effects of entertainment narrative, such as those hypothesized in cultivation theory, are discussed.
This classic text surveys a number of different theoretical approaches to the related phenomena of attitude and belief change. These theories are grouped into seven major approaches, each presented and evaluated in a separate chapter. Each contributes in an important way to a complete understanding of the persuasion process. Appropriate for both upper level undergraduates and graduates in the social sciences.
Societal-level social capital ultimately rests upon individual attitudes and behaviors. This study investigated the determinants of individuals' preferences for real versus ersatz social activities. Ersatz social activities are substitutes for true social interaction; they involve interaction with media or media characters rather than other individuals. Undergraduates (N = 144) chose activities from pairs of social and ersatz exemplars. The participants were randomly assigned to one of four conditions. In two of these conditions, they wrote essays designed to create either a positive or negative mood; in the other two conditions, they read essays designed to highlight either the costs or benefits of friendship. Results indicated that individuals low in trust were susceptible to situational influences. Low-trust individuals chose more real social activities when in a positive mood or when benefits of friendship were salient, whereas they chose ersatz social activities when in a bad mood or when costs of friendship were salient. High-trust individuals showed relatively high preference for real social interactions regardless of mood or the salience of costs and benefits. These results suggest that appropriate interventions should overcome low trust to build social capital.
This article reviews previous literature on presence, with a particular focus on its conceptualization and typologies. It first compares various types of presence-related terms (e.g., telepresence, virtual presence, mediated presence, copresence, and presence) and suggests that of those terms the term presence works best for the systematic study of human interaction with media and simulation technologies. After an extensive explication process, presence is newly defined as “a psychological state in which virtual objects are experienced as actual objects in either sensory or nonsensory ways.” Three types of presence—physical, social, and self presence—are defined based on the general definition of presence and the corresponding domains of human experience. Finally, implications of the current explication to the study of presence are discussed.
This paper reports the validation of brief, self-report measures of intrinsic enjoyment and boredom coping. Intrinsic enjoyment is characterized by intense involvement, interest and absorbed concentration; boredom coping is designed to reflect the disposition to restructure one's perceptions and participation in potentially boring activities so as to decrease boredom. Both traits are hypothesized to reflect the capacity for good attentional control across a variety of situations. Reliability was established by test-retest correlation and by an inter-item consistency measurement. Construct validity was established by comparison with previously-validated personality tests, real-life measures (such as Random Activities Experiential Sampling, which involves repeated self-report measures in daily life), as well as with laboratory measures of attention (including the averaged visual evoked potential (EP) and the Continuous Performance Test). Intrinsic enjoyment is significantly correlated with an independent measure of intrinsic involvement (low wish to be elsewhere in one's daily life), the affective experience of potency, self-reports of concentrating well with ease, high ego development, an internal locus of control, lack of boredom susceptibility and certain EP indices of attentional change and ‘cortical’ augmenting. Boredom coping is associated with a higher percent of time actually spent alone, high continuous performance task measures of attentional capacity, and low MMPI and Research Diagnostic Criteria indices of psychopathology.
Any one work of literature reaches only a very few minds among the whole human population, and yet when a real meeting occurs of reader with a book, or reader with an author (via a book), it can be profound. I describe the phenomena of meeting, and their relation to personal reflection in theoretical terms, drawing on Bakhtin's (1984 [1963]) proposals of the novel as a place of dialogue. The intensity and type of such meetings varies with the degree to which a reader takes a spectator role, or identifies with a protagonist. I present empirical studies, which show how particular kinds of minds connect with particular kinds of short stories, and I discuss how in such places as reading groups, meetings among friends are affected by reading novels.
The notion that stylistic features of literary texts deautomatize perception is central to a tradition of literary theory from Coleridge through Shklovsky and Mukařovský to Van Peer. Stylistic variations, known as foregrounding, hypothetically prompt defamiliarization, evoke feelings, and prolong reading time. These possibilities were tested in four studies in which segment by segment reading times and ratings were collected from readers of a short story. In each study, foregrounded segments of the story were associated with increased reading times, greater strikingness ratings, and greater affect ratings. Response to foregrounding appeared to be independent of literary competence or experience. Reasons for considering readers' response to foregrounding as a distinctive aspect of interaction with literary texts are discussed.
Stories pervade our daily lives, from human interest news items, to a business strategy described to a colleague, to daydreams between chores. Stories are what we use to make sense of the world. But how does this work? In Making Stories , the eminent psychologist Jerome Bruner examines this pervasive human habit and suggests new and deeper ways to think about how we use stories to make sense of lives and the great moral and psychological problems that animate them. Looking at legal cases and autobiography as well as literature, Bruner warns us not to be seduced by overly tidy stories and shows how doubt and double meaning can lie beneath the most seemingly simple case.
Table of Contents:
Preface
1. The Uses of the Story
2. The Legal and the Literary
3. The Narrative Creation of Self
4. So Why Narrative?
Notes
Index
Reviews of this book:
The best books have the capacity to change lives, sometimes by the sheer force of ideas communicated with felicity and grace. Bruner's short, compelling work Making Stories is just such a book. Bruner [makes] sharply visible what otherwise could be only indistinctly felt. He trains his searchlight on the complex and diverse uses not only of the conventional, easily recognized stories of myth and literature, but also of obscure stories, those found...buried within our culture, our institutions and ourselves.
--Los Angeles Times Book Review
Girls, reading, and narrative gleaning
- J Radway
Radway, J. (2002). Girls, reading, and narrative gleaning. In M. C. Green, J. J. Strange, & T. C. Brock (Eds.), Narrative impact: Social and cognitive foundations (pp.183–204). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Brief manual for the Differential Personality Questionnaire. Unpublished manuscript. Universtiy of Minnesota Transportation and Enjoyment Telotte Introduction: Film and/as technology: Assessing a bargain
- A Tellegen
Tellegen, A. (1982). Brief manual for the Differential Personality Questionnaire. Unpublished manuscript. Universtiy of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN. Transportation and Enjoyment Telotte, J. P. (2001). Introduction: Film and/as technology: Assessing a bargain. Journal of Popular Film and Television, 28(4), 146–149.
Life on the screen: Identity in the age of the internet Stylistics and psychology: Investigations of foregrounding
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Turkle, S. (1995). Life on the screen: Identity in the age of the internet. New York: Touchstone. Van Peer, W. (1986). Stylistics and psychology: Investigations of foregrounding. London: Croom Helm.
Disposition-based theories of enjoyment Communication and emotion: Essays in honor of Dolf Zillmann
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Raney, A. A. (2003). Disposition-based theories of enjoyment. In J. Bryant, D. Roskos-Ewoldsen, & J. Cantor (Eds.), Communication and emotion: Essays in honor of Dolf Zillmann (pp. 61– 84). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Suspense: Conceptualizations, theoretical analyses, and empirical explorations
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Vorderer, P., Wulff, H. J., & Friedrichsen, M. (1996). Suspense: Conceptualizations, theoretical analyses, and empirical explorations. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Knowledge and memory: The real story Advances in social cognition The experience of presence: Factor ana-lytic insights
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Schank, R. C., & Abelson, R. P. (1995). Knowledge and memory: The real story. In R. S. Wyer, Jr. (Ed.), Advances in social cognition (Vol. 8). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Schubert, T., Friedmann, F., & Rogenbrecht, H. (2001). The experience of presence: Factor ana-lytic insights. Presence, 10, 266–281.
Mechanisms of attitude change in narrative versus rhetorical persuasion
- S Livingston
Livingston, S. (2003). Mechanisms of attitude change in narrative versus rhetorical persuasion. Unpublished master's thesis, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH.
Mythic structures in narrative: The domestication of immortality
- V Nell
Nell, V. (2002). Mythic structures in narrative: The domestication of immortality. In M. C. Green, J. J. Strange, & T. C. Brock (Eds.), Narrative impact: Social and cognitive foundations (pp. 17– 37). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.