Content uploaded by Hans Hoeken
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Hans Hoeken on Jul 18, 2022
Content may be subject to copyright.
Journal of Communication ISSN 0021-9916
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
The Role of Identification and Perception of
Just Outcome in Evoking Emotions in
Narrative Persuasion
Hans Hoeken & Jop Sinkeldam
Centre for Language Studies, Radboud University Nijmegen, NL 6500 HD Nijmegen, the Netherlands
e question is addressed whether identication with a story character can evoke emo-
tions that subsequently inuence the audience’s attitude. Study 1 (N=145) manipulated
identicationandfoundittoinuencetheevokingofemotionsaswellastheaudience’s
attitude. Study 2 (N=115) examined whether emotions are evoked by the extent to which
the story’s outcome is perceived as just. e main character’s culpability was manipulated
thereby inuencing the extent to which a bad ending was considered just. Mediation anal-
yses attested to the greater importance of identication for evoking emotions compared to
the perception of justice. e studies reveal the mediating role of emotions in narrative
persuasion as well as how identication can evoke these emotions.
Keywords: Narrative Persuasion, Mechanisms, Identication, Emotions, Just World
Perceptions, Perceived Realism.
doi:10.1111/jcom.12114
Narratives, whether in the form of short stories, books, television series, or movies,
can inuence the beliefs, attitudes, intentions, and behavior of their audience (e.g.,
Appel & Richter, 2007; Diekman, McDonald, & Gardner, 2000; Green & Brock,
2000; Morgan, Movius, & Cody, 2009; Moyer-Gusé & Nabi, 2010; Slater, Rouner, &
Long, 2006; Strange & Leung, 1999). Now that the persuasive potential of narratives
has been established, research is aiming to identify the mechanisms responsible for
these eects. Several studies have found strong correlations between the emotions
evoked by a narrative and participants’ subsequent attitudes (Busselle & Bilandzic,
2009; De Graaf, Hoeken, Sanders, & Beentjes, 2009; Murphy, Frank, Chatterjee,
& Baezconde-Garbanati, 2013) and even behavior (Murphy, Frank, Moran, &
Patnoe-Woodley, 2011). In research on persuasion, the importance of emotions
for the persuasion process has been acknowledged (see, e.g., Dillard & Nabi, 2006;
Dillard & Seo, 2013; Nabi, 2010). Murphy et al. (2013, p. 131) conclude that emotions,
Corresponding author: Hans Hoeken; e-mail: h.hoeken@let.ru.nl
Journal of Communication 64 (2014) 935– 955 © 2014 International Communication Association 935
Role of Identification in Narrative Persuasion H. Hoeken & J. Sinkeldam
transportation, that is, the feeling of being lost in the story, and identication are
related constructs, but that it is unclear what their exact contribution to the persuasive
impact of narratives is.
In this paper, two experiments are reported that aim to clarify the relation between
identication and emotion in narrative persuasion. Green and Donahue (2009, p. 247)
describe how identication with a character can serve as a mechanism of narrative
persuasion and state that “implications of events experienced by that character may
carry special weight” in shiing a reader’s attitude. Oatley (1995, 1999) has argued
that identication with a character implies that readers consider the character’s goals
as their own. Objects, people, or regulations that hinder the character in attaining its
goals will evoke negative feelings and readers may form a negative attitude toward
these obstructing factors, whereas objects, people, and regulations that enable the
character to realize its goals will evoke positive feelings and a positive attitude. e
intensity of the emotions may depend on the extent to which readers have identied
with the character. e stronger their relation with a character, the more impact the
character’s success (or failure) has on their feelings. In the rst experiment, the validity
of this line of reasoning is studied.
In the second experiment, the question is addressed whether the extent to which
emotions are evoked depends (also) on the extent to which the story’s outcome is
considered as in accordance with a just world. Raney (2004, 2006) has developed the
disposition theory of media enjoyment. In his view, enjoyment depends on the extent
to which the story evokes emotions. Raney suggests that the type of emotions evoked
by a story as well as the extent to which they are experienced depend on the extent to
which the story conforms to or diverts from the audience’s perception of a just end-
ing. at is, stories evoke stronger positive emotions when the good guys are rewarded
(and the bad guys punished), whereas they evoke stronger negative emotions when
the bad guys get away with it or the good guys do not get what they want. e second
experiment compares to what extent diversion from a just ending and identication
are responsible for evoking emotions. First, however, the role of identication in nar-
rative persuasion and its relation to other processes will be discussed.
Transportation and identication
Variousmodelshavebeendevelopedtoexplainnarrativepersuasion,suchasthe
Transportation Imagery Model (Green & Brock, 2002), the Extended Elaboration
Likelihood Model (Slater & Rouner, 2002), and the Entertainment Overcoming
Resistance Model (Moyer-Gusé, 2008). All models view the experience of “being
lost in a story” as a crucial factor in narrative persuasion. is experience is referred
to as “absorption” (Slater & Rouner, 2002), or “narrative engagement” (Busselle
& Bilandzic, 2009), and most frequently as “transportation” (Gerrig, 1993; Green
& Brock, 2000, 2002; Moyer-Gusé, 2008). Green and Brock (2000, p. 701) dene
transportation as a mental process which integrates attention, imagery, and feelings.
is denition suggests that the process is multidimensional. In a series of stud-
ies, Busselle and Bilandzic (2009) have indeed identied four dimensions of this
936 Journal of Communication 64 (2014) 935– 955 © 2014 International Communication Association
H. Hoeken & J. Sinkeldam Role of Identification in Narrative Persuasion
experience employing audiovisual stimuli: attentional focus (the extent to which
the audience’s attention is focused on the story), narrative presence (the extent to
which the world depicted in the story feels more real than the real world), emotional
engagement (the extent to which the audience was aected by the story), and narra-
tive understanding (the extent to which the audience could follow the story thread/
story line). Busselle and Bilandzic call this multidimensional experience “narrative
engagement.”
e concept of identication is not included in the denitions of transportation
or narrative engagement. Murphy et al. (2011) cautiously use the label (character)
involvement because of the many dierent ways in which identication has been con-
ceptualized, ranging from perceived similarity, liking, wanting to be like the char-
acter, feeling as if one interacts with the character, and perspective taking (see also
Moyer-Gusé, 2008). ey argue that whereas transportation refers to the feeling of
being absorbed into the narrative in general, character involvement refers to feeling
engaged with a specic character (Murphy et al., 2011, p. 412). is distinction is sim-
ilar to the one made by Oatley (1999, p. 445), who distinguishes between the audience
identifying with a character, that is when “the reader takes on the protagonist’s goals
and plans,” and the audience becoming a spectator, “an unobserved observer in scenes
of the lives of characters in the story world. He or she stands in their bedrooms, hovers
at their dining tables, drives with them in their cars.” is latter description is highly
similar to Busselle and Bilandzic’s (2009) “narrative presence” dimension of narra-
tive engagement as well as to the imagery dimension of Green and Brock’s (2000)
conception of transportation.
Opinions dier on how transportation and identication are related. Green,
Brock, and Kaufman (2004, p. 319) suggest that transportation “may be a prerequisite
for identication with ctional characters.” ey argue that to adopt the character’s
goals and plans requires the audience to become part of the story world. Only if the
world depicted in the narrative becomes real enough to the audience, it will take over
a character’s plans and goals. Bilandzic and Busselle (2011, p. 34) take the opposite
position. ey claim that the creation of a story world depends on the audience iden-
tifying with a character because otherwise the audience could not understand deictic
elements such as “I,” “you,” “here,” and “now.” A third option is that identication
and transportation stimulate each other. A rather shallow level of identication is
needed to interpret deictic elements in order to create the story world. A richer story
world may subsequently increase the chances of stronger identication with the
character, which in turn may make the story world seem more real.
Regardless of the exact nature of the relation between identication and trans-
portation, it is important for this study to manipulate identication independently
of transportation. In recent studies, this has been done successfully (Sestir & Green,
2010; Tal-Or & Cohen, 2010). ese studies used Cohen’s (2001, p. 261) denition of
identication: “an imaginative process through which an audience member assumes
the identity, goals, and perspective of a character.” Cohen’s denition appears to
be broadly accepted in the current literature (Green & Dill, 2013; Moyer-Gusé
Journal of Communication 64 (2014) 935– 955 © 2014 International Communication Association 937
Role of Identification in Narrative Persuasion H. Hoeken & J. Sinkeldam
& Nabi, 2010) and closely resembles Oatley’s (1995, 1999) conceptualization of
identication. erefore, this denition is also used for the present studies.
Identication as a mechanism of narrative persuasion
As a result of being swept up by a story, the audience may be more easily persuaded for
a number of reasons. First, people may be unable or unmotivated to argue against the
narrative’s persuasive subtext (cf. Green & Brock, 2002; Moyer-Gusé, 2008; Slater &
Rouner, 2002). Second, the narrative may evoke such lifelike images of certain events
that the audience nds it more likely for the event to occur in real-life. For instance,
the vivid depiction of an airplane crash may increase people’s belief that airplanes are
not safe (cf. Green & Brock, 2002). ird, identifying with a character may inuence
people’s beliefs and attitudes.
e empirical evidence for the importance of identication to narrative persua-
sion is growing rapidly.1Identifying with characters from episodes of television series
inuences risk perceptions of teen pregnancy and subsequent intentions to have safe
sex (Moyer-Gusé & Nabi, 2010) and the intention to talk about sexually transmitted
infections with friends (Moyer-Gusé, Chung, & Jain, 2011). Identication with char-
acters from professionally produced movies has been shown to mediate the impact of
these movies on the audience’s beliefs (Igartua, 2010; Igartua & Barrios, 2012), social
distancing toward people with a mental illness (Caputo & Rouner, 2011), and attitudes
toward the death penalty (Till & Vitouch, 2012). Cho, Shen, and Wilson (2014) reveal
the importance of identication for narrative persuasion for even short narratives in
antidrinking and antimeth PSAs as well as beer ads.
e question is how identication drives narrative persuasion. According to
Green and Donahue (2009, p. 247), identication can inuence people’s attitudes
in two ways. Firstly, if people identify with a certain character, they may be more
likely to adopt the opinions and attitudes expressed by that character. De Graaf,
Hoeken, Sanders, and Beentjes (2012; Experiment 2) manipulated identication with
characters who held opposing views through manipulating the perspective from
which the (written) narrative was told. ey found that the perspective manipula-
tion inuenced identication, which in turn led participants to adopt the attitude
expressed by the character they had identied with. is eect has been replicated
using a dierent story on a strongly counterattitudinal issue (Hoeken & Fikkers,
2014).
Secondly,peoplemayformattitudestowardcertainissuesbecauseofthecharac-
ter’s experiences. Oatley (1995, p. 66) species how identication with a character can
leadtotheexperiencingofemotions:“thereaderrunstheactionsofthecharacteron
his own planning processes, taking on the character’s goals and experiencing emo-
tionsastheseplansmeetvicissitudes.”Oatleyarguesthatthetypeofemotionswill
depend on the extent to which plans succeed (leading to happiness or contentment) or
fail (which may evoke anger or sadness). e degree to which participants experience
emotions will depend on the extent to which they have identied with the charac-
ter. e more strongly the audience has identied with a character, implying that it
938 Journal of Communication 64 (2014) 935– 955 © 2014 International Communication Association
H. Hoeken & J. Sinkeldam Role of Identification in Narrative Persuasion
perceives the character’s goals as its own, the happier it will feel if the character suc-
ceeds (and the sadder if the character fails). is leads to the rst hypothesis: Stronger
identication with a character will evoke stronger emotions than weaker identication
with a character (H1).
Emotions can play an important role in narrative persuasion. Several studies
have found positive relations between emotions and attitudes (Busselle & Bilandzic,
2009; De Graaf et al., 2009; Murphy et al., 2013). De Graaf et al., for instance, had
participants read a story on the experiences of a woman who sought asylum in
the Netherlands. e asylum-seeking procedure frustrated this woman’s eorts.
Following Oatley’s (1995) claim, the participants who identied with this woman
in the sense that they had adopted her goal (getting asylum) as their own, would
be expected to experience (negative) emotions as a result of the asylum seeking
procedure being an obstacle to attaining this goal. Emotions typically serve as signals
that one’s interests are at stake (Frijda, 1986), and thus may alert the audience to the
fact that the current procedure is not in their best interest. is may lead to a negative
attitude toward the current procedure. is line of reasoning is in accordance with
Green and Donahue’s (2009) claim that the experiences of a character the audience
identies with can inuence the audience’s attitude. However, the design of these
studies does not allow drawing conclusions about the causal nature of this relation-
ship because identication was not manipulated. In the present study, identication
willbemanipulatedsoastoenableamorerigoroustestofthesecondhypothesis:
Strongeridenticationwithacharacterwillleadtoamorepositiveattitudetoward
issues that are consistent with the character’s goals than weaker identication (H2).
Emotions evoked by identication with a character may serve as a mediator of nar-
rative persuasion. Several other concepts have been hypothesized to mediate narrative
impact as well. Transportation, that is, the audience’s engagement with the story world
(rather than with a specic character), may inuence people’s attitude (e.g., Green &
Brock, 2000; Murphy et al., 2011). In addition, a narrative’s persuasive impact may
depend on the extent to which the narrative is perceived as realistic (e.g., Busselle &
Greenberg, 2000; Cho et al., 2014; Green, 2004). Given that these variables may covary
with dierences in the degree in which identication takes place, any eect of iden-
tication may be mediated by any or all of them. is leads to the following research
question: To what extent are eects of identication mediated through the emotions
evoked,theleveloftransportation,and/orperceivedrealism?(RQ1)
Study 1
In Study 1, a quasi-experiment was conducted in which participants read dierent
versions of a narrative in which the main character was being portrayed as more
or less likeable. Character likeability has been shown to be related to character
identication (Chory, 2013; Tian & Honer, 2010); Tal-Or and Cohen (2010) were
successful in manipulating identication through making a character more or
less likeable.
Journal of Communication 64 (2014) 935– 955 © 2014 International Communication Association 939
Role of Identification in Narrative Persuasion H. Hoeken & J. Sinkeldam
Method
Participants, design, and procedure
A site for people involved and interested in handball was employed to attract partic-
ipants. Within 2 weeks, 151 participants had responded to the invitation to take part
in a study on the evaluation of stories. ey received an e-mail containing a link to a
website and were randomly assigned to one of the versions of the experiment. Aer
reading the story and lling out the questionnaire, participants received information
on the design and goal of the experiment. Based upon the reading times, six partici-
pants were excluded from the analysis because of their abnormal reading times: Four
spent fewer than 100 seconds2reading the text, whereas two participants spent far
more time than expected (25 and 70 minutes). For the remaining 145 participants,
agerangedfrom16to70,withanaverageof35years.Slightlymorewomen(50.3%)
than men took part in the experiment. is website also contained an e-mail address
that they could use if they wanted more information. An experimental session lasted
on average 11.5 minutes.
Materials
A narrative from a professionally produced brochure served as the base material. e
brochure was about people who had a so-called PGB: a personal health care budget.
is budget enables people with severe health problems to organize their own health
care, for instance, by hiring a nurse, so that they can live in their own homes instead
of being forced to move to a nursing home. In three short introductory paragraphs
(196 words), the news was introduced that the Dutch government had plans to stop
this kind of support. e introduction was followed by the story of Loes Hamers. She
is a 45-year-old woman, who suers from a brain injury aer she was hit by a cab. e
PGB enables her to live on her own because she can hire help for shopping, cleaning,
and driving her to her appointments, and a nurse to help her with medical issues. As a
result of the new government plans, Loes would be forced to live in a nursing home. At
theendofthestory,Loesstatesthatshewillappealtothedecisiontocutherbudget;
it remains unclear whether Loes will be forced to live in a nursing home.
e main manipulation related to the character’s likeability, that is, whether Loes
was portrayed as a likeable or a less likeable person. is manipulation was imple-
mented in a more elaborate and a more succinct discussion of Loes’ character. e
hypotheses for the elaborate and succinct manipulation are the same, but this design
enabled a more nuanced assessment of the hypotheses and research question. e
story consisted of ve paragraphs. e second and fourth paragraph contained the
manipulation; the other paragraphs were identical in all versions. In the more elabo-
rate manipulation of likeability, the manipulation in the second paragraph consisted
of three dierences. In the version with the likeable character, she drinks coee and
has a nice chat with the help, she pays a friend from her budget for the help this friend
provides,andshedoesnothireanyadditionalhelpfromherbudget.Intheotherver-
sion, she is rude to the help because she feels she has better things to do than drinking
coee with her, she sometimes pays her friend from her budget but usually does not,
940 Journal of Communication 64 (2014) 935– 955 © 2014 International Communication Association
H. Hoeken & J. Sinkeldam Role of Identification in Narrative Persuasion
and she hires additional help to do household chores she does not like. For the succinct
versions,thechatwiththehelpisleoutintheversionwiththelikeablecharacter,
whereas in the version with the less likeable one, her being rude is not included. e
manipulationofthefourthparagraphconsistedofonedierencefortheshorterver-
sions. In the version with the likeable character, it is said that she gives the money she
does not need back to the government whereas in the version with the less likeable
character she keeps the money for herself. In the longer versions, there is also only
onedierence:Inthelikeableversion,shegivesthemoneybackandstates“soother
people can use it.” In the less likeable version, it is said that she keeps the money even
though she knows that she should give it back and states “then they shouldn’t have
given me that much.”
Both the elaborateness of the manipulation and the likeability manipulation
yielded dierences in length. For the less elaborate versions, the one with the likeable
character was slightly shorter (721 words) than the one with the less likeable character
(758 words). For the elaborate versions, the version with the likeable character was
also slightly shorter compared to the one with the less likeable character (882 vs.
937 words). e average word and sentence lengths of the four versions were highly
similar.
Instrumentation
e questionnaire contained the following dependent variables. e Attitude toward
the PGB wasmeasuredusingtheclause“IfthePGBisabolished,Iregardthatas”
followed by four 7-point semantic dierentials (e.g., good– bad, foolish– wise; Cron-
bach’s α=.91). Enjoyment of reading the story was measured employing ve Likert
scales developed by Hartmann and Vorderer (2010) (e.g., I found reading the story
about Loes: A waste of time, Interesting, Boring; α=.79). Next, Emotions evoked by
the story were measured using 21 items used by Banerjee and Greene (2012). A fac-
tor analysis revealed four factors: one consisting of eight items representing Positive
emotions (e.g., happy, relaxed, satised; α=.91), six items representing Negative pas-
sive emotions (e.g., sad, worried, scared; α=.85), three items representing Negative,
active emotions (e.g., angry, irritated; α=.75), and three items representing Surprise
(e.g., surprised, shocked; α=.79).Oneitem,bored,didnotloadonanyofthesefactors
and was excluded from the analysis. Character liking was measured using four 7-point
Likert items inspired by Moyer-Gusé’s (2008) description of this concept (e.g., I liked
Loes;IwouldliketobefriendswithsomeonelikeLoes;α=.92).
To measure the experience of Transportation, the 17 items of the (Dutch) ques-
tionnaire developed by De Graaf et al. (2012, Experiment 2) were used. ey report
the questionnaire measuring three dimensions of this experience: Identication
with a character was measured by six Likert items (e.g., “During reading, I felt for
Loes”; “During reading, I imagined what it would be like to be in Loes’ position,”
“During reading, I had the feeling that I went through what Loes was experiencing”:
α=.81); Narrative presence, the extent to which participants felt present at the events
described in the story, was measured using seven items (e.g., During reading, I was
Journal of Communication 64 (2014) 935– 955 © 2014 International Communication Association 941
Role of Identification in Narrative Persuasion H. Hoeken & J. Sinkeldam
Table 1 e Mean Scores (and Standard Deviations) for the Dependent Variables as a
Function of Likeability and Elaborateness (Reading Time in Seconds; 1 =very negative,
7=very positive)
Likeable Character Less Likeable Character
Short (n=32) Long (n=39) Short (n=37) Long (n=37)
M(SD)M(SD)M(SD)M(SD)
Reading times 182.19 (76.50)232.59 (82.59)207.16 (73.66)268.19 (125.97)
Character liking 4.30 (0.98)4.60 (0.71)3.33 (0.82)2.92 (1.21)
Attentional focus 3.97 (1.10)4.37 (1.24)4.32 (0.92)4.09 (0.95)
Narrative presence 4.60 (1.00)4.30 (1.23)4.41 (0.91)4.23 (0.88)
Perceived realism 5.10 (1.12)5.06 (1.04)4.51 (0.78)4.32 (0.96)
Enjoyment 4.14 (1.01)4.78 (0.98)4.15 (0.95)4.16 (1.09)
Identication 4.02 (0.95)4.05 (0.94)3.73 (0.69)3.29 (1.01)
Emotions
Positive 2.73 (1.14)3.12 (0.95)3.27 (1.13)3.22 (1.06)
Sadness 3.96 (1.14)3.51 (1.32)3.14 (1.28)3.20 (1.35)
Anger 4.46 (1.24)3.95 (1.29)4.30 (1.00)4.59 (1.26)
Surprise 3.52 (1.26)3.91 (1.23)3.59 (1.44)4.11 (1.36)
Attitude 6.17 (0.92)6.10 (1.02)6.01 (0.85)5.71 (1.17)
in the world described in the story; α=.88); Attentional focus, that is, the extent to
which the participants’ attention was focused on the story, was measured by four
items (e.g., During reading, I was fully concentrated on the story; α=.73). Finally, the
story’s Perceived realism was measured using six items developed by Canter, Grieve,
Nicola, and Benneworth (2003) to measure the extent to which participants regarded
the story as plausible and realistic (e.g., I found this story unbelievable–believable,
logical–illogical, not truthful– truthful; α=.79).
Results
Separate 2 (Likeability) ×2 (Elaborateness) analyses of variance (ANOVAs) were
conducted. Table 1 contains the mean scores for the dependent variables. First, the
impact of these factors on reading time was assessed. Reading the more elaborate
version took almost one minute longer (M=249.92, SD =106.74) compared to the
shorter version, M=195.58, SD =75.49; F(1, 141) =13.07, p<.001, η2=.085. ere
was a trend for the version with the likeable character to be read faster (M=209.87,
SD =83.26) compared to the version with the less likeable character, M=237.68,
SD =106.98; F(1, 141) =3.86, p=.051, η2=.027. e interaction between the two
factors was not signicant, F(1, 141) <1. In subsequent analyses, Reading time was
entered as a covariate in all analyses as a control for story length. For only one
dependent variable, the extent to which participants experienced surprise, proved
Reading time a signicant covariate, F(1, 140) =5.36, p=.022, η2=.04; none of
the main eects nor the interaction were signicant for this dependent variable
942 Journal of Communication 64 (2014) 935– 955 © 2014 International Communication Association
H. Hoeken & J. Sinkeldam Role of Identification in Narrative Persuasion
(ps>.195). For all other dependent variables, Reading time was not signicant,
F’s(1, 140) <1.
Apart from a trend implicating that reading the more elaborate story versions was
considered more enjoyable than reading the succinct ones, F(1, 140) =3.68, p=.057,
η2=.026, there were no main eects of Elaborateness for any of the dependent
variables (ps>.187). If the impact of the Likeability manipulation depended on the
degree to which it was elaborated, an interaction between these factors should arise.
e most likely candidate for such an interaction to arise would be the manipulation
check about the character’s perceived likeability. is proved indeed to be the case,
F(1, 140) =5.13, p=.025, η2=.035. Simple eect analyses revealed that whereas
the eect of the Likeability manipulation was already highly signicant for the
shorter versions, F(1, 66) =18.80, p<.001, η2=.22, it was even larger for the longer
ones, F(1, 73) =54.20, p<.001, η2=.43. ere was a trend for a similar eects on
Evoked anger, F(1, 140) =3.87, p=.051, η2=.027 and Enjoyment of reading, F(1,
140) =3.49, p=.064, η2=.024. Whereas participants tended to experience more
anger and enjoy themselves less aer reading the elaborate version with the less
likeable character compared to the elaborate version with the likeable character,
these eects appeared smaller for the succinct versions. Finally, there was a trend
for Likeability and Elaborateness to interact for Attentional focus, F(1, 140) =3.10,
p=.081, η2=.022. Whereas for the versions with the likeable character the more
elaborate versions appeared to score higher on this dimension, the opposite eect
appeared to occur for the more succinct versions. For none of the other variables was
the interaction between Likeability and Elaborateness signicant (ps>.126).
Next, the main eects of Likeability are discussed. ere were highly signicant
main eects of Likeability on the character’s perceived likeability, F(1, 140) =69.19,
p<.001, η2=.331, and identication with the character, F(1, 140) =11.77, p=.001,
η2=.078. Participants liked (M=4.46, SD =0.85) and identied more strongly with
the likeable character (M=4.03, SD =0.94) than they liked (M=3.13, SD =1.05) and
identied with the less likeable character (M=3.51, SD =0.89). Likeability had no
impact on attentional focus and narrative presence, Fs(1, 140) <1. e manipulation
hadthustheintendedeectofinuencingthelevelofidenticationwhilenotaect-
ing the other transportation dimensions.
Hypothesis 1 predicted that identication would evoke stronger emotions. ere
were main eects of Likeability for the degree to which the participants reported
experiencing stronger sadness-related emotions, F(1, 140) =7.12, p=.009, η2=.048
and stronger positive emotions, F(1, 140) =3.68, p=.029, η2=.026, one-tailed tested.
Reading a story with a likeable character yielded stronger sadness-related emotions
(M=3.71, SD =1.26) and less positive emotions (M=2.94, SD =1.05) compared to
reading a story with a less likeable character (sadness: M=3.17, SD =1.31; positive:
M=3.24, SD =1.09). ere were no main eects for surprise, F(1, 140) <1or
anger, F(1, 140) =1.13, p=.29. Hypothesis 2 predicted that the attitude toward the
issue would be more positive aer reading the version with the likeable character.
Participants who had read the version with the likeable character held indeed more
Journal of Communication 64 (2014) 935– 955 © 2014 International Communication Association 943
Role of Identification in Narrative Persuasion H. Hoeken & J. Sinkeldam
positive attitudes (M=6.13, SD =0.97) compared to those who had read the ver-
sion with the less likeable character, M=5.86, SD =1.03; F(1, 140) =3.17, p=.038,
η2=.022, one-tailed tested. Apart from these (predicted) main eects of Likeability,
the version with the likeable character was also perceived as more realistic (M=5.08,
SD =1.06) than the version with the less likeable character, M=4.42, SD =0.88; F(1,
140) =17.37, p<.001, η2=.11. In addition, there was a trend toward reading the
version with the likeable version yielding a more enjoyable experience (M=4.50,
SD =1.03) than reading the other version, M=4.15, SD =1.01; F(1, 140) =3.25,
p=.074, η2=.023.
eresearchquestionwasaboutwhichvariablesservedasmediatorsintheeect
on the attitude. e indirect eects analysis of multiple mediators as proposed by
Hayes (2013) was employed using his PROCESS macro. In all analyses, bias-corrected
bootstrap condence intervals were computed for the indirect eects (B)basedon
10,000 bootstrap samples and with a 95% condence interval. As a rst step, the
dependent variables for which signicant eects of Likeability were obtained (i.e.,
Positive emotions, Sadness-related emotions, Identication, Perceived realism, and
Enjoyment) were entered as potential mediators while statistically controlling for the
attention and narrative presence dimensions of transportation, the emotions of anger
and surprise, and reading time. Only for the indirect eects of Sadness-related emo-
tions (B=.125, CI: .039 to .280) and Perceived realism (B=.173, CI: .045 to .409)
were the condence intervals entirely above zero. ese variables served as mediators
for the impact of Likeability on the Attitude toward the PGB, whereas Identication
(B=.009, CI: −.096 to .010), Positive emotions (B=−.006, CI: −.083 to .043), and
Enjoyment (B=−.037, CI: −.160 to .008) did not.
e extent to which emotions were experienced was expected to depend on the
extent to which participants had identied with the character. To assess whether this
wastrue,aseriesofserialmultiplemediatoranalyseswereconducted.First,itwasana-
lyzed whether the Identication– Sadness-related emotions (serial) relation served
as a mediator while statistically controlling for all other variables. Both the indirect
eect of the serial relation (B=.025, CI: .005 to .079) and Sadness-related emotions
(B=.079, CI: .007 to .219) yielded condence intervals that were entirely above zero;
this was not the case for Identication (B=.006, CI: −.065 to .088 ). To check whether
Perceived realism inuenced Identication, a similar serial multiple mediator anal-
ysis was conducted but now with Perceived realism– Identication as serial medi-
ators while statistically controlling for all other variables including Sadness-related
emotions. Only the condence interval for the indirect eect of Perceived realism
(B=.145, CI: .030 to .370) was entirely above zero. is was not the case for the
indirect eects of the (serial) Perceived realism– Identication mediator (B=.002, CI:
−017 to .028) and Identication (B=.005, CI: −.051 to .074 ).
Discussion
Whereas previous studies hinted at the importance of emotions for the narrative per-
suasion process, this study is the rst to provide evidence for the mediating role of
944 Journal of Communication 64 (2014) 935– 955 © 2014 International Communication Association
H. Hoeken & J. Sinkeldam Role of Identification in Narrative Persuasion
identication in evoking emotions and their subsequent impact on attitude. e more
people identify with the main character who might have to live in a nursing home if
the new regulation is put in place, the more strongly people experience sadness, and
the more favorable their attitude toward the personal budget system, that enables the
character to live on her own, becomes. In addition, the results corroborate the impor-
tance of perceived realism as a driver of narrative persuasion as it served as a (separate)
mediator in the persuasion process.
Given the importance of emotions for narrative persuasion, an interesting
question is in what other ways emotions might be evoked. Raney (2004, 2006) has
developed the aective disposition theory to explain how stories evoke emotions.
He included the importance of the just world belief. In a just world, good people are
rewarded whereas bad people are punished. In an unjust world, good people fail to
getwhattheywantwhereasbadpeoplearesuccessful.Basically,Raneyclaimsthat
we experience positive emotions (joy, satisfaction) if the outcome of a story conrms
our view of a just world whereas we experience negative emotions if the story’s out-
come goes against this view. Crucially, in case of a likeable character, the audience’s
emotions are similar to those of the character (i.e., sadness when the character feels
sad), whereas in case of a less likeable character, these emotions may be reversed (i.e.,
we may enjoy the character feeling sad). In summary, the experiencing of emotions
does not depend on the outcome of the story per se (whether characters get what
theywantornot),butalsoontheextenttowhichtheoutcomeofthestoryisin
accordance with the just world belief.
In the rst experiment, the main character’s likeability was manipulated through
the way in which she treated the nurses (friendly vs. unfriendly) and what she did
withthepartofthebudgetshedidnotneed(gaveitbackorkeptitforherself).ese
manipulations may have had dierent eects on the perception of the outcome. Being
unfriendly to the nurses may have made the character merely unsympathetic; keeping
the money for herself, on the other hand, may have given the participants the impres-
sion that it would be her just dessert if she were no longer to receive nancial support.
In other words, this version of the story may have been more in accordance with the
participants’ view of what is a just outcome and therefore evoke less intense negative
emotions.
Study 2
e goal of this experiment was to assess whether the extent to which a sad story
evokes negative emotions depends on the extent which the main character is held
responsible for that outcome. A story was written in which a heart patient is waiting
for a donor heart. e manipulation consisted of the extent to which this man could
be held responsible for his condition: Either this was the result of a genetic defect (not
responsible) or the result of an unhealthy lifestyle (responsible). Hoeken and Hustinx
(2007) were successful in manipulating the perceived responsibility of a person in this
way. Raney (2004, 2006) predicts that people will nd it easier to identify with the
Journal of Communication 64 (2014) 935– 955 © 2014 International Communication Association 945
Role of Identification in Narrative Persuasion H. Hoeken & J. Sinkeldam
former character than with the latter, which leads to the following hypothesis: Par-
ticipants will identify more strongly with an innocent character than with a culpable
one (H3).
e story ends with the man dying because no donor heart is available. is would
be considered more divergent from a just world in the case of the man who cannot
be blamed for his heart condition compared to the case of the man being responsi-
ble for his condition: Participants consider the story with the innocent character as
more divergent from a just world than the story with the culpable character (H4).
Both stronger identication and stronger diverging from a just world should evoke
strongeremotionswhichinturnshouldleadtoamorepositiveattitudetowardorgan
donation. Participants will experience more negative and more intense emotions and
develop a more positive attitude toward organ donation aer reading the story with
the innocent character (H5). Finally, the question is whether identication and/or just
world perceptions mediate the impact of the character manipulation on the evoking
of emotions: To what extent does identication or just world divergence mediate the
impact of character culpability on the evoking of emotions? (RQ2)
Method
Participants and design
A total of 115 participants took part in the experiment. Age ranged from 18 to 64, with
an average of 37 years. More women (58.3%) than men took part in the experiment.
Participants were randomly assigned to read one of the two versions of the story and
were then asked to ll out a questionnaire.
Materials
Twoversionsofanarrativeweredevelopedaboutamanwhodiesbecausenoheart
transplant was available in time. e man, omas van Hees (36), is happily married
and a father of two children. Aer a seizure at the tennis club, he is diagnosed as having
afatalheartdisease.estoryispresentedaspartsofthebloghewroteduringhisill-
ness reecting his growing despair about no donor heart being available. e dierent
fragmentsrevealthevariousstagesofhisdisease.Inthenalpart,hiswifestatedthat
omashaddiedtwodaysaerhislastblogpost.etwoversionsofthenarrative
were equally long (806 words, 78 sentences, 11 paragraphs). e only dierence was
the extent to which the main character led a healthy life or not, a dierence that later
in the story was referred to as aggravating the severity of his heart disease whereas the
disease was ascribed to hereditary causes in the other version. e manipulation was
intended to present omas as more or less responsible for his condition.
Instrumentation
e questionnaire contained the following dependent variables.
e Attitude toward donor registration was measured using four 7-point semantic
dierentials (e.g., sensible– foolish, bad –good) preceded by the clause: “Registering
myself as a donor, is”: e reliability of the scale was good (Cronbach’s α=.84).
Emotions were measured employing an instrument developed by Carrera, Caballero,
946 Journal of Communication 64 (2014) 935– 955 © 2014 International Communication Association
H. Hoeken & J. Sinkeldam Role of Identification in Narrative Persuasion
Munoz, and Oceja (2011). Participants were asked to express the extent to which they
experienced the following emotions: “Because of the story, I felt angry,” “I felt sad,”
“I felt ashamed,” “I felt guilty,” “I felt joyful,” and “I felt scared.” e ve negative
emotions yielded a reliable scale (Cronbach’s α=.74). is instrument was chosen
because it was shorter than the one used in Study 1 and its focus on negative emotions
which proved to be important in that study. In addition, Emotional intensity was
measured using the items “I found the story touching” and “I found the story moving”
(Cronbach’s α=.80).
e same items as in Study 1 were used to measure Character liking (n=4,
Cronbach’s α=.93), as well as Identication (n=6, Cronbach’s α=.87), Narrative
presence (n=7, Cronbach’s α=.91), and Attentional focus (n=4, Cronbach’s α=.83).
To assess whether the manipulation of culpability had been successful, the extent to
which participants held the character responsible for his illness was measured using
two items: “omas could not help getting the disease” and “It’s omas’s own fault
that he has this heart disease” (reversed coded) (Cronbach’s α=.86). e extent to
which the story’s outcome was in accordance with the just world belief was mea-
sured by ve semantic dierentials following the clause: “I think what happened to
omas is …(fair–unfair, unacceptable– acceptable)” (Cronbach’s α=.81). Finally,
a shortened version of the perceived realism scare was employed consisting of two
semantic dierentials following the clause “I nd the story …(realistic– unrealistic,
unbelievable–believable)” (Cronbach’s α=.86).
Procedure
Four master students approached participants individually and asked whether they
would be interested in participating in a study on the evaluation of weblogs about
health issues. If they agreed, they received at random one of the versions of the exper-
imental booklet. Aer reading the blog and lling out the questionnaire, participants
were told the purpose of the experiment and any remaining questions were answered.
An experimental session lasted between 10 and 15 minutes with an average of 12
minutes.
Results
In Table 2, the means and standard deviations for the dependent variables are reported
as a function of the character’s culpability. It also contains the results of the statistical
tests. First, it was checked whether the manipulation was successful. Participants who
had read the story with the “innocent” character considered the main character to
be less responsible for his heart condition and liked the character more than those
who had read the version with the “responsible” character. Apart from these intended
eects, participants perceived the version with the innocent character as more realistic
and felt that it kept their attention more strongly. In addition, there was a trend for
this version to evoke a stronger feeling of narrative presence.
Both hypotheses 3 and 4 were conrmed. Participants reading the version with the
“innocent” character identied more strongly with the main character and considered
Journal of Communication 64 (2014) 935– 955 © 2014 International Communication Association 947
Role of Identification in Narrative Persuasion H. Hoeken & J. Sinkeldam
Table 2 e Mean Scores (and Standard Deviations) for the Dependent Variables as a
Function of the Culpability of the Main Character (1 =very negative,7=very positive)
Innocent Culpable
M(SD)nM(SD)ntdf p η2
Character culpability 1.73 (0.98) 57 5.05 (1.33) 58 15.27 113 <.001 .674
Character liking 4.58 (0.94) 57 3.72 (1.22) 58 4.22 113 <.001 .136
Attentional focus 5.01 (1.15) 57 4.54 (1.23) 58 2.14 113 .035 .039
Narrative presence 4.91 (1.04) 57 4.47 (1.34) 58 1.95 113 .053 .033
Attitude 5.98 (1.29) 57 6.01 (1.18) 58 0.11 113 .910
Perceived realism 6.03 (1.00) 56 5.33 (1.39) 58 3.07 112 .003 .078
Identication 4.31 (1.04) 57 3.81 (1.22) 58 2.36 113 .020 .047
Just ending 2.19 (0.99) 57 2.92 (0.91) 58 4.11 113 <.001 .130
Positive emotion 1.49 (0.93) 57 1.53 (1.01) 58 0.24 113 .812
Negative emotions 3.71 (1.20) 57 3.08 (1.00) 58 3.04 113 .003 .076
Emotional intensity 5.68 (1.01) 55 5.17 (1.21) 58 2.43 111 .017 .051
the story more unjust than the ones reading the version with the culpable character.
Hypothesis 5 was partly conrmed: e version with the innocent version was con-
sidered more moving and it evoked stronger negative emotions than the version with
the culpable character. No dierences were found for the positive emotion and for the
attitude toward donor registration. e absence of these eects may have been caused
byaooreect(positiveemotion)andaceilingeect(attitude).
Research question 2 is about the mediating role of identication and/or just
world perceptions as mediators of the culpability manipulation on the evoking
of emotions. Given that the manipulation inuenced other variables as well (i.e.,
Perceived realism, Attentional focus, Narrative presence), the data were analyzed
usingasimilarmultiplemediatoranalysisasinStudy1(settings:95%condence
interval,10,000bootstrapsamples).Allpotentialmediatorvariableswereentered
into the analysis, and for each variable it was assessed whether or not it functioned
as a mediator while statistically controlling for the other variables. When conducting
themultiplemediatoranalysisforNegativeemotions,onlythecondenceintervalfor
the indirect eect of Identication was entirely above zero (B=.226, CI: .037 to .517).
iswasnotthecaseforJustendingperception(B=−.007, CI: −.176 to .140) or any
of the other variables (Perceived realism: B=−.053, CI: −.201 to .045; Attentional
focus: B=.079, CI: −.074 to .408; Narrative presence: B=−.030, CI: −.320 to .187;
Emotional intensity: B=−.022, CI: −.254 to .167). A slightly dierent pattern of
resultswereobtainedforEmotionalintensity.Again,Identicationprovedtobea
signicant mediator (B=.125; CI: .011 to .404), whereas Just ending perception did
not (B=.094, CI: −.040 to .288). Of the other variables, Perceived realism was a
signicant mediator in this case (B=.225, CI =.072 to .494), whereas the others were
not (Attentional focus: B=.045, CI =−.055 to .248; Narrative presence: B=.030,
CI =−.070 to .238; Negative emotions: B=−.022, CI =−.157 to .057).
948 Journal of Communication 64 (2014) 935– 955 © 2014 International Communication Association
H. Hoeken & J. Sinkeldam Role of Identification in Narrative Persuasion
Discussion
A story in which a person dies of a disease that he brought — at least partly— upon
himself, evoked negative emotions to a lesser extent and was considered less moving
compared to a story in which this person cannot be held responsible for his disease.
Two mechanisms can explain such an eect. e identication mechanism explains
the decreased impact by stating that the audience identies less with the main char-
acter, which results in experiencing less intense emotions. e just world mechanism
predicts that if a character can be held responsible for his or her death, our belief in
a just world is challenged less than if the character cannot be held responsible. e
former situation may lead to less intense emotions than the latter one. e mediation
analyses revealed that whereas identication served as a mediator for both the extent
of negative emotions and emotional intensity, the perception to which the story con-
forms to a just world did not.
General discussion
e results of these studies provide new insights into the mechanisms of narrative per-
suasion. e rst study shows that the extent to which people identify with a character
inuences the extent to which people experience emotions, which in turn inuences
theirattitudetowardtheissuethatconictedwiththecharacter’sgoal.esecond
study provides additional evidence for the role of identication in evoking emotions.
Again, identication (rather than perceiving the story’s outcome as just) mediates the
impact of the dierent story versions on the extent to which participants experienced
negative emotions and were moved by the story. Interpreting signicant relations
between variables as causal ones is a delicate exercise.3First, there needs to be a solid
theoretical foundation for such an interpretation. Green and Donahue (2009) pre-
dict that identication can inuence people’s attitudes as a result of the implications
of events experienced by the character with whom people identied. Cohen (2001)
denes identication as perceiving the character’s goals as one’s own. In the two sto-
ries,themaincharactershadcleargoals:Intherststory,thewomandidnotwantto
live in a nursing home; in the second story, the man wanted to live. Oatley (1995,
1999) predicts that the audience will experience emotions when these plans meet
vicissitudes. In both stories, the attainment of these goals is threatened: by a new gov-
ernment policy in Study 1 and by the absence of an organ donor in Study 2. Similarly,
in both studies, there is a positive relation between identication and the experiencing
of (negative) emotions, which makes sense given that the more one has adopted the
character’sgoalsasone’sown,thesadderonefeelsifthesegoalscannotbeattained.
ese negative emotions are signals that there are barriers to one’s goals, and will result
in negative attitudes toward these barriers (i.e., the new government policy, the short-
ageoforgandonors).Intherststudy,thesenegativefeelingsresultinamorenegative
attitude toward the new policy; in the second study, this is not the case. One reason
for the absence may be that there is a ceiling eect for the attitude toward becom-
inganorgandonor;theotherreasonmightbethattheattitudeobject(becomingan
Journal of Communication 64 (2014) 935– 955 © 2014 International Communication Association 949
Role of Identification in Narrative Persuasion H. Hoeken & J. Sinkeldam
organ donor) is only indirectly connected to the actual obstacle, that is, the shortage
of organ donors.
esecondissuethatisrelevantwheninterpretingtheseresultsistheextentto
which other variables that may mediate the eect are controlled for. In both stud-
ies, a number of variables have been measured that have been identied as potential
mediators of narrative persuasion, notably the attentional focus and narrative pres-
ence dimensions of transportation, and perceived realism. In addition, in Study 1
several other emotions and the extent to which participants enjoyed reading the story
were measured; in Study 2, the extent to which participants considered the ending
tobejustwasincludedaswell.Intheanalyses,allvariableswereincludedeither
as covariates or as potential mediators. Only perceived realism served as a media-
tor, and did so in both studies; the other variables did not serve as mediators. More
importantly, the hypothesized relation between identication and emotion served as
aserialmediatorwhilestatisticallycontrollingforallothervariables,andwhiletak-
ing the relations between perceived realism and emotions and attitude into account.
is combination of a sound theoretical foundation and statistical control for poten-
tial alternative explanations provides strong support for the identication–emotion
relation as a mechanism of narrative persuasion.
No support was found for the relation between perceiving the story’s outcome as
just and the experiencing of emotions. On one hand, the conditions for observing such
aneectwereoptimal.eculpablecharacterwasindeedlikedlessthantheinnocent
one (and the scores were below the neutral midpoint of the scale). Furthermore, the
manipulation’s impact on the just outcome perception was larger than the impact on
identication. Still, the manipulation’s impact on emotions was mediated by identi-
cation and not by just outcome perceptions. On the other hand, the manipulation of
the character’s culpability could be considered relatively weak. Raney’s (2004, 2006)
aective disposition theory explains why people may enjoy a story in which a char-
actersuersiftheyconsiderthischaractertobeavillain.efactthattheculpable
character’s heart condition was aggravated by his drinking habits hardly puts him in
thecategoryofvillainslikeeJoker.Itwouldbeinterestingtoseewhetherstories
about “bad” people would have an even stronger impact on just outcome perceptions
and emotions.
e results of these studies show how narratives can evoke emotions and
how such emotions can inuence people’s attitudes. e rst study also shows
that this persuasive outcome depends on specic emotions: Sadness-related emo-
tions served as a mediator, whereas other types of emotions did not. is nding
provides corroboration for claims that the persuasive impact of emotions depends
on the type of emotions (see, e.g., Dillard & Nabi, 2006; Dillard & Seo, 2013;
Nabi, 2010). In addition, the importance of sadness for obtaining a persuasive
outcome replicates previous studies that also found sadness to be an important
determinant of persuasive success (see, e.g., Dillard & Peck, 2000; Yoo, Kreuter,
Lai, & Fu, 2014). is combination of ndings points out an interesting venue for
future research.
950 Journal of Communication 64 (2014) 935– 955 © 2014 International Communication Association
H. Hoeken & J. Sinkeldam Role of Identification in Narrative Persuasion
First, which emotions are evoked by a narrative depends on how the events
described impact a character’s goals and plans. Oatley (1995, p. 69), for instance,
predicts that “plans that meet success, the nding of friends, falling in love, tend
to elicit happiness, injustice provokes vengeful anger, separation and danger elicit
anxiety, reunion aer separation elicits tears, what is despicable provokes contempt.”
Narrativescanthusbeusedtoevokeaspecicemotionenablinganassessmentofthe
relation between this emotion and the persuasive outcome. Second, the intensity of
these feelings can be manipulated by manipulating the extent to which the audience
identies with the character. Several ways to manipulate the extent to which people
identify with a character have been documented. Perspective, that is, through whose
eyes we experience the story events, can inuence with whom the audience identies
(De Graaf et al., 2012; Hoeken & Fikkers, 2014). Manipulating a character’s likeability
hasbeensuccessfulinthestudiesreportedhereaswellasintheonebyTal-Orand
Cohen (2010). Finally, the similarity between the character and the audience may
lead to a stronger feeling of identication as well (see, e.g., Andsager, Bemker, Choi,
& Torwel, 2006).
e studies reported here shed light on how identication with a character can
evokefeelingsthatsubsequentlyfuelthepersuasionprocess.isndingishighlyrel-
evant for future research. First, narratives have been identied as a promising genre
to improve the eectiveness of health communication (see, e.g., Green, 2006; Hin-
yard & Kreuter, 2007; Kreuter et al., 2007). Understanding exactly how narratives
can bring about persuasive eects is essential in order to understand when and why
stories can have positive eects. Second, the question is to what extent persuasive
success depends on what specic emotions are evoked by communication. Manipu-
lating narratives provides an interesting way to evoke specic emotions as well as to
manipulate their intensity. Research on the persuasive impact of narratives thereby
opens up an interesting research agenda in which two important lines of research
are combined.
Acknowledgments
erststudywasconductedbyJopSinkeldamaspartofhismasterthesisandwas
supervised by Hans Hoeken. We would like to thank Enny Das, Asifa Majid, Donna
Rouner, Malcolm Parks, and four reviewers for their valuable comments and sug-
gestions on previous versions of this paper. Needless to say, any remaining errors
are ours.
Notes
1 Murphy et al. (2011) have studied the relation between character involvement,
transportation, emotion, and persuasive outcomes. In their study, they have
operationalized character involvement for three dierent characters employing items
measuring the extent to which the participant thought to be similar to the character, knew
thecharacter,andwouldliketobelikethecharacter.isoperationalizationdiersfrom
the one in our study.
Journal of Communication 64 (2014) 935– 955 © 2014 International Communication Association 951
Role of Identification in Narrative Persuasion H. Hoeken & J. Sinkeldam
2 In a pretest with 10 students, it was established that 100 seconds was about the minimum
needed for reading the story.
3 Typically, claims about causal relations between intervening variables are supported by
structural equation modeling. However, for such an analysis, the lower limit sample size is
200 participants (see, e.g., Weston & Gore, 2006); the numbers of participants in Studies 1
and 2 are lower. Hayes (2013, pp. 159– 162) claims that the mediation analyses are more
robust than SEM for smaller samples. He also shows how mediation analyses produce
estimates that are extremely similar to those produced by popular SEM programs as Mplus
and LISREL.
References
Andsager, J. L., Bemker, V., Choi, H. L., & Torwel, V. (2006). Perceived similarity of exemplar
traits and behavior. Communication Research,33(1), 3–18. doi:10.1177/
0093650205283099.
Appel, M., & Richter, T. (2007). Persuasive eects of ctional narratives increase over time.
Media Psychology,10(1), 113–134. doi:10.1080/15213260701301194.
Banerjee, S. C., & Greene, K. (2012). Role of transportation in the persuasion process:
Cognitive and aective responses to antidrug narratives. Journal of Health
Communication: International Perspectives,17(5), 564–581. doi:10.1080/
10810730.2011.635779.
Bilandzic, H., & Busselle, R. (2011). Enjoyment of lms as a function of narrative experience,
perceived realism and transportability. Communications,36(1), 29 – 50.
doi:10.1515/comm.2011.002.
Busselle, R., & Bilandzic, H. (2009). Measuring narrative engagement. Media Psychology,
12(4), 321–347. doi:10.1080/15213260903287259.
Busselle, R., & Greenberg, B. S. (2000). e nature of television realism judgments: A
reevaluation of their conceptualization and measurement. Mass Communication and
Society,3(2-3), 249– 268. doi:10.1207/S15327825MCS0323_05.
Canter, D., Grieve, N., Nicola, C., & Benneworth, K. (2003). Narrative plausibility: e
impact of sequence and anchoring. Behavioral Sciences & the Law,21(2), 251–267.
doi:10.1002/bsl.528.
Caputo, N. M., & Rouner, D. (2011). Narrative processing of entertainment media and
mental illness stigma. Health Communication,26(7), 595– 604.
doi:10.1080/10410236.2011.560787.
Carrera, P., Caballero, A., Munoz, D., & Oceja, L. (2011). Anticipated emotions and personal
experience for predicting behavioral intentions and behavioral expectations. e Spanish
Journal of Psychology,14(2), 533–547. doi:10.5209/rev_SJOP.2011.v14.n2.2.
Cho, H., Shen, L., & Wilson, K. (2014). Perceived realism: Dimensions and roles in narrative
persuasion. Communication Research,41(6), 828–851. doi:10.1177/0093650212450585.
Chory, R. M. (2013). Dierences in television viewers’ involvement: Identication with and
attraction to liked, disliked, and neutral characters. Communication Research Reports,
30(4), 293–305. doi:10.1080/08824096.2013.837041.
Cohen, J. (2001). Dening identication: A theoretical look at the identication of audiences
with media characters. Mass Communication and Society,4(3), 246–264. doi:10.1207/
S15327825MCS0403_01.
952 Journal of Communication 64 (2014) 935– 955 © 2014 International Communication Association
H. Hoeken & J. Sinkeldam Role of Identification in Narrative Persuasion
De Graaf, A., Hoeken, H., Sanders, J., & Beentjes, J. (2009). e role of dimensions of narrative
engagement in narrative persuasion. Communications,34(4), 385 – 405. doi:10.1515/
COMM.2009.024.
De Graaf, A., Hoeken, H., Sanders, J., & Beentjes, J. (2012). Identication as a mechanism of
narrative persuasion. Communication Research,39(6), 802 – 821. doi:10.1177/
0093650211408594.
Diekman, A. B., McDonald, M., & Gardner, W. L. (2000). Love means never having to be
careful. e relationship between reading romance novels and safe sex behavior.
Psychology of Women Quarterly,24(2), 179 – 188. doi:10.1111/j.1471-6402.
2000.tb00199.x.
Dillard, J. P., & Nabi, R. (2006). e persuasive inuence of emotions in cancer prevention
and detection messages. Journal of Communication,56(S1), S123–139. doi:10.1111/
j.1460-2466.2006.00286.x.
Dillard, J. P., & Peck, E. (2000). Aect and persuasion: Emotional responses to public service
announcements. Communication Research,27(4), 461–495.
doi:10.1177/009365000027004003.
Dillard, J. P., & Seo, K. (2013). Aect and persuasion. In J. P. Dillard & L. Shen (Eds.), e
Sage handbook of persuasion (Vol. ,2nd ed., pp. 150– 166). ousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Frijda, N. (1986). e emotions.Cambridge,England:CambridgeUniversityPress.
Gerrig, R. (1993). Experiencing narrative worlds: On the psychological activities of reading.
New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Green, M. C. (2004). Transportation into narrative worlds: e role of prior knowledge and
perceived realism. Discourse Processes,38(2), 247– 266. doi:10.1207/s15326950dp3802_5.
Green, M. C. (2006). Narratives and cancer communication. Journal of Communication,
56(S1), S163–183. doi:10.1111/j.1460-2466.2006.00288.x.
Green, M. C., & Brock, T. C. (2000). e role of transportation in the persuasiveness of public
narratives. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,79(5), 701 – 721.
doi:10.1037//0022-3514.79.5.701.
Green, M. C., & Brock, T. C. (2002). In the mind’s eye: Transportation-imagery model of
narrative persuasion. In M. C. Green, J. J. Strange, & T. C. Brock (Eds.), Narrative impact:
Social and cognitive foundations (pp. 315– 341). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Green, M. C., Brock, T. C., & Kaufman, G. F. (2004). Understanding media enjoyment: e
role of transportation into narrative worlds. Communication eory,14(4), 311 – 327.
doi:10.1111/j.1468-2885.2004.tb00317.x.
Green, M. C., & Dill, K. E. (2013). Engaging with stories and characters: Learning,
persuasion, and transportation into narrative worlds. In K. E. Dill (Ed.), e Oxford
handbook of media psychology (pp. 449– 461). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
Green, M. C., & Donahue, J. K. (2009). Simulated worlds: Transportation into narratives. In
K. Markman, W. M. Klein, & J. A. Suhr (Eds.), Handbook of imagination and mental
simulation (pp. 241– 254). New York, NY: Taylor & Francis Group.
Hartmann, T., & Vorderer, P. (2010). It’s okay to shoot a character: Moral disengagement in
violent video games. Journal of Communication,60(1), 94 –119.
doi:10.1111/j.1460-2466.2009.01459.x.
Hayes, A. F. (2013). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: A
regression-based approach.NewYork,NY:GuilfordPress.
Journal of Communication 64 (2014) 935– 955 © 2014 International Communication Association 953
Role of Identification in Narrative Persuasion H. Hoeken & J. Sinkeldam
Hinyard, L. J., & Kreuter, M. W. (2007). Using narrative communication as a tool for health
behavior change: A conceptual, theoretical, and empirical overview. Health Education &
Behavior,34(5), 777– 792.
Hoeken, H., & Fikkers, K. (2014). Identication and issue-relevant thinking as mechanisms
of narrative persuasion Poetics,44, 84–99. ISSN: 0304–422X, DOI: 10.1016/j.poetic.
2014.05.001
Hoeken, H., & Hustinx, L. (2007). e impact of exemplars on responsibility stereotypes in
fund-raising letters. Communication Research,34(6), 596 –617.
doi:10.1177/0093650207307898.
Igartua, J. J. (2010). Identication with characters and narrative persuasion through ctional
feature lms. Communications. e European Journal of Communication Research,35(4),
347–373. doi:10.1515/COMM.2010.019.
Igartua, J. J., & Barrios, I. (2012). Changing real-world beliefs with controversial movies:
Processes and mechanisms of narrative persuasion. Journal of Communication,62(3),
514–531. doi:10.1111/j.1460-2466.2012.01640.x.
Kreuter, M. W., Green, M. C., Cappella, J., Slater, M. D., Wise, M. E., Storey, D., ... Woolley, S.
(2007). Narrative communication in cancer prevention and control: A framework to
guide research and application. Annals of Behavioral Medicine,33(3), 221–235.
doi:10.1007/BF02879904.
Morgan, S. E., Movius, L., & Cody, M. (2009). e power of narratives: e eect of
entertainment television organ donation storylines on the attitudes, knowledge, and
behaviors of donors and nondonors. Journal of Communication,59(1), 135–151.
doi:10.1111/j.1460-2466.2008.01408.x.
Moyer-Gusé, E. (2008). Toward a theory of entertainment persuasion: Explaining the
persuasive eects of entertainment-education messages. Communication eory,18(3),
407–425. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2885.2008.00328.x.
Moyer-Gusé, E., Chung, A. H., & Jain, P. (2011). Identication with characters and discussion
of taboo topics aer exposure to an entertainment narrative about sexual health. Journal
of Communication,6(3), 387–406. doi:10.1111/j.1460-2466.2011.01551.x.
Moyer-Gusé, E., & Nabi, R. L. (2010). Explaining the eects of narrative in an entertainment
television program: Overcoming resistance to persuasion. Human Communication
Research,36(1), 26– 52. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2958.2009.01367.x.
Murphy, S., Frank, L., Chatterjee, J., & Baezconde-Garbanati, L. (2013). Narrative versus
nonnarrative: e role of identication, transportation, and emotion in reducing health
disparities. Journal of Communication,63(1), 116–137. doi:10.1111/jcom.12007.
Murphy, S., Frank, L., Moran, M., & Patnoe-Woodley, P. (2011). Involved, transported, or
emotional? Exploring the determinants of change in knowledge, attitudes, behavior in
entertainment-education. Journal of Communication,61(3), 407–431.
doi:10.1111/j.1460-2466.2011.01554.x.
Nabi, R. (2010). e case for emphasizing discrete emotions in communication research.
Communication Monographs,77(2), 153 –159. doi:10.1080/03637751003790444.
Oatley, K. (1995). A taxonomy of the emotions of literary response and a theory of
identication in ctional narrative. Poetics,23(1-2), 53–74. doi:10.1016/0304-
422X(94)P4296-S.
Oatley, K. (1999). Meeting of minds: Dialogue, sympathy, and identication in reading
ction. Poetics,28(5-6), 439–454. doi:10.1016/S0304-422X(99)00011-X.
954 Journal of Communication 64 (2014) 935– 955 © 2014 International Communication Association
H. Hoeken & J. Sinkeldam Role of Identification in Narrative Persuasion
Raney, A. (2004). Expanding disposition theory: Reconsidering, character liking, moral
evaluations, and enjoyment. Communication eory,14(4), 348–369.
doi:10.1111/j.1468-2885.2004.tb00319.x.
Raney, A. (2006). e psychology of disposition-based theories of media enjoyment. In J.
Bryant & P. Vorderer (Eds.), Psychology of entertainment (pp. 137–150). Mahwah, NJ:
Erlbaum.
Sestir, M., & Green, M. C. (2010). You are what you watch: Identication and transportation
eects on temporary self-concept. Social Inuence,5(4), 272– 288. doi:10.1080/
15534510.2010.490672.
Slater, M. D., & Rouner, D. (2002). Entertainment-education and elaboration likelihood:
Understanding the processing of narrative persuasion. Communication eory,12(2),
173–191. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2885.2002.tb00265.x.
Slater, M. D., Rouner, D., & Long, M. (2006). Television dramas and support for controversial
public policies: Eects and mechanisms. Journal of Communication,56(2), 235 –252.
doi:10.1111/j.1460-2466.2006.00017.x.
Strange, J. J., & Leung, C. C. (1999). How anecdotal accounts in news and in ction can
inuence judgments of a social problem’s urgency, causes, and cures. Personality and
Social Psychology Bulletin,25(4), 436–449. doi:10.1177/0146167299025004004.
Tal-Or, N., & Cohen, J. (2010). Understanding audience involvement: Conceptualizing and
manipulating identication and transportation. Poetics,38(4), 402 – 418.
doi:10.1016/j.poetic.2010.05.004.
Tian, Q., & Honer, C. (2010). Parasocial interaction with liked, neutral, and disliked
characters on a popular TV series. Mass Communication and Society,13(3), 250 –269.
doi:10.1080/15205430903296051.
Till, B., & Vitouch, P. (2012). Capital punishment in lms: e impact of death penalty
portrayals on viewers’ mood and attitude toward capital punishment. Inter national
Journal of Public Opinion Research,24(3), 387–399. doi:10.1093/ijpor/edr051.
Weston, R., & Gore, P. A., Jr. (2006). A brief guide to structural equation modeling. e
Counseling Psychologist,34(5), 719– 751. doi:10.1177/0011000006286345.
Yoo, J. H., Kreuter, M. W., Lai, C., & Fu, Q. (2014). Understanding narrative eects: e role
of discrete negative emotions on message processing and attitudes among low-income
African American women. Health Communication,29(5), 494– 504. doi:10.1080/
10410236.2013.776001.
Journal of Communication 64 (2014) 935– 955 © 2014 International Communication Association 955
