This article presents three studies examining the importance of identification with characters in research on media entertainment. In Study 1 it was found that identification with characters was associated with spectators' degree of enjoyment of feature films of different genres. Study 2 showed that identification with characters predicts the affective impact of a dramatic film and, also, it was associated with greater cognitive elaboration and a more complex reflexive process during the viewing of the dramatic film. In Study 3 it was observed that identification with characters predicted the incidental impact of a full length fictional film on attitudes and beliefs. These results support the centrality of the construct of identification with characters in narrative persuasion research.

This paper presents a study on the sociocognitive effects of news frames on immigration.One hundred and eighty-six individuals were exposed to a newspaper story on increased immigration to Spain. The newspaper highlighted (a) the positive (economic contribution frame) versus negative (crime growth frame) consequences and (b) the group cue-Latinos versus Moroccans. In contrast with economic contribution frame, crime growth frame stimulated more negative cognitive responses toward immigration, increased the salience of immigration as a problem, generated a negative attitude toward immigration, and induced greater disagreement with positive beliefs about the consequences of immigration for the country. We conceptualized the framing effect as a heuristic process in which peripheral cues in the news story guided information processing. Bryant and Miron (2004) clearly demonstrated the popularity of framing theory, which has emerged as one of the most developed and frequently cited perspectives in recent times. Research in this field seems to be in agreement that the way a social issue is approached in the news influences how that news is interpreted and shapes the attitudes of viewers (Reese, Gandy, & Grant, 2001). However, one of the controversial aspects of framing is related to identifying the underlying mechanisms that explain how framing works. This work attempts to contribute to our knowledge of the explanatory mechanisms of framing by focusing on how individuals use heuristic principles and the role played by peripheral processing. Context: Immigration in SpainBefore reviewing the state of research on framing and its explanatory mechanisms, it will be useful to provide background information on immigration in Spain within

This work provides a conceptual introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis in psychological research. We discuss the concepts of direct effect, indirect effect, total effect, conditional effect, conditional direct effect, conditional indirect effect, and the index of moderated mediation index, while providing our perspective on certain analysis and interpretation confusions that sometimes arise in practice in this journal and elsewhere, such as reliance on the causal steps approach and the Sobel test in mediation analysis, misinterpreting the regression coefficients in a model that includes a product of variables, and subgroups mediation analysis rather than conditional process analysis when exploring whether an indirect effect depends on a moderator. We also illustrate how to conduct various analyses that are the focus of this paper with the freely-available PROCESS procedure available for SPSS, SAS, and R, using data from an experimental investigation on the effectiveness of personal or testimonial narrative messages in improving intergroup attitudes.

Empirical research has found that exposure to specific fictional narratives exerts significant effects on attitudes and beliefs. However, there is little research about the persuasive impact of controversial movies. We present an experimental research study designed to analyze the attitudinal impact of one controversial film (Camino), according to narrative persuasion theoretical models. Because of its critical message toward Opus Dei, this film triggered some controversy in Spain during its release. The results reveal that the experimental exposure to the movie induced negative opinions toward Opus Dei and religion, and weakened the relationship between political self-positioning and the aforementioned beliefs. Furthermore, the attitudinal impact was mediated by identification with the protagonist. These results are convergent with the Extended Elaboration Likelihood Model.

This study aimed to contribute to the understanding of the mechanisms explaining the so-called framing effect. Experimental research (N = 355) was carried out with a 2 × 2 between-subjects factor design in which the news frame and group cues were manipulated in a news story on the consequences of the increase in immigration in Spain, and their impact on cognitive, attitudinal, and emotional variables was assessed. The results show that the type of news frame stressed in the report exerted significant cognitive, attitudinal, and emotional effects. It was also found that the emotional impact aroused by the news frame was conditioned by the incidental presence of information regarding the national or geographic origin of the immigrants in question. These results are consistent with the hypotheses posed and partially support the argument that the framing effect is a process governed by heuristic processing.