Becoming a Vampire Without Being Bitten

Abstract

We propose the narrative collective-assimilation hypothesis--that experiencing a narrative leads one to psychologically become a part of the collective described within the narrative. In a test of this hypothesis, participants read passages from either a book about wizards (from the Harry Potter series) or a book about vampires (from the Twilight series). Both implicit and explicit measures revealed that participants who read about wizards psychologically became wizards, whereas those who read about vampires psychologically became vampires. The results also suggested that narrative collective assimilation is psychologically meaningful and relates to the basic human need for connection. Specifically, the tendency to fulfill belongingness needs through group affiliation moderated the extent to which narrative collective assimilation occurred, and narrative collective assimilation led to increases in life satisfaction and positive mood, two primary outcomes of belonging. The implications for the importance of narratives, the need to belong to groups, and social surrogacy are discussed.

Investigating the Effects of a Persuasive Digital Game on Immersion, Identification, and Willingness to Help

“…It is well documented that stories transmitted by traditional media can result in perceptions of increased similarity between the self and the story's main characters (Gabriel & Young, 2011) and generally in high levels of identification (see Introduction). With regards to embodied presence, on the other hand, it is possible that digital games have a distinct advantage over traditional, noninteractive media.…”

In perfect harmony: Synchronizing the self to activated social categories.

“…We propose that one reason why people might change their self-concept to match salient social categories is because they want to perceive themselves as fitting into their social environment. Given that belonging to social groups is critical to human survival and who we are (Baumeister & Leary, 1995;Gabriel & Young, 2011;Gabriel et al, 2010;Gardner, Pickett, & Brewer, 2000;Maslow, 1968;Schaller, Conway, & Peavy, 2010), people may self-synchronize to an activated social category as a way of filling a need to interconnect with their social context.…”

How listening to music and engagement with other media provide a sense of belonging: An exploratory study of social surrogacy

“…through attachment or identification with a media character (Derrick et al, 2009;). In the domain of literary fiction, social surrogacy through identification with a character as proposed previously (Gabriel & Young, 2011) also played a major role. In general, there are some links to existing frameworks, such as emotion induction mechanisms (Juslin & Västfjäll, 2008), concerning reminiscence and episodic memories.…”

“…In order to answer these questions, statements about possible social motives for media involvement were compiled and adjusted to three different domains: literary fiction, television and movies, and music. These statements were based on previous research about the functions of music (Schäfer et al, 2013) and social surrogacy (Derrick et al, 2009;Gabriel & Young, 2011; grouped into broader facets of social surrogacy through exploratory factor analyses.…”