Fictionality and Perceived Realism in Experiencing Stories: A Model of Narrative Comprehension and Engagement

Busselle, Rick W.; Bilandzić, Helena

doi:10.1111/j.1468-2885.2008.00322.x

Cited by 582 publications

(552 citation statements)

References 69 publications

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“…The potency of stories to change a recipient’s worldview and his or her attitudes has been attributed to the situational state of being transported into the story world ( transportation ; Gerrig, 1993; Green & Brock, 2000; or narrative engagement ; Busselle & Bilandzic, 2008, 2009). The term transportation is based on the metaphor that recipients undertake a mental journey when reading a book or watching a movie.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Argument Strength and the Persuasiveness of Stories

Schreiner

Appel

Isberner

et al. 2017

Discourse Processes

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Stories are a powerful means to change people’s attitudes and beliefs. The aim of the current work was to shed light on the role of argument strength (argument quality) in narrative persuasion. The present study examined the influence of strong versus weak arguments on attitudes in a low or high narrative context. Moreover, baseline attitudes, interindividual differences in working memory capacity, and recipients’ transportation were examined. Stories with strong arguments were more persuasive than stories with weak arguments. This main effect was qualified by a two-way interaction with baseline attitude, revealing that argument strength had a greater impact on individuals who initially were particularly doubtful toward the story claim. Furthermore, we identified a three-way interaction showing that argument strength mattered most for recipients who were deeply transported into the story world in stories that followed a typical narrative structure. These findings provide an important specification of narrative persuasion theory.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Argument Strength and the Persuasiveness of Stories

Schreiner

Appel

Isberner

et al. 2017

Discourse Processes

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“…Two layers in particular represent external realism and representativeness. External realism represents narrative elements that are accurate relative to the real world (71). When creating a narrative, it is likely that certain elements will be desired to accurately represent science in the real world; however, it may still be appropriate to relax the accuracy expectations on many of the other narrative elements for the larger purposes of narrative structure.…”

Section: Mass Media and Narrativesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using narratives and storytelling to communicate science with nonexpert audiences

Dahlstrom

2014

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

786

513

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Although storytelling often has negative connotations within science, narrative formats of communication should not be disregarded when communicating science to nonexpert audiences. Narratives offer increased comprehension, interest, and engagement. Nonexperts get most of their science information from mass media content, which is itself already biased toward narrative formats. Narratives are also intrinsically persuasive, which offers science communicators tactics for persuading otherwise resistant audiences, although such use also raises ethical considerations. Future intersections of narrative research with ongoing discussions in science communication are introduced.persuasion | ethics S torytelling often has a bad reputation within science (1).Viewed as baseless or even manipulative, stories are often denigrated with statements such as, "the plural of anecdote is not data." Such a perspective is valuable within the context of scientific data collection to underscore the important difference between making informed generalizations from systematically sampled populations versus overgeneralizations from small and often biased samples.However, when the context moves from data collection to the communication of science to nonexpert audiences, stories, anecdotes, and narratives become not only more appropriate but potentially more important. Research suggests that narratives are easier to comprehend and audiences find them more engaging than traditional logical-scientific communication (3, 4). More pragmatically, the sources from which nonexperts receive most of their science information are already biased toward narrative formats of communication. Once out of formal schooling, nonexpert audiences get the majority of their scientific information from mass media content (5). Because media practitioners have to compete for the attention of their audiences, they routinely rely on stories, anecdotes, and other narrative formats to cut although the information clutter and resonate with their audiences. Although the plural of anecdote may not be data, the anecdote has a greater chance of reaching and engaging with a nonexpert audience. The challenge for science communicators, then, is to decide when and how narratives can effectively and appropriately help them communicate to nonexperts about science.The purpose of this article is to synthesize literature on narrative communication and place it within a science communication context. The article begins with a review of narrative literature, as well as the mass media context through which most nonexpert audiences get their information about science. The article then reviews the potential persuasive impacts of narrative communication and the ethical considerations of using narrative to communicate science. Finally, future intersections of narrative with ongoing questions in science communication are introduced. NarrativesMost individuals have an inherent understanding of what it means to tell a story. Communication scholars supplement this colloquial understanding of narr...

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“…For example, when viewed as information dispersion, authenticity claims can serve to make individuals more aware of particular attributes that connote authenticity, thereby resulting in positive judgments (Beverland 2005b). Moreover, even if the claims are perceived as self-promotional, and perhaps even if they are known to be stylized versions of the truth, they can convey a narrative, which individuals might appreciate and thereby value (Peterson 1997;Beverland 2009;Busselle and Bilandzic 2008;Johnson, Thomson, and Jeffrey 2015). Or, some audience members may simply lack the knowledge to be able to determine the validity of such claims (Friestad and Wright 1994).…”

Section: Self-proclamations Of An Authentic Identitymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Perils of Proclaiming an Authentic Organizational Identity

Kovács¹,

Carroll²,

Lehman³

2017

SocScience

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An emerging body of research consistently demonstrates that individuals in developed consumer markets value authenticity. But how individuals respond to organizations that tout their identities as authentic is not so well understood. We argue that organizational attempts at explicitly proclaiming their own identity as authentic will generally be regarded by individuals with skepticism and devaluation. Across two studies with different research designs, we find consistent empirical evidence that individuals devalue organizations making identity self-claims of authenticity. The first study analyzed authenticity claims made in the texts of menus from 1,393 restaurants in Los Angeles and their corresponding 450,492 online consumer reviews recorded from 2009 to 2016. The second study used a controlled, minimalistic experimental setting with fictitious restaurant menus that examined reactions to generic authenticity self-claims. The findings illuminate how individuals respond to organizational identity claims about authenticity and raise interesting questions about other types of identity claims.

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Fictionality and Perceived Realism in Experiencing Stories: A Model of Narrative Comprehension and Engagement

Cited by 582 publications

References 69 publications

Argument Strength and the Persuasiveness of Stories

Argument Strength and the Persuasiveness of Stories

Using narratives and storytelling to communicate science with nonexpert audiences

The Perils of Proclaiming an Authentic Organizational Identity

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