The Emotional Flow Hypothesis in Entertainment-Education Narratives: Theory, Empirical Evidence, and Open Questions

Ophir, Yotam; Sangalang, Angeline; Cappella, Joseph N.

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-63614-2_7

Cited by 14 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…In line with previous studies, our study underscores that edutainment can be an effective method for scaling public health messages, boosting engagement and conveying positive emotions 14,15,[35][36][37] . According to the emotional flow hypothesis 38 , edutainment can catalyse shifts in the emotional state 39 , from fear of being lonely to hope for belonging 40 . One of the key new takeaways from this study, emerges from our observation that combining written and edutainment messages may be particularly effective for engaging audiences.…”

Section: Edutainment Control Messagesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evidence-based health messages increase intention to cope with loneliness in Germany: a randomized controlled online trial

Liu,

Haucke,

Wegner

et al. 2024

npj Digit. Med.

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Loneliness poses a formidable global health challenge in our volatile, post-pandemic world. Prior studies have identified promising interventions to alleviate loneliness, however, little is known about their effectiveness. This study measured the effectiveness of educational entertainment (“edutainment”) and/or evidence-based, written health messages in alleviating loneliness and increasing intention to cope with loneliness. We recruited 1639 German participants, aged 18 years or older. We compared three intervention groups who received: (A) edutainment and written health messages, (B) only edutainment, or (C) only written health messages, against (D) a control group that received nothing. The primary outcomes were loneliness and intention to cope with loneliness. Participants were also invited to leave comments about the interventions or about their perception or experiences with loneliness. We found a small (d = 0.254) but significant effect of the written messages on increased intention to cope with loneliness (b = 1.78, t(1602) = 2.91, P = 0.004), while a combination of edutainment and written messages significantly decreased loneliness scores (b = −0.25, t(1602) = −2.06, P = 0.04) when compared with the control, even after adjusting for covariables including baseline values, self-esteem, self-efficacy, and hope. We also observed significantly higher self-esteem scores after exposure to a combination of edutainment and written messages (b = 0.821, t(1609) = 1.76, one-tailed P = 0.039) and significantly higher hope scores after exposure to edutainment-only (b = 0.986, t(1609) = 1.85, one-tailed P = 0.032) when compared with the control group. Our study highlights the benefits of using written messages for increasing intention to cope with loneliness and a combination of edutainment and written messages for easing loneliness. Even in small “doses” (less than 6 min of exposure), edutainment can nurture hope, and edutainment combined with written messages can boost self-esteem.

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Section: Edutainment Control Messagesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evidence-based health messages increase intention to cope with loneliness in Germany: a randomized controlled online trial

Liu,

Haucke,

Wegner

et al. 2024

npj Digit. Med.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Nabi and Green [ 33 ] suggested that these emotional shifts can be promoted in audiences as they are designed for individuals to follow character progression as events occur in narratives, especially when the character overcomes adversity. Such shifts can sustain narrative engagement, enhance the emotional intensity experienced, and in turn produce narrative-consistent cognition and behavioral changes [ 34 ]. In the current study, showcasing a character overcoming the adversity of dealing with endometriosis and eventually achieving desirable health outcomes may be effective in eliciting the emotion of hope and experiencing shifts from negative emotional states (e.g., feeling anxious, powerless, unable to take action) to positive ones characterized by optimism, excitement, and motivation.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Narrative Messages and the Use of Emotional Appeals on Endometriosis Screening Intention: The Mediating Role of Positive Affect

Worsdale

Liu

2023

IJERPH

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Endometriosis affects around 10% of women globally, yet the awareness and screening rates for this condition are relatively low. Utilizing an online survey-based experiment with a sample of 18–30-year-old young women (N = 326), this study aimed to investigate the efficacy of narrative messages vs. non-narrative messages for promoting endometriosis screening intention, as well as to evaluate the effectiveness of hope appeal vs. fear appeal in narrative messages. The study also examined the potential mediating mechanisms through self-efficacy and positive affect responses that may help elucidate the effect of emotional appeals on behavioral intentions, while taking into account an individual’s readiness to change. Findings indicated that narrative and non-narrative messages did not produce significantly different screening intentions. Compared to the use of fear appeal, the hope appeal in narrative messages predicted a higher level of positive affect responses, which was associated with increased endometriosis screening intentions. Individual difference in readiness to engage in endometriosis screening was not found to be a significant moderator. These results have implications for future research utilizing hope appeals in narrative health messaging. The observed significant mediational pathway through positive affect advances understanding of positive discrete emotions as facilitators to health-related cognition and behavior changes.

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“…Effective Persuasive strategies often employ the flow of emotions in engaging the audience in their narratives (Nabi & Gabil, 2015). However, shorter narratives require overall emotional shifts to be relayed by the audience than the characters (Ophir et al, 2021). Previous studies indicate that displaying emotions in environmental communications prevent engagement with the target audience (Bashir et al, 2013;Swim et al, 2018).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Narrative Persuasion of Environmental Leaders on Social Media: Case Studies of Two Language Educators

Rosaidi¹,

Razali²,

Ling³

et al. 2022

IJARBSS

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Lack of pro-environmental behaviours from the millennials can be detrimental to current attempts to preserve the environment. However, these millennials do trust their opinion leaders who consist of social influencers. Thus, social influencers play an important role in projecting pro-environmental behaviours and persuading their followers in embracing proenvironmental behaviours. Pro-environmental behaviours can be elicited from the millennials from their opinion leaders. The paper employed a qualitative case study to investigate social influencers' narrative persuasion in eliciting pro-environmental behaviours from their followers. Two social influencers who were language educators participated in the study. These social influencers had more than 1000 followers on their social media accounts. Data were taken from online observation and semi-structured interviews. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. Peer debriefing was used to increase trustworthiness. The findings indicated that these social influencers used narrative transportation, identification and emotions to persuade their followers to exhibit pro-environmental behaviours. Each informant had the environmental issues that they championed and had a deep personal attachment with the issue. They were more concerned with engaging fellow citizens to be more responsible consumers and conserve the environment. They were aware of local and global environmental concerns.

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The Emotional Flow Hypothesis in Entertainment-Education Narratives: Theory, Empirical Evidence, and Open Questions

Cited by 14 publications

References 43 publications

Evidence-based health messages increase intention to cope with loneliness in Germany: a randomized controlled online trial

Evidence-based health messages increase intention to cope with loneliness in Germany: a randomized controlled online trial

Narrative Messages and the Use of Emotional Appeals on Endometriosis Screening Intention: The Mediating Role of Positive Affect

Narrative Persuasion of Environmental Leaders on Social Media: Case Studies of Two Language Educators

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