You are a hero! The influence of audience‐as‐hero narratives on policy support

Abstract

Effective communication increases support for policy measures. This article argues that a narrative that portrays a policy's target group as a hero is most effective in generating support for the given policy. The research builds on the Narrative Policy Framework (NPF) to test the influence of an audience‐as‐hero narrative on the opinion about a new campfire regulation among visitors to a national park in Russia. A survey experiment with 314 visitors to the national park compares the influence of a narrative portraying the regulation's target group as a hero (a park visitor) on policy opinion and a narrative portraying another hero (a firefighter). Results show that the audience‐as‐hero narrative has more influence on policy support than a nonnarrative message and also more than a narrative portraying another hero. This indicates that audience‐as‐hero narratives are particularly effective in generating support for policies.Related ArticlesCrow, Deserai A., Lydia A. Lawhon, John Berggren, Juhi Huda, Elizabeth Koebele, and Adrianne Kroepsch. 2017. “A Narrative Policy Framework Analysis of Wildfire Policy Discussions in Two Colorado Communities.” Politics & Policy 45(4): 626–56. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12207.Shanahan, Elizabeth A., Mark K. McBeth, and Paul L. Hathaway. 2011. “Narrative Policy Framework: The Influence of Media Policy Narrative on Public Opinion.” Politics & Policy 39(3): 373–400. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1747‐1346.2011.00295.x/abstract.Smith‐Walter, Aaron, Holly L. Peterson, Michael D. Jones, and Ashley Nicole Reynolds Marshall. 2016. “Gun Stories: How Evidence Shapes Firearm Policy in the United States.” Politics & Policy 44: 1053–88. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/polp.12187/full.