Defining the field
Deighton, Romer, and McQueenDeighton, J., Romer, D., & McQueen, J. (1989). "Using drama to persuade." ''Journal of Consumer Research, 16''(3), 335-343. anticipate the construct of narrative transportation by arguing that a story invites story receivers into the action it portrays and, as a result, makes them lose themselves in the story. Gerrig was the first to coin the notion of narrative transportation within the context of novels. Using travel as a metaphor for reading, he conceptualizes narrative transportation as a state of detachment from the world of origin that the story receiver—in his words, the traveler—experiences because of his or her engrossment in the story, a condition that Green and Brock later describe as the story receiver's experience of being carried away by the story. Notably, the state of narrative transportation makes the world of origin partially inaccessible to the story receiver, thus marking a clear separation in terms of here/there and now/before, or narrative world/world of origin.Relevant features
Most research on narrative transportation follows the original definition of the construct. Scholars in the field constantly reaffirm the relevance of three features. # Narrative transportation requires that people process stories—the acts of receiving and interpreting. # Story receivers become transported through two main components: empathy and mental imagery. Empathy implies that story receivers try to understand the experience of a story character, that is, to know and feel the world in the same way. Thus, empathy offers an explanation for the state of detachment from the world of origin that is narrative transportation. In mental imagery, story receivers generate vivid images of the story plot, such that they feel as though they are experiencing the events themselves. # When transported, story receivers lose track of reality in a physiological sense. In accordance with these features, Van Laer et al.van Laer, T., de Ruyter, K., Visconti, L. M., & Wetzels, M. (2014). "The Extended Transportation-Imagery Model: A meta-analysis of the antecedents and consequences of consumers' narrative transportation." ''Journal of Consumer Research, 40''(5), 797-817. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2033192 or doi: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/673383 define narrative transportation as the extent to which # an individual empathizes with the story characters and # the story plot activates their imagination, which leads them to experience suspended reality during story reception.Similar constructs
Narrative transportation is a form of experiential response to narratives and thus is similar to other constructs, such as absorption, narrative involvement, identification, optimal experience or flow, andNarrative persuasion
Since narrative transportation's conceptualization, research has demonstrated that the transported "traveler" can return changed by the journey. Subsequent studies have confirmed that a story can engross the story receiver in a transformational experience, whose effects are strong and long-lasting. The transformation that narrative transportation achieves is persuasion of the story receiver. More specifically, Van Laer et al.'s literature review reveals that narrative transportation can cause affective and cognitive responses, beliefs, and attitude and intention changes. However, the processing pattern of narrative transportation is markedly different from that in well-established models of persuasion. A 2016 meta-analysis found significant, positive narrative persuasion (i.e., narrative-consistent) effects for attitudes, beliefs, intentions and behaviors.Rival models
Before 2000, dual-process models of persuasion, especially theDifferences between analytical and narrative persuasion
Analytical persuasion and narrative persuasion differ depending on the role of involvement. In analytical persuasion, involvement depends on the extent to which the message has personally relevant consequences for a receiver's money, time, or other resources. If these consequences are sufficiently severe, receivers evaluate the arguments carefully and generate thoughts related to the arguments. Yet, as Slater notes, even though severe consequences for stories are relatively rare, "viewers or readers of an entertainment narrative typically appear to be far more engrossed in the message." This type of involvement, or narrative transportation, is arguably the crucial determinant of narrative persuasion. Though the dual-process models provide a valid description of analytical persuasion, they do not encompass narrative persuasion. Analytical persuasion refers to attitudes and intentions developed from processing messages that are overtly persuasive, such as most lessons in science books, news reports, and speeches. However, narrative persuasion refers to attitudes and intentions developed from processing narrative messages that are not overtly persuasive, such as novels, movies, or video games. Addressing the strength and duration of the persuasive effects of processing stories, narrative transportation is a mental state that produces enduring persuasive effects without careful evaluation of arguments. Transported story receivers are engrossed in a story in a way that neither is inherently critical nor involves great scrutiny.Sleeper effect
Narrative transportation seems to be more unintentionally affective than intentionally cognitive in nature. This way of processing leads to potentially increasing and long-lasting persuasive effects. Appel and Richter use the term "Moderators
ETIM contains three methodological factors that moderate the overall effect of narrative transportation, as van Laer, Feiereisen, and Visconti detail. The narrative transportation effect is stronger # for stories in the commercial (vs. non-commercial) domain, # for stories by users (vs. professionals), and # for stories received alone (vs. with others).See also
* Media psychology *References
{{Reflist Consumer behaviour Narratology Persuasion