Don't judge a book by its author: Central and peripheral processing in narrative persuasion

Abstract

<p>According to the Narrative Transportation model of persuasion, narrative persuasion is structurally different from non-narrative persuasion, and therefore not moderated by differences in cognitive elaboration (Green & Brock, 2000). However, narratives also contain aspects of arguments that can be influenced by elaboration—vividness, empathy, and causal structure. This study tested the hypothesis that an Elaboration Likelihood Model paradigm using a narrative message would produce similar results to those observed in rhetorical persuasion. Participants (N = 478) read a narrative arguing against illegal media use which contained manipulations of both peripheral and message-relevant aspects while completing distraction tasks. While highly distracted participants were more persuaded by the peripheral cue, minimally distracted participants were not. Unexpectedly, the central merit of protagonist representativeness had a main effect on persuasion across distraction conditions. These findings suggest that narrative persuasion arises partially from the inherent argument strength of narratives, but that narratives may have different patterns of elaborative outcomes than rhetorical messages.</p>