Anneke de Graaf and Lettica HustinxDe Graaf and Hustinx
Introduction
Narrativescancreateanexperiencethatisbothintenseandimpactful.Read- erscanbecomedeeplyengagedwithanarrativeanditscharacters,astheyfo-custheircompleteattentionontheeventsthataredescribedandexperience
emotionsinresponsetotheseevents.1Readersthenloseawarenessofthereal
worldandbecome“lost”intheworldcreatedbythenarrative.2Formanyread-ers,thisisafamiliarexperience.Infact,itisprobablyoneofthemainreasons
whypeoplereadstories.3Peopleenjoyforgettingtheirdailylivesforawhileby
becomingabsorbedinanalternativeworld.4Giventheintensenatureofthis
experience,itisnotsurprisingthatsuchengagementwithanarrativecanhave
far-reachingimpact.GreenandBrock’sresearchhasshownthattransporta-tion,orthefeelingthatoneisbeingcarriedintoanarrativeworld,canmake
readers’beliefsbecomemoreconsistentwiththebeliefsimplicitlyimpliedby
thestory.5Also,engagementwithspecificcharactershasbeenshowntolead
readerstoaligntheirownattitudeswiththoseofthatcharacter.6Itisthusclear
thattheintensenarrativeexperiencecanimpactreaders’viewsoftheworld.
However,previousresearchhasgenerallynotaddressedwhycertainnarra- tivesaremoresuccessfulindrawingreadersintothestory,thanothers.Ante-cedentsoftransportation,i.e.thedeterminantsthatcausetransportationinto
anarrativeworld,havescarcelybeenresearched.7Inotherwords,itisstill
largelyunclearwhichnarrativefeaturescontributetoengagementwiththe
storyandultimatelytotheoccurrenceofpersuasiveeffects.ThisiswhyGreen
1 BusselleandBilandzic(2008);DeGraaf,Hoeken,SandersandBeentjes(2009);Green
(2006).
2 Gerrig(1993);Nell(1988).
3 Slater(2002);SlaterandRouner(2002).
4 Green,BrockandKaufman(2004).
5 GreenandBrock(2000).
6 DeGraaf,Hoeken,SandersandBeentjes(2012).
7 Green(2004).
© AnnekedeGraafandLetticaHustinx,2015 | doi10.1163/9789004270848_008
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(2008)seesuncovering“theactiveingredientsofeffectivenarratives”asoneof
themostimportantchallengesinthisresearcharea.8Thisstudytakesupthat
challengebyinvestigatingtheinfluenceofacentralelementofnarratives:fea-turesoftheprotagonist.BasedonZillmann’sAffectiveDispositionTheory,the
differentportrayalsoftheprotagonists’behaviourandpersonality(assympa-thetic,neutral,orunsympathetic)inelicitingtransportationistested.9Inthe
followingtheoreticalframework,theTransportation-ImageryModelofGreen
andBrockisdiscussedfirst.10Then,theAffectiveDispositionTheoryispre-sented.Finally,thehypothesesofthisstudyareformulated.
Transportation-Imagery Model
ThetermtransportationisusedbyGerrig(1993)asametaphorfortheexperi-encethatreadersofastorycanhaveduringreading.Hedescribesreadersas
travellerswhofeelthattheyhavejourneyedsomedistancefromtheirworldof
originandintoanotherworld.11Followingthisdescription,GreenandBrock
conceptualizetransportationasaconvergentprocess,inwhichallmentalsys- temsbecomefocusedoneventsoccurringinthenarrative.Thesementalsys-temsarespecifiedasreaders’attention,emotion,andimagery.Thus,when
readersaretransported,theirattentionisconcentratedonthestory,theyhave
emotionsinresponsetothestory,andtheyformmentalimagesofthethings
thataredescribedinthestory.Inotherwords,atransportedreaderimagines
thenarrativeeventsin“themind’seye”andexperiencesthestoryfromthein-side,asifthenarrativeworldhasbeenentered.12
TheTransportation-ImageryModelprovidesatestabletheoryoftheante- cedentsandconsequencesoftransportation.Themodelconsistsoffivepostu-latesthatmakeupaunifiedaccountofthecompletetransportationprocess.
Thefirsttwopostulatesconcerntheconsequencesoftransportation,which
are the persuasive effects of narratives. “Narrative persuasion” refers to a
changeinreaders’beliefsandattitudesafterreadinganarrative.13Thefirst
postulateconcernstheprerequisitesforsuchpersuasiveeffectstooccur,such
asthefactthatcertainbeliefsneedtobeimpliedbythenarrativebeforeitcan
8 Green(2008)48.
9 Zillmann(1994,2006).
10 GreenandBrock(2002).
11 Gerrig(1993)11.
12 GreenandBrock(2000,2002).
13 GreenandBrock(2000,2002).
havepersuasiveeffects.Thesecondpostulateconcernsthemechanismofnar-rativepersuasion,claimingthatbelief-changeoccurstotheextentthatreaders
aretransportedintothenarrativeworld.Astransportationconsistsofatten- tion,emotionandimagery,thispostulateconcernsthesethreeaspects.Impor-tantly,thetypeofemotionthatispartoftransportationisnotspecifiedinthe
model.Alltypesofemotions,fromsadnesstohappinesscancontributeto
transportation.14 In sum, the Transportation-Imagery Model posits that as
readershavemoreattentionfor,emotionalresponseto,andvisualimageryof
thestory,theirbeliefsandattitudeswillbecomemoreconsistentwiththesto-ry. Thepersuasiveconsequencesoftransportationhavebeeninvestigatedex-tensively.Intheirfirstthreeexperiments,GreenandBrock(2000)presented
theirparticipantswithastoryaboutayounggirlwhoismurderedinamallby
apsychiatricpatientonleave.Becauseanattemptedmanipulationoftrans-portationwasnotsuccessfulintheseexperiments,15participantsweredivided
intoagroupthatachievedahigherscoreonthetransportationscaleanda
groupthatachievedalowerscoreonthisscale.Resultsshowedthathightrans-portationparticipantsheldbeliefsmoreconsistentwiththestorythanlow
transportationparticipants.Forinstance,themoretransportedreaderscon-sidered malls to be more dangerous and thought that psychiatric patients
shouldhavefewerrightstogoonleavethanthelesstransportedreaders.How-ever, as transportation was not successfully manipulated, it is not certain
whethertransportationactuallycausedthesedifferences.Therefore,afourth
experimentwascarriedout,whichdidsucceedinmanipulatingtransporta-tion.Thisexperimentusedastoryaboutayoungboywhowasstrandedonan
islandoficewithhisdog.Participantswhohadbeeninstructedtocirclewords
thattheyjudgedtoodifficultforfourth-gradereaderswerelesstransported
intothestorythanparticipantswhohadbeeninstructedtoreadthestorynor-mally.Moreover,theseparticipantsheldbeliefsthatwerelessconsistentwith
thestory(aboutthevalueoffriendshipandloyalty)thantheparticipantswho
did not have to carry out an extra task during reading. Mediation analysis
14 Green(2006).
15 Onegroupofparticipantswasinstructedtocircleallwordsthattheyjudgedtoodifficult
forfourth-gradereaders,whereasanothergroupwasinstructedtoreadthestorylikethey
normallywould.Itwasexpectedthatthefirstgroupwouldshowlowerlevelsoftranspor-tationintothenarrativeworldbecausetheyhadtofocusontheformofthewordsand
grammarinsteadoftheeventsinthestory.However,resultsshowedthattherewereno
differencesbetweenthegroupsandthusthemanipulationoftransportationwasunsuc-cessful.
showedthattransportationwasindeedresponsiblefortheseeffects,indicat-ingacausaleffectoftransportationonpersuasion.
Similarly,anotherseriesofexperimentsinvestigatedtheeffectsofengage-mentwithcharacters.16Thistypeofengagement,alsocalledidentification,is
anexperiencethatiscloselylinkedtotransportation.17Identificationrefersto
adoptingtheperspectiveofacharacterandhavingemotionalresponsesthat
areconsistentwiththoseofthecharacter.18So,readersofastorywhoidentify
withacharacteralsoexperiencethestoryfromwithinandfeelemotionsin
reactiontothenarrativeevents.DeGraafetal.showedthatreadersofastory
told from the perspective of a specific character, identified more with this
characterandheldattitudesmoreconsistentwiththischaracter.Again,me-diationanalysisrevealedthatidentificationwascausallyresponsibleforthe
persuasive effects of the story.19 In sum, several studies show that the ex-perience of becoming absorbed in a story and being transported into the
story-world leads to narrative persuasion, confirming the first part of the
Transportation-ImageryModelabouttheconsequencesoftransportation.
The second part of the Transportation-Imagery Model, comprising the
third,fourth,andfifthpostulate,concernstheantecedentsoftransportation.
Thesepostulatesstatethatpropensityfortransportationbyexposuretoagiv-ennarrativeaccountisaffectedbyattributesoftherecipient,attributesofthe
text,andattributesofthecontext.So,characteristicsofthereader,ofthenar- rativeandofthereadingsituationinfluencewhetherareaderbecomestrans-ported into a narrative. For instance, regarding attributes of the recipient,
readerswithanaptitudeforformingmentalimages,i.e.peoplewithastrong
imagination, will tend to experience more transportation.20With regard to
theattributesofthecontext,thesituationmaylimitreaders’imaginativein-vestment in a narrative. For instance, when there are other people talking
loudlyinthevicinityofthereader,thereadermaybedistractedfromthestory.
However,regardingattributesofthetext,thetheoryisnotveryclear.Accord-ingtoGreenandBrock,oneofthemostimportantattributesofthetextthat
affectstransportationisartisticcraftsmanship.Ifastoryisofhighquality,it
willbemoretransporting.However,itisunclearwhatmakesastoryofhigh
quality.Therefore,thishypothesisishardtotestandthetheorydoesnotgive
concreteindicationsofstorycharacteristicsthatwillleadtotransportation.To
16 DeGraafetal.(2012).
17 SeeSlaterandRouner(2002)177.
18 Cohen(2001,2006).
19 DeGraafetal.(2012).
20 GreenandBrock(2002).
expandtheTransportation-ImageryModelandtogaininsightintowhatmakes
storieseffectiveattransportingreadersintoanarrativeworld,thisstudyfo-cusesontheroleofattributesofthetextintransportation.
Some preliminary studies have investigated characteristics of narratives
thatcanpromotetransportation.DeGraafandHustinxhavelookedatthein-fluenceofstorystructure.Theyusedastoryaboutamanwhofallsillandtries
differentcurestogetbetter.Inoneversionofthestory,thefinaloutcomeof
himgettingbetterwasalreadydisclosedatthebeginningofthestory,after
whichthetreatmentsaredescribed.Intheotherversionofthestory,readers
onlygottoknowthisfinaloutcomeattheendafterreadingaboutthedifferent
treatments.Thelatterversioninwhichitisuncleartoreaderswhattheout-comewillbe,wasexpectedtoelicitmoreemotionandtransportationbecause
readersareinsuspenseaboutwhatwillhappen,comparedtotheotherversion
inwhichreadersalreadyknowfromthebeginningthatthecharacterwillbe
cured.Resultsindeedshowedthatreadersofthesuspensefulversionreported
highertransportationonboththeemotionandtheattentionsubscales.This
showsthatreaderswhodidnotyetknowtheoutcomeweremoreabsorbedin
thestory.Thus,storystructureisacharacteristicthatcaninfluencetransporta-tion.21
Inadifferentstudy,itwasassessedwhethertheperspectiveofthestoryaf-fectstransportation.22Aversionofastorywithanomniscientnarratorwas
comparedtoaversionofthesamestorytoldbyafirst-personnarrator.The
omniscientnarratorreferredtotheprotagonistas“he”andpresentedbothhis
thoughtsandthethoughtsofothercharacters.Thefirst-personnarratorre-ferredtotheprotagonist(himself)as“I”andpresentedonlyhisownthoughts.
Thelatterversionwasexpectedtobringreadersclosertotheprotagonistand
thuselicitmoreemotions.Resultsindeedshowedthatthestorytoldbythe
first-personnarratorwasmoretransporting;participantswhohadreadthis
versionreportedmoreemotionandmoreattentionforthestorythanpartici-pantswhohadreadthestorytoldbytheomniscientnarrator.23Theseresults
werecorroboratedbythepreviouslymentionedstudyofDeGraafetal.(2012),
whoshowedthattheperspectiveofastoryledtomoreengagementwithchar-acters,whichiscloselylinkedtotransportation.Thus,storyperspectiveisa
storycharacteristicthatcaninfluencetransportation.
Thesestudiesprovidespecificstoryattributesthatpromotetransportation
andthusprovideinsightintoantecedentsoftransportation.Theyalsoprovide
21 DeGraafandHustinx(2011).
22 HustinxandSmits(2006).
23 HustinxandSmits(2006).
astartingpointforamoregeneralnarrativeelementthatcouldplayarolein
transportation.Thesestudiesshowedthatstoriesthatbringreaderscloserto
theprotagonistofastorymakereadersbecomemoretransportedintothe
storyworld.Thissuggeststhattheprotagonistmaybeimportantfortranspor-tation.Thishasbeenshownfortheperspectivefromwhichtheprotagonistis
presented,24butotherfeaturesoftheprotagonistmayalsoincreasetranspor-tation.Ifitisshownthatdifferentfeaturesofacharacterthatbringreaders
closetothecharacterconsistentlyleadtotransportation,wewillhavefounda
clearandconcreteantecedentoftransportationtoaddtotheTransportation-ImageryModel.Therefore,weturntotheAffectiveDispositionTheory,which
providesanotherfeaturethatpromotesclosenesstocharacters.25
Affective Disposition Theory
AffectiveDispositionTheorywasdevelopedtoexplaintheemotionsrecipients
feelinresponsetostories.Thetheorypositsthattheemotionsthatareevoked
byastoryaredependentonthedispositionsthatreaders26havetowardsthe
characters.Adispositionreferstotheextentthatareadercaresforthecharac-ter.Ifareaderlikesacharacter,thereaderhasapositivedispositiontowardthe
character;ifareaderisindifferenttowardacharacter,thereaderhasaneutral
dispositiontowardthecharacterandifareaderdoesnotlikeacharacter,heor
shehasanegativedisposition.AffectiveDispositionTheorypositsthatthese
dispositionspredicttheextentandthetypeofemotionareaderwillfeelfora
character.27
Onlyifareaderhaseitherapositiveoranegativedispositiontowardachar- acter,doesthereadercarewhatwillhappentothecharacterandfeelsemo-tions as a result of that character’s experiences. If a reader has a neutral
disposition,he/shedoesnotcarewhathappenstothecharacterandfeelsno
emotioninresponsetotheeventsinthestory.Importantly,the type ofemotion
differsbetweenapositiveandanegativedisposition,whereasthe extentof emotiondiffersbetweenaneutraldispositionontheonehandandapositive
24 HustinxandSmits(2006);deGraafetal.(2012).
25 Zillmann(1994,2006).
26 Inhispublications,Zillmann(1994,2006)talksabout“viewers”becausehefocuseson
storiesinthetheaterandontelevision.However,sincethetheoryisaboutcharactersand
theeventstheyexperience,itshouldalsobeappliedtowrittenstories.Aswrittenstories
arethefocusofthisstudy,wewillusethetermreaders.
27 Raney(2004);Zillmann(1994,2006).
andnegativedispositionontheotherhand.Regardingthetypeofemotion,
AffectiveDispositionTheorypredictsthatifareaderhasapositivedisposition
towardacharacter,thereaderwantsthecharactertosucceedandhopesposi-tiveeventswillhappentothecharacter.Oatley(1994,1999)arguesthatthis
evokesempathy.28Thereaderishappywhengoodthingshappentothechar- acterandsadwhenbadthingshappen.Thereader’semotionsarethenconsis-tentwiththeemotionsofthecharacter.29Conversely,ifareaderhasanegative
dispositiontowardacharacter,thereaderwantsthecharactertofailandhopes
negativeeventswillhappentothecharacter.Thisevokescounter-empathy.
Thereaderishappywhenbadthingshappentoacharacterandsadwhengood
thingshappen.Inthiscase,thereader’semotionsareinoppositiontotheemo- tionsofthecharacter.30However,theextentofemotions(althoughofoppo-sitevalence)canbethesameforreaderswhohaveapositiveandanegative
disposition. Affective Disposition Theory predicts that readers who have a
neutraldispositionexperiencelessemotionsthanreaderswitheitheraposi-tiveornegativedisposition.
According to Affective Disposition Theory the dispositions that readers
havetowardcharactersaredependentonthecharacters’moralconduct.Ifa
characterperformsmorallygoodactions,thereaderwillformapositivedispo- sitiontowardsthecharacter;ifacharacteronlyperformsactionsthatarenei-thermorallygoodnorbad,thereaderwillformaneutraldispositiontoward
thecharacterandifacharacterperformsmorallybadactions,thereaderwill
form a negative disposition.31 In other words, if a character behaves sym-pathetically,thecharacterwillbeliked,ifacharacterbehavesneutrally,the
characterwillbemetwithindifference,andifacharacterbehavesunsympa- thetically,thecharacterwillbedisliked.Inourview,otherelementsthanbe-haviourcancontributetothesympathyshowntowardacharacter,suchas
thoughts,utterances,andjudgmentsofotherpeople’sbehaviour.
Insummary,readersformadispositionorattachmenttocharactersina
storyfromnegativethroughneutraltopositiveonthebasisofthecharacters’
conductandpersonality.So,sympatheticbehaviourandpersonalityshould
lead to a positive disposition, which evokes empathy with the character,
whereasunsympatheticbehaviourandpersonalityshouldleadtoanegative
disposition,whichevokescounter-empathy.Ifreadershaveaneutraldisposi-tiontowardacharacter,noemotionsshouldbeevoked.Toseewhetherthese
28 Oatley(1994,1999).
29 Cohen(2001);Tan(1994).
30 Zillmann(1994,2006).
31 Raney(2004);Zillmann(1994,2006).
predictionsarecorrect,anexperimentwasconductedthatcomparedastory
withasympathetic,aneutral,andanunsympatheticprotagonist.
Hypotheses
Theaimofthisstudyistofindanarrativeelementthataffectstransportation,
sothatwecanaddthiselementasaconcreteantecedentoftransportationto
theTransportation-ImageryModel.Wefocusonanelementthatinfluences
theemotionevokedbyastory,whichisoneofthethreeaspectsoftransporta-tion.AffectiveDispositionTheoryprovidesacharacterfeaturethatpromotes
emotions,whichistheextenttowhichacharacterisdescribedasasympa- theticperson.Ifareadercaresforacharacterbecauseheactsandthinkssym-pathetically,thereaderwillfeelempathy;ifareaderisindifferenttowarda
character,thereaderwillfeelnoempathy,andifareaderdislikesacharacter
becauseheisdescribedasanunsympatheticperson,thereaderwillfeelcoun-ter-empathy.Basedonthisreasoning,thefirstthreehypothesesofthisstudy
are:
H1 Readersofastorywithasympatheticprotagonisthaveamorepositive
dispositiontowardtheprotagonistthanreadersofthestorywithaneu- tralprotagonist,whointurnhaveamorepositivedispositionthanread-ersofthestorywithanunsympatheticprotagonist.
H2 Readersofastorywithasympatheticprotagonistfeelmoreempathyfor
theprotagonistthanreadersofthestorywithaneutralprotagonist,who
inturnfeelmoreempathythanreadersofthestorywithanunsympa-theticprotagonist.
H3 Theeffectoftheprotagonist’sportrayalonempathyismediatedbythe
dispositiontowardthecharacter.
Empathyisexpectedtobelessfortheunsympatheticprotagonistbecausethis
characterlikelyevokescounter-empathy.However,suchcounter-empathyis
alsoatypeofemotion.Therefore,AffectiveDispositionTheorypredictsthat
readersofthesympatheticversion,aswellasreadersoftheunsympathetic
version,feelmoreemotionthanreadersoftheneutralversion.Thisisimpor-
version,feelmoreemotionthanreadersoftheneutralversion.Thisisimpor-