Scientific Study of Literature - Volume 8, Issue 2, 2018

Previous research suggests a link between perspective-taking and the tendency to become immersed in narratives or literature. We extend that research by considering both individual differences and persuasion outcomes. Specifically, Mind-Reading Motivation (MRM) is an individual difference in the willingness to effortfully engage with other people’s perspectives and mental states. Stories may be most influential when readers put themselves in the place of another person, even a fictional other. In Study 1, higher MRM was correlated with more fiction reading but not more nonfiction reading. Studies 2a and 2b demonstrated that higher MRM was associated with greater transportation into a narrative. We replicated this effect in Study 3, showing that MRM was associated with both higher transportation and narrative persuasion. The effect of MRM on persuasion is mediated by connections to the characters. This research helps identify which individuals are most likely to be persuaded by narrative communications.

This study investigated the relationship between individual differences in narrative transportation and attitude robustness. A total of 840 respondents participated in a web survey. In the first phase of the survey, respondents indicated their attitudes toward social issues after reading supporting or opposing texts with narrative and persuasive messages. After two weeks, the same participants read another text expressing the opposite perspective on the same issue, and again indicated their attitudes. Attitude robustness (i.e., degree of change in attitude between phases) was significantly predicted by transportability and mediated by transportation-related concepts of situational involvement. Additionally, whereas situational involvement with narrative text was predicted by transportability, situational involvement with persuasive text was consistently predicted by self-involvement with the issues. Implications of the findings for narrative transportation and persuasion research and limitations of the study are discussed.

Fiction enables readers to simulate the social experiences of characters and may facilitate prosociality. Research has indicated that fiction print exposure positively relates to empathy and may promote altruistic behaviors. Whether associations hold across different media formats and thematic genres remains unclear. This study took a multidimensional approach to both fiction engagement and empathic abilities. Specifically, it aimed to replicate previous findings that lifetime fiction exposure positively predicts empathy, and to extend this literature through an exploration of the relationships between media and genre formats, empathy and altruism. Participants (N = 404) completed a multidimensional task measure of fiction media exposure and answered questions about fiction engagement, empathic and altruistic tendencies. Results showed divergent associations between fiction format, genre, and empathic abilities, and fiction media exposure positively predicted the tendencies to become transported into narratives and to help others. Engagement with fiction formats and thematic genres may differentially support adults’ prosocial development.

Foregrounding theory deals with the relation between deviant textual device (e.g., alliteration) and the effect on readers (e.g., high aesthetic evaluation). While previous research has tended to look at an array of devices together in longer stretches of text, we focus on an isolated, semantic foregrounding device, the closed simile. We introduce a distinction between the standard and non-standard simile, representing first- and second-order foregrounding, respectively, and test the idea that the more deviant version would yield higher ratings in terms of the aesthetic, cognitive, and emotive dimensions of text appreciation. Our first finding is that experts prefer the more foregrounded version whereas novices opt for the less foregrounded one. However, our second finding is that, when the novices are prompted to interpret the similes prior to rating them, the non-standard version yields higher ratings. We conclude by discussing some implications of the present research for foregrounding theory.