Stellenbosch University Language Centre

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Browsing Stellenbosch University Language Centre by Author "Ooms, Joelle"

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    Beinvloedt een meer of minder sympathieke protagonist de transportatie van de lezer?
    (Amsterdam University Press, 2019-11-01) Jansen, Carel; De Graaf, Anneke; Hustinx, Lettica; Ooms, Joelle; Schreinemakers, Merel; Zwiers, Lisa
    Three previous studies into presenting a protagonist in a story as more or less sympathetic have not provided a clear picture of the effects that the portrayal of the protagonist may have on transportation, and via transportation on story-consistent beliefs. Results from a first study (N = 83) by De Graaf and Hustinx (2015) suggest that the way the protagonist is portrayed – as sympathetic, unsympathetic or neutral – influences the extent to which readers are transported into a story. No significant effects on beliefs of the readers were found, however. In a direct replication study (N = 79) and in a conceptual replication study (N = 81), Jansen, Nederhoff, and Ooms (2017) found results that supported the hypotheses from the original study to a limited extent. In view of the relatively small numbers of participants in these three studies and the resulting limited power of the statistical tests two new, larger-scaled replication studies were conducted. A direct replication study was performed (N = 238) with the same versions of the story as used in the original study, and also a conceptual replication study (N = 248) with three versions of a new story. Again, the hypotheses from the original study were supported to a limited extent. A meta-analysis of all five studies revealed a large indirect positive effect of story version on transportation via empathy, when comparing the versions with a sympathetic protagonist with the versions with an unsympathetic protagonist. When comparing the neutral story versions with the versions with an unsympathetic protagonist, the meta-analytic indirect effect was medium sized. Other than what the Affective Disposition Theory (Raney, 2004; Zillmann, 1994; 2006) claims, the story versions with a neutral protagonist did not lead to an absence of emotional responses. Furthermore, the outcomes add to the Transportation-Imagery Model (Green & Brock, 2002; Van Laer, De Ruyter, Visconti, & Wetzels, 2014). While this model does not include concrete suggestions of story characteristics that lead to transportation, our studies show that a protagonist who is portrayed as sympathetic may contribute to the level of transportation that readers experience, be it indirectly through empathy.
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    Hey, that could be me : the role of similarity in narrative persuasion
    (Public Library of Science, 2019) Ooms, Joelle; Hoeks, John; Jansen, Carel
    Stories are often used in health communication because of accumulating evidence of their potential to affect people’s attitudes and health behavioral intentions. Similarity between the reader and the story’s protagonist appears to positively influence narrative persuasion, but the exact role of similarity on persuasive outcomes is debated, as some research finds clear effects of similarity manipulations whereas others do not. Possibly, these mixed results were found because the similarity manipulations were not always relevant to the topic of the story. We conducted an experiment (N = 582) in which we varied the age and gender of the protagonist, features that were of central relevance to the story’s topic, namely breast cancer versus testicular cancer. There were two groups of participants: 324 students (mean age: 21.46 years) and 258 older adults (mean age: 56.83 years). Age similarity (but not gender similarity) had an effect on identification with the protagonist, transportation (i.e. the experience of being absorbed into a story), and the intention to donate, but only for students. For older adults, age or gender of the protagonist did not seem to matter, as nearly no differences in persuasive measures were found. As far as the underlying mechanism is concerned, the results of structural equation modeling showed that the concept of ‘perceived similarity’ would be a relevant addition to models of narrative persuasion, as it was significantly related to the narrative processes of transportation and identification, which, in turn, predicted attitudes and behavioral intentions, both directly—in the case of transportation—or indirectly, via the emotion of compassion. We conclude that both manipulated and perceived similarity are important for narrative persuasion, and that it should be kept on the research agenda of health communication.