The Power of Fiction: Determinants and Boundaries

Abstract

Entertainment media often present fictional portrayals of events, and individuals regularly alter their real-world beliefs in response tofictional communications (e.g., Green & Brock, 2000; Strange & Leung, 1999). Whereas marketing practitioners have seized on the selling potential inherent in entertainment media (e.g., with product placements in sitcoms and movies), psychologists are only beginning to understand the nature and mechanisms of fictional influence. In this chapter, we focus on entertainment programs themselves, rather than advertisements or persuasive messages per se. We offer an overview of research on the persuasive power of fictional communications and provide a conceptual framework for studying the effects of fiction and narrative. Evidence suggests that two mechanisms, low elaborative scrutiny and high experienced transportation, may underlie the influence of fictional communications. Furthermore, promising areas of research are outlined that begin to elucidate the boundary conditions under which fiction can have an influence and the factors that determine the staying power of that influence.

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