An Enjoyable Story, a Persuasive Story: Exploring Narrative Enjoyment in Narrative Persuasion

Abstract. Applying disposition theory to narrative persuasion, this study examined how audience members’ enjoyment of a narrative promotes persuasion differently than transportation and identification. In a 2 (affective disposition: liked vs. disliked story character) × 2 (framing: gain vs. loss framed story) between-subject experiment, participants ( N = 295) read a story in which a liked or disliked character has either a positive outcome (a gain frame) or a negative outcome (a loss frame) dependent on the story character’s engagement in sun protection behaviors. Consistent with disposition theory, participants enjoyed the story more when a liked character was in a gain-framed (vs. loss-framed) narrative; however, no framing effect was found for a disliked character. This interactive effect on enjoyment, in turn, mediated participants’ intentions to engage in sun protection behaviors. Affective disposition and framing independently influenced transportation and identification. Transportation mediated the effect of affective disposition on behavioral intention, but identification did not. This study demonstrates distinctive narrative conditions that prompt enjoyment, transportation, and identification in different ways and, in turn, lead to persuasive effects.