How to Improve Attitudes Toward Disliked Groups

Abstract

We propose a model of how messages about groups one personally dislikes affect individual attitudes. We build upon theories of message persuasion and out-group acceptance to account for evidence type (numerical vs. narrative), facilitating conditions (encouraging empathy vs. objectivity), and the underlying mechanisms (immersion). We test this model in a pretest-posttest experiment, in which a sample of Americans ( N = 601) read counter-attitudinal commentaries below articles presenting either narrative or numerical evidence about illegal immigrants or same-sex couples. Narratives led to greater message acceptance and greater immersion, especially in the empathetic condition. In turn, numerical messages led to self-perceived attitude change in the objective condition. Persuasive effects of narratives in the empathetic, but not the objective, condition were mediated by immersion.

Do Multimedia Matter? Cognitive and Affective Effects of Embedded Multimedia Journalism

“…Transportation theory emerged in the context of longer, often fictional, narratives, such as novels, television shows, or full-feature movies, and suggests that such content engages the viewers, transports them into the narrative, and generates story-consistent effects on attitudes or behavioral intentions (e.g., Slater, Rouner, & Long, 2006). The concept of transportation has also been applied to different formats, such as short messages or health advertising (Durkin & Wakefield, 2008;Wojcieszak & Kim, 2015), and the related concept of empathetic engagement has been applied to news formats (Oliver, Dillard, Bae, & Tamul, 2012). Embedded multimedia articles are typically quite long, contain multiple elements that guide users through a coherent story, and engage users with visuals, videos, and graphics.…”

Telling stories to communicate the value of the pre‐employment structured job interview

“…In a field experiment, door-to-door canvassers significantly reduced transphobia in the general public by sharing their stories of transgender experiences (Broockman & Kalla, 2016). Stories are particularly useful when the target audience holds contrary beliefs (Wojcieszak & Kim, 2016).…”

When do stories change our minds? Narrative persuasion about social problems

“…Subjects volunteer to take part and then are asked to view or read a story. Sometimes, they are instructed to allow themselves to be immersed in the story (Krause & Rucker, 2019) or to put themselves in the protagonist's shoes (Wojcieszak & Kim, 2016). Researchers then ask questions designed to measure subjects' absorption in the story or they go straight to questions about subjects' views of the story's topic.…”