Does Matching the Degree of Psychological Distance of a Story and the Story-Receiver Increase Narrative Persuasion?
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2019-07-19
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en
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This study extents the research into narrative persuasion by investigating the effects of
matching the psychological distance of the story frame with the psychological distance of
the perspective of the story receiver. Psychological distance is the degree to which an
individual pictures something as distant from oneself. A sample (N=90) was tested in the
context of the behaviour of picking up litter. It is proposed that increasing the psychological
distance in a narrative will be more persuasive when the reader of the story has a motivation
with a large psychological distance (“saving the environment”), whereas decreasing the
psychological distance will be more persuasive when the reader has a motivation with a
small psychological distance (“cleaning up the city”). Contrary to expectations, the
matching effect did not show, and participants did not have a stronger intention to pick up
litter nor did not pick up more virtual litter when their motivation matched the story frame.
However, it was shown that the motivation with a large distance from the self was predictive
of the intention to and the behaviour of picking up litter, regardless of the psychological
distance of the story frame. This provides evidence for the potential of motivations that
transcendent the self to bring about pro-environmental behaviour. The relationship between
large psychological distance motivation and the amount of virtual litter picked up was
mediated by narrative transportation. Further research may be done to test under what
conditions the large psychological distance motivation can be strengthened to increase pro environmental behaviour further.
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Faculteit der Sociale Wetenschappen