The effect of language (French, Dutch or English) on the level of persuasiveness of a corporate narrative.

Abstract

The current study used a corporate narrative to examine whether the language of the narrative affects the mechanisms of narrative persuasion, like emotional involvement, identification, transportation and comprehensibility. Another question that has been researched is whether the language affects the attitude towards a company and the purchase intention of its potential customers. Within the current study, a between-subject design was used in which 54 participants read the French narrative, 72 read the Dutch narrative and 75 read the English narrative. All participants were Dutch students in their upper-secondary school level. It turned out that language did have an influence on the narrative persuasion, in line with expectations.