An analysis of content characteristics in prosocial narratives focusing on marginalized groups.
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2025-01-06
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en
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This study investigates the content characteristics of prosocial narratives featuring marginalized people. We analyzed 32 text-based prosocial narratives from a collection of studies that tested the persuasive effects of prosocial narratives. All these studies were published after the year 2010. The three content characteristics setting, characters and event were investigated. By investigating these elements of altruistic narratives, the research aimed to identify themes, patterns and helpful insight in the portrayal of these groups in persuasive prosocial narratives that provoke altruistic behavior. This study found that the most common content characteristics of prosocial narratives featuring marginalized people are urban settings in the present, single adult main-characters and storylines that surround situational or relational challenges over several days with an overall negative valence. Mostly, these narratives entail a power dynamic imbalance. These findings about the commonality of content characteristics in text-based altruistic narratives emphasizes the emotional and cognitive engagement of readers to successfully evoke empathy and prosocial behavior.
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