The Influence of Language (L1/L2) in a Corporate Narrative on Narrative Persuasion for Dutch and German readers.

Abstract

The influence of narratives on readers’ attitudes and beliefs is well known in the research field of narrative persuasion. However, the influence of language (L1/L2) on narrative persuasion and its underlying mechanisms, transportation, identification, narrative understanding and enjoyment, has not yet been researched for a written narrative. The current study addressed this scientific gap by examining the influence of language for Dutch and German readers in a corporate narrative. . Results showed that language of the narrative had no influence on transportation, identification narrative understanding, enjoyment and attitude towards the company and that language proficiency could not predict these variables. The overall levels of the underlying mechanisms were significantly above the mid-point of the scales, which indicates that the corporate narrative is successful in all three languages. Unexpectedly, nationality influenced the level of transportation and narrative understanding, German participants having a higher level for both. Furthermore, enjoyment was the only underlying mechanism that predicted the attitude towards the company in the corporate narrative.