Table 1 Description of models relevant to narratives
From: Using narratives to impact health policy-making: a systematic review
Model | Description |
|---|---|
Elaboration likelihood model (ELM) | Under this widely adopted ELM, persuasive situations involve a central and a peripheral route [15]. In the central or systematic route, people think deeply about the message and assess the validity of the information. In the peripheral or heuristic route, people assess characteristics of the message, such as its attractiveness; the personal relevance of the message determines the route that will be used for its perception [15] |
Green’s transportation-imagery model | This model states that the persuasiveness of a narrative depends on the extent to which people are engaged in the story events, a phenomenon called “transportation” [17]. In this model, recipients are totally immersed in the story and engage emotionally with the story characters and events. Therefore, they are less likely to counter-argue the narrative claims; this contrasts with the ELM, where recipients elaborate on the story with their thoughts, ideas and previous experiences [16] |
Entertainment overcoming resistance model | According to this model, when recipients are engaged within the story (Transportation), or when they relate to characters similar to themselves (Identification), they are less likely to be resistant to receive the message and change their attitude and behaviour [18, 20]. According to this theory, several narrative characteristics could determine how much the recipients can accept the message such as the level of suspense and imagery in the narrative and the degree of realism that recipients can associate with the story [19] |
Kahneman’s two-system way of thinking | Kahneman distinguishes between two systems of thinking: ‘System 1’ (Thinking Fast) is the intuitive way of thinking and making decisions (i.e. relying on heuristic or cognitive shortcuts that develop as part of people’s experiences), while ‘System 2’ (Thinking Slow) is the analytical and deliberate way of making decisions (i.e. weighing the advantages and disadvantages) [7]. Systems 1 and 2 are differentially activated by different aspects of narratives |