TY - JOUR
T1 - Metacognitive approach to narrative persuasion
T2 - the desirable and undesirable consequences of narrative disfluency
AU - Walter, Nathan
AU - Bilandzic, Helena
AU - Schwarz, Norbert
AU - Brooks, John J.
PY - 2020
Y1 - 2020
N2 - The current article tests the metacognitive proposition that the relative ease or difficulty with which narrative messages are processed can affect subsequent judgment. Challenging the assertion that experienced disfluency is mostly negative and undesirable, it is argued that disfluent (difficult-to-process) narratives are well-positioned to facilitate narrative persuasion when people hold value-laden beliefs. Using the controversial context of physician-assisted suicide, two experiments (N1 = 204, N2 = 558) demonstrate that a metacognitive experience of difficulty is used to infer positions regarding the narrative message. The article then proceeds to test a theoretical model, showing that fluent narratives gain their strength by facilitating the experience of flow among ambivalent individuals, whereas disfluent narratives can challenge value-laden beliefs by attenuating attitude certainty. Implications are discussed and future directions for a metacognitive approach to narrative persuasion are offered.
AB - The current article tests the metacognitive proposition that the relative ease or difficulty with which narrative messages are processed can affect subsequent judgment. Challenging the assertion that experienced disfluency is mostly negative and undesirable, it is argued that disfluent (difficult-to-process) narratives are well-positioned to facilitate narrative persuasion when people hold value-laden beliefs. Using the controversial context of physician-assisted suicide, two experiments (N1 = 204, N2 = 558) demonstrate that a metacognitive experience of difficulty is used to infer positions regarding the narrative message. The article then proceeds to test a theoretical model, showing that fluent narratives gain their strength by facilitating the experience of flow among ambivalent individuals, whereas disfluent narratives can challenge value-laden beliefs by attenuating attitude certainty. Implications are discussed and future directions for a metacognitive approach to narrative persuasion are offered.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85088397133&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85088397133&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/15213269.2020.1789477
DO - 10.1080/15213269.2020.1789477
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85088397133
SP - 1
EP - 27
JO - Media Psychology
JF - Media Psychology
SN - 1521-3269
ER -