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Narrative Involvement with a Stigmatized Character: The Influence of Happy vs. Sad Endings on Narrative Processing and De-stigmatization

Chung, Adrienne Haesun
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1372782560

Abstract Details

2013, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Communication.
This dissertation examines how stigma labels and emotional arousal at story-ending impact narrative processing and in-group perception. In particular, the impact of a character’s stigma label and affect aroused at story-ending on identification and its component dimensions is explored. This dissertation focuses on exploring the identification process because it is argued to be a key aspect of narrative involvement that can encourage de-stigmatization. Based on the perspective that positive affect can cue approach (Slovic et al., 2003), it is hypothesized that a happy-ending narrative and a non-stigmatized protagonist will correspond to greater overall identification compared to a sad-ending narrative featuring a stigmatized protagonist. This dissertation also proposes that examining the separate components of identification may illuminate the distinct influences of stigma label and emotional arousal on aspects of character involvement. Furthermore, adding a perspective-sharing component to the identification construct may increase its predictive validity on in-group perception outcomes. More specifically, merged perspective with a stigmatized character, which includes perspective-sharing and empathic perspective-taking, is argued to be key to motivating in-group perception. Finally, this dissertation explores the notion that identification can function not only as a continuous online process, but also as a retrospective re-appraisal. Participants (n=308) were randomly assigned to one of six conditions, where they read a short story that featured a protagonist who was either HIV-positive, bipolar, or had no stigma, and a story-ending that was either happy or sad. Afterwards, participants completed a post-test through MediaLab (Jarvis, 2009) where they answered explicit attitude measures about identification with the protagonist, empathy for the protagonist’s stigmatized group, stigma attitudes regarding HIV/bipolar disorder, transportation into the narrative, perceived similarity to the protagonist, degree of liking the protagonist, overall narrative enjoyment, and affective arousal at story-ending. Finally, participants were asked to retell the story in their own words. Results demonstrated that participants identified more with the protagonist when the story ended on a positive note, especially in the context of a character with bipolar disorder. In general, participants identified less with a stigmatized protagonist compared to a non-stigmatized protagonist. Mediation analyses revealed that there was a significant indirect effect of merged perspective (i.e. empathic perspective-taking and perspective-sharing combined) on in-group perception. However, merged perspective did not significantly mediate de-stigmatized attitudes. Examining the component dimensions of identification demonstrated supported for identification as a re-appraisal, in addition to being a continuous online process. More specifically, while the absorption/motivational component of identification remained consistent between conditions, the perspective-sharing component significantly differed depending on story-ending and stigma-label. These results indicate that while some elements of identification are continuously processed (i.e. understanding the characters motivations and goals and feeling absorbed in the plot), other components may be re-assessed at story-ending. In this particular instance, affect aroused at story-ending was enough to significantly impact retrospective perspective-sharing with the protagonist.
Michael Slater (Advisor)
David Ewoldsen (Committee Member)
Michelle Ortiz (Committee Member)
126 p.
Communication
identification; perspective-taking; empathy; narrative; transportation; social identity; stigma; health communication; affect

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Chung, A. H. (2013). Narrative Involvement with a Stigmatized Character: The Influence of Happy vs. Sad Endings on Narrative Processing and De-stigmatization [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1372782560

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Chung, Adrienne. Narrative Involvement with a Stigmatized Character: The Influence of Happy vs. Sad Endings on Narrative Processing and De-stigmatization . 2013. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1372782560.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Chung, Adrienne. "Narrative Involvement with a Stigmatized Character: The Influence of Happy vs. Sad Endings on Narrative Processing and De-stigmatization ." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2013. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1372782560

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1372782560
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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.