Exploring the Effects of Interactive Narratives in Promoting Health Behaviors PDF Download

Author: Lewen Wei
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Narratives are commonly employed in health communication. Prior research on the effects of narratives have mostly used traditional narratives where readers or viewers had little participation in the storytelling or interaction with characters. In contrast, interactive narratives are those that enable readers to control the progressions of story plots and characters outcomes. This paper contributes to the existing body of research on narrative persuasion by exploring the effects of interactive narratives in changing health-related attitudes and behavioral intention as well as the mechanisms underlying these effects. To do that, the study uses a 2 (message format: interactive vs. non interactive narrative) x 3 (narrator perspective: first-person vs. second-person vs. third-person) between-subjects experiment, along with an additional control group where participants read a message of the same topic in the format of statistical evidence. After subjects read one of the seven versions of the article, they completed a questionnaire probing their attitude, behavioral intention, identification, embodiment, parasocial interaction, and message effects. The results indicated that persuasive outcomes greatly hinged upon types of narratives, narrative perspectives, and readers perceived engagement with stories and in-story characters. More specifically, second-person interactive narratives performed better in transporting readers into stories, whereas embodiment mediated the relationship between reading second-person traditional narrative and persuasive outcomes. These findings will both theoretically and empirically further our understanding of interactive narratives and their impact.

Author: Sunghak Kim
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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The dissertation research investigates how to create and implement successful health intervention messages by adopting theoretical frameworks of interactive narrative persuasion and the Integrative Behavioral Model. The emergence of interactive media technologies and the rapid enhancement of user experience tools have led to the development of novel health intervention messages. Contrary to traditional linear narratives, people can decide and control the narrative while reading interactive narratives. The interactivity features are known to facilitate narrative persuasion processes, including narrative transportation. This research examines how interactive narratives with different interactivity levels may indirectly impact adults' behavioral intentions regarding seasonal influenza (flu) vaccination. Specifically, this work examines whether the different levels of perceived interactivity would have dissimilar influences on narrative transportation, social norms about flu vaccination, and intention for flu vaccination sequentially. Firstly, this research demonstrates the mechanism of interactive narrative persuasion by looking into how narrative transportation affected by interactive narrative actively impacts one's social norms and behavioral intentions. Next, two studies were conducted in the context of flu vaccination to test the suggested mechanism and prove its function.Webpages that contain narrative messages and surveys were developed by using a website builder. Web-based interactive narrative health intervention messages were created as experimental stimuli to conduct an online experimental survey. Three conditions (No Choice/Choices Do Not Impact Next Scenes/Choices Impact Next Scenes) were set depending on the interactivity level, and experimental stimuli were also designed to reflect on the difference of interactivity levels. The content of the messages is about getting flu vaccination and protecting against the flu, and each story scene consists of a video with subtitles and a script. All participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions and received a corresponding website link to access an online questionnaire consists of 'research participant information and consent form (consent) - survey before story (individual differences questions) - story (experimental narrative stimulus) - survey after story (responses questions)'. All studies were conducted following the Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The first study was conducted by recruiting 100 college students to check whether webpages work well in an online experimental survey situation and to explore the suggested interactive narrative's persuasive mechanism focusing on the role of descriptive norms. Every webpage worked well, and the data was successfully collected. The data was analyzed by using mediation analysis. The first study results showed statistically significant values of the associations between narrative transportation and descriptive norms about flu vaccination and between descriptive norms about flu vaccination and intention for flu vaccination. However, it showed statistically non-significant values of the association between perceived interactivity and narrative transportation. The second study was developed to scrutinize the suggested interactive narrative's persuasive mechanism by applying a more expanded research scope and broader sample size and range. The second study was conducted by recruiting 400 Wisconsin residents aged 18 and above and focusing on the roles of both descriptive norms and injunctive norms. The data was analyzed by using mediation analysis. In contrast to the first study results, the second study results, based on statistically significant values, revealed that perceived interactivity is indirectly associated with intention for flu vaccination via narrative transportation and descriptive norms about flu vaccination as well as via narrative transportation and injunctive norms about flu vaccination, consecutively. In sum, unlike previous interactive narrative studies, which mostly examined the effect of interactive vs. non-interactive narrative on one's attitude or belief, this dissertation research shed light on the significant persuasive roles of social norms in interactive narrative persuasion. The effects of interactive narratives on behavioral changes have been proposed theoretically, but there is relatively little empirical evidence to support them. This dissertation research extends the theoretical boundary of interactive narrative persuasion from attitude or belief to behavioral intention by combining interactive narrative persuasion's theoretical frameworks and social science theories addressing normative influence on behavioral intention, and then empirically testified relevant hypotheses. Therefore, this dissertation research improved the explanatory power of actual behavioral changes evoked by the interactive narrative and suggested social norms as potential predictors of health behavior intention in interactive narrative persuasion research. Moreover, this dissertation research discovered the potentially different effects of interactive narrative depending on different levels of interactivity. The findings provide theoretical implications to enlarge theoretical frameworks of interactive narrative persuasion by connecting interactive narrative engagement and normative influence. The research outcomes also provide practical implications to develop and implement effective digital health interventions by applying norm-based interactive narrative strategies.

Author: R. Lyle Skains
Publisher: Emerald Group Publishing
ISBN: 1839097604
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 152

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Book Description
This book offers insight and lessons learned from two pilot studies which used interactive digital narrative (IDN) as educational interventions to effect positive change regarding social issues, looking into interdisciplinary approaches to research and education methods, combining arts and science methodologies and science communication.

Author: Katheryn R. Christy
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 197

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Book Description
The model of interactive narrative effects was developed in order to expand upon and enhance previous theories of interactive narrative effects. This was accomplished by synthesizing Green and Jenkins' (2014) model of interactivity effects with elements of Sundar and colleagues' (2015) theory of interactive media effects, with the aim of expanding Green and Jenkins' definition of interactivity and disentangling the presence of an interactivity feature from the various psychological experiences and perceptions of interactivity. Two studies were then conducted to test the propositions of the newly developed model within the context of skin cancer and the Health Belief Model. The first study examined the impact of source interactivity and sourcefulness, while the other examined the impact of message interactivity and perceived contingency. The studies largely supported the MINE's propositions regarding the relationships between interactivity features, perceptions of interactivity, and narrative mediating variables, such as story engagement. Both studies also saw impacts on health beliefs, with perceived benefits and severity being influenced across both studies. The implications of these results for narrative research, interactive media research, and health communication research are discussed.

Author: Karen Glanz
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Health behavior
Languages : en
Pages : 52

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Author: Michail Vafeiadis
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Designing effective health campaigns that can break through the clutter is critical. In todays media saturated environment, the pervasiveness of the Internet, coupled with the increasing role of social media, is changing how people find, evaluate, and process information. Previous studies have examined the effects of narratives in health campaigns in light of their ability to implicitly affect the message recipients cognitive and affective reactions by conveying the real life experiences of an actual person. In addition, an extensive body of research has investigated the role of framing in health communication and has suggested that different health frames (gain vs. loss) have distinct effects for different types of health behaviors (prevention, detection, and cessation). Yet, health frames have been primarily examined in the context of traditional media such as print-based or videos. Finding effective ways to deliver health information is a challenge for health communicators since people are less motivated to exert cognitive effort during information processing due to the sheer amount of available information. Thus, employing powerful visuals has become essential in order to captivate peoples attention and make them more attentive to the advocated message. An important stream of research has investigated independently the role of visuals, framing, and narratives. Yet, there is paucity of research examining their combined effects in health messages. This dissertation seeks to address this gap by examining jointly the effects of narratives, frames, and visuals in promoting health messages. An online 2 (message type: narrative vs. informational) x 2 (health frames: gained-framed vs. loss-framed) x 2 (presentation format: visual vs. non visual) between-participants factorial experiment was conducted. Message type was operationalized by presenting health information in a narrative or factual fashion. Narratives conveyed health-related information through the eyes of the storys protagonist, whereas informational messages included generic and statistical information relevant to the featured health issue, notably, sun protection and skin cancer. Message frames were operationalized in terms of gain- or loss-framed messages. A gain-framed message emphasized the advantages of performing the advocated health behavior, whereas the loss-framed message focused on the disadvantages stemming from failing to adopt the promoted health behavior. Presentation format was operationalized by presenting textual information independently or along with images that were in concert with the information included in the message. Participants were recruited from Amazons Mechanical Turk and were randomly assigned to one of the eight experimental conditions. After reading the health message, they were asked to answer questions about their attitudes toward the message and issue and to indicate their behavioral intentions both offline and online. In short, the findings showed that health narratives are overall more persuasive than informational messages. Participants who received information in a narrative format developed more positive attitudes about sun-protection behaviors and showed heightened behavioral intentions. The study also revealed several intriguing patterns in regards to the role of frames when applied in the context of narrative health messages. Compared to gain-framed narratives, it was found that loss-framed narratives led to more favorable attitudes toward sun protection as well as increased behavioral and sun protection compliance intentions. Conversely, participants reading gain-framed informational messages produced more positive attitudes toward the message than those who were exposed to gain-framed narratives. The mediation analyses showed that empathic identification with the character in a health story was a significant predictor on the outcome variables. Surprisingly, the findings revealed that visuals did not affect how participants evaluated the advocated health behavior. By empirically examining the combined effects of those three variables, the findings of this study provide useful insights for health communicators and practitioners in the fields of advertising and public relations by proposing effective ways of delivering health information. Theoretical and practical implications are also discussed.

Author: Richard L. Street
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136686215
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 383

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Book Description
This book's purpose is to offer various perspectives relating to the development, effectiveness, and implementation of interactive computing technology for health promotion--programs and interventions aimed at improving various health-related outcomes such as involvement in care, quality of life, adherence, disease management, healthy lifestyle, and more. Its coverage includes: *conceptual foundations for examining how characteristics of media, messages, and users relate to one another and how interactive media can effectively and appropriately promote health outcomes; *examinations of the development, utilization, and evaluation of specific computer applications for health promotion featuring discussions of the theoretical rationale for the program, the targeted audience, research on the program's effectiveness, and implications for future program development; and *analyses of critical issues such as potential benefits and limitations of technology on the delivery of care, institutional obstacles to the adoption of computing technology, and prospects for integrating information technology into the health system.

Author: Eric S. Knowles
Publisher: Psychology Press
ISBN: 1135626383
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 350

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Book Description
Resistance and Persuasion is the first book to analyze the nature of resistance and demonstrate how it can be reduced, overcome, or used to promote persuasion. By examining resistance, and providing strategies for overcoming it, this new book generates insight into new facets of influence and persuasion. With contributions from the leaders in the field, this book presents original ideas and research that demonstrate how understanding resistance can improve persuasion, compliance, and social influence. Many of the authors present their research for the first time. Four faces of resistance are identified: reactance, distrust, scrutiny, and inertia. The concluding chapter summarizes the book's theoretical contributions and establishes a resistance-based research agenda for persuasion and attitude change. This new book helps to establish resistance as a legitimate sub-field of persuasion that is equal in force to influence. Resistance and Persuasion offers many new revelations about persuasion: *Acknowledging resistance helps to reduce it. *Raising reactance makes a strong message more persuasive. *Putting arguments into a narrative increases their influence. *Identifying illegitimate sources of information strengthens the influence of legitimate sources. *Looking ahead reduces resistance to persuasive attempts. This volume will appeal to researchers and students from a variety of disciplines including social, cognitive, and health psychology, communication, marketing, political science, journalism, and education.

Author: Seth M. Noar
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136514163
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 338

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Book Description
eHealth Applications: Promising Strategies for Behavior Change provides an overview of technological applications in contemporary health communication research, exploring the history and current uses of eHealth applications in disease prevention and management. This volume focuses on the use of these technology-based interventions for public health promotion and explores the rapid growth of an innovative interdisciplinary field. The chapters in this work discuss key eHealth applications by presenting research examining a variety of technology-based applications. Authors Seth M. Noar and Nancy Grant Harrington summarize the latest in eHealth research, including a range of computer, Internet, and mobile applications, and offer observations and reflections on this growing area, such as dissemination of programs and future directions for the study of interactive health communication and eHealth. Providing a timely and comprehensive review of current tools for health communication, eHealth Applications is a must-read for scholars, students, and researchers in health communication, public health, and health education.

Author: Jeffrey Spike
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 0985485825
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 515

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Book Description
An edgy, creative and fun approach to learning health professional ethics: a choose-your-own adventure story about three generations of an American family getting their health care ... from you. The Brewsters is an innovative way to learn health professional ethics: a choose-your-own-adventure novel where *you* play the roles of health care provider, scientific researcher, patient and their family. Storylines branch based on choices you make as you read. The immersive story is interwoven with in-depth didactic chapters on health professional ethics, clinical ethics and research ethics. The author/editors are longtime medical educators.