Self‐Referencing and Persuasion: Narrative Transportation versus Analytical Elaboration

Abstract

This article contrasts narrative self-referencing with analytical self-referencing. I propose that narrative self-referencing persuades through transportation, where people become absorbed in a story-in this case, in their storylike thoughts (Green and Brock <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="rf12">2000</xref>). When ad viewers are transported by these narrative thoughts, persuasion is not negatively affected by weak ad arguments. Conversely, analytical self-referencing persuades via more traditional processing models, wherein cognitive elaboration is enhanced by relating incoming information to one's self or personal experiences, which results in a differential persuasive effect of strong versus weak arguments. I also propose that ad skepticism moderates the effect of narrative transportation. My assertions are tested in two experiments in the context of mental simulation as a form of narrative self-referencing. (c) 2007 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, Inc..