Characters matter: How narratives shape affective responses to risk communication

Area of Science:

• Risk communication
• Narrative transportation
• Affective responses

Background:

• Scientists often use probability to convey risk information, but narratives may be more effective.
• Narrative transportation is a key mechanism for the persuasive power of stories in risk communication.

Purpose of the Study:

• To measure real-time affective responses as a proxy for narrative transportation in science messages.
• To investigate how embedding scientific information within narratives impacts audience engagement and emotional responses to flood risk.

Main Methods:

• A within-subjects design exposed 90 participants to eight flood risk messages (2 conventional, 6 narrative).
• Narrative messages manipulated character roles (hero, victim, victim-to-hero) using natural language processing of local vocabulary.
• Continuous affective responses were recorded using dial technology during message exposure; data analyzed with ANOVA and mixed-effects models.

Main Results:

• Both probabilistic and certainty language evoked similar negative affective responses.
• Narrative science messages generated greater variance in affective responses compared to conventional messages.
• Character selection in narratives significantly altered affective responses: hero and victim-to-hero elicited positive responses, while victim characters yielded slightly negative responses.

Conclusions:

• Character roles are crucial for audience experience and narrative transportation in risk communication.
• Affective responses serve as a measurable indicator of narrative transportation during science-based risk messaging.