Applying Perspective Taking and Social Influence to Exercise Narratives

The present study examines factors related to the entertainment-education strategy in addition to revisiting Ajzen's (1991) theory of planned behavior in a narrative context. Entertainment education is a health communication strategy that involves educating and persuading individuals regarding health issues by incorporating health information with a story. In addition, when readers identify with a character in a narrative, they are more likely to adopt the character's attitude, beliefs, and goals. The present study employs Batson et al.'s (1997) method on perspective taking. This study utilizes a 2x2 factorial design. The first manipulation is whether the participant is instructed to remain objective or imagine how the character feels. In addition, Courneya et al. (2000) found that social support was a stronger predictor of intentions than subjective norm in the exercise context. The second manipulation is whether a participant reads a narrative about a student who receives social support to exercise, or a student who receives social pressure to exercise. Results showed that although participants who imagined the character’s perspective reported higher transportation and identification, there were little to no differences in attitudes and beliefs due to the manipulations. Participants also perceived support in addition to pressure in the subjective norm narrative. However, perspective taking and type of social influence appear to interact to influence certain attitudes and beliefs. Implications discussed include the potential for narratives to be used as an effective form of entertainment education to promote healthy behaviors.Bachelor of Scienc