Meta-analytic evidence for the persuasive effect of narratives on beliefs, attitudes, intentions, and behaviors

Although narratives are often credited with the capacity to change opinions, empirical tests of this prediction have produced mixed results. To provide a more precise test of narrative’s effect on beliefs, attitudes, intentions, and behaviors, we performed meta-analyses on studies that evaluated narrative’s persuasive influence on these outcomes. Results suggested positive relationships between exposure to a narrative and narrative-consistent beliefs (k = 37; N = 7,376; r = .17), attitudes (k = 40; N = 7,132; r = .19), intentions (k = 28; N = 5,211; r = .17), and behaviors (k = 5; N = 978; r = .23). Moderator analyses on the effect of fictionality yielded mixed results. Neither medium of presentation nor research design influenced the magnitude of the narrative-persuasion relationship. However, results suggested the presence of unidentified moderators.