Alternative “Facts”: The Effects of Narrative Processing on the Acceptance of Factual Information

Recent research in persuasion has distinguished between “narrative” processing, evoked by stories, and “analytical” processing, evoked by facts (Escalas 2007). In practice, consumers often encounter information in a blended format; for example, a pharmaceutical advertisement may feature a testimonial describing an experience with a drug, followed by a list of facts about the drug’s efficacy and side effects. The current research addresses the question: Does the processing of a narrative influence how facts presented separate from a narrative are recalled and endorsed? Past work has examined narrative processing (i.e., transportation; Escalas 2007; van Laer et al. 2014) as a passive influence of persuasion-related outcomes. In the current work, we demonstrate that narrative processing also takes an active form and can be used to integrate messages of distinct formats (rather than narrative formats, alone). The current work contributes to narrative persuasion research by introducing situation model construction to explain message comprehension (understanding), its subsequent effect on beliefs, and expand current understanding of how narratives lead to persuasion. We demonstrate that information is more likely to be viewed as true if it helps the reader understand a previously-encountered narrative and show that this effect persists even when information is labeled as false. The current work illustrates a cognitive bias: if external facts help to understand a prior (narrative) message, then these facts are more likely to be perceived as true.