Measuring Narrative Engagement
Open accessAbstract
Research indicates that the extent to which one becomes engaged, transported, or immersed in a narrative influences the narrative's potential to affect subsequent story-related attitudes and beliefs. Explaining narrative effects and understanding the mechanisms responsible depends on our ability to measure narrative engagement in a theoretically meaningful way. This article develops a scale for measuring narrative engagement that is based on a mental models approach to narrative processing. It distinguishes among four dimensions of experiential engagement in narratives: narrative understanding, attentional focus, emotional engagement, and narrative presence. The scale is developed and validated through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses with data from viewers of feature film and television, in different viewing situations, and from two different countries. The scale's ability to predict enjoyment and story-consistent attitudes across different programs is presented. Implications for conceptualizing engagement with narratives as well as narrative persuasion and media effects are discussed.
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“It is also important to note that distraction disrupts these D o w n l o a d e d by [ UVA U n i v e r s it e it s b i b li o t h ee k S Z ] a t 05 : 53 20 J a nu a r y 2016 processes (Busselle & Bilandzic, 2009; Green, Brock, & Kaufman, 2004).”
Slater, M., Ewoldsen, D., & Woods, K. (2018) · Media Psychology · doi:10.1080/15213269.2017.1328313 · Cited by 72 · see citing works
“…and psychological research characterizes responses to the story in terms of the degree of transportation (Green & Brock, 2000), engagement (Busselle & Bilandzic, 2009), absorption (Slater & Rouner, 2002), affective (including eudaimonic) responses (Oliver, 2008; Oliver & Raney, 2011), and…”
BackgroundAssessing engagement while viewing video vignettes; validation of the Video Engagement Scale (VES).
Visser, L., Hillen, M., Verdam, M., Bol, N., de Haes, H. D., & Smets, E. (2016) · Patient Education and Counseling · doi:10.1016/j.pec.2015.08.029 · Cited by 72 · see citing works
“Narrative engagement is defined as someone’s experience of a narrative [8] and is known to influence the persuasive effect (e.”
BackgroundInfluentialEngagement in video and audio narratives: contrasting self-report and physiological measures
Richardson, D. C., Griffin, N. K., Zaki, L., Stephenson, A., Yan, J., Curry, T., Noble, R., Hogan, J., Skipper, J. I., & Devlin, J. (2020) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/s41598-020-68253-2 · Cited by 71 · see citing works
A Conceptual Framework of Narrative Persuasion
Hamby, A., Brinberg, D., & Jaccard, J. (2018) · J. Media Psychol. Theor. Methods Appl. · doi:10.1027/1864-1105/a000187 · Cited by 70 · see citing works
“Other mechanisms of becoming “experientially involved in a text” (Busselle & Bilandzic, 2009, p. 336) such as transportation (Green & Brock, 2000) and identification (Cohen, 2001) emphasize different ways of being absorbed, but each instantiation reflects a mechanism that shares core similarities.”
BackgroundEngaging narratives evoke similar neural activity and lead to similar time perception
Cohen, S. S., Henin, S., & Parra, L. (2017) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/s41598-017-04402-4 · Cited by 69 · see citing works
Lipsey, A. F., Waterman, A., Wood, E. H., & Balliet, W. (2020) · Patient Education and Counseling · doi:10.1016/j.pec.2020.04.014 · Cited by 68 · see citing works
“storyteller,[58, 59] and perceive the story to be real and authentic[60, 61].”
BackgroundReducing Mental Health Stigma Through Identification With Video Game Avatars With Mental Illness
Ferchaud, A., Seibert, J., Sellers, N., & Escobar Salazar, N. (2020) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.02240 · Cited by 67 · see citing works
Design Patterns for an Interactive Storytelling Robot to Support Children’s Engagement and Agency
Ligthart, M., Neerincx, M. A., & Hindriks, K. (2020) · IEEE/ACM International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction · doi:10.1145/3319502.3374826 · Cited by 67 · see citing works
“Finally, the better the child is able to construct a mental image of the story (narrative presence), the easier they can be absorbed by it [7].”
BackgroundMethodBindman, S., Castaneda, L. M., Scanlon, M., & Cechony, A. (2018) · International Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems · doi:10.1145/3173574.3174031 · Cited by 67 · see citing works
“Busselle and Bilanzic [7] posit that narrative engagement in any media form can be hindered by discrepancies within the story.”
BackgroundInfluentialA Joker in the class: Teenage readers attitudes and preferences to reading on different devices
Tveit, Å. K., & Mangen, A. (2014) · Library & Information Science Research · doi:10.1016/j.lisr.2014.08.001 · Cited by 66 · see citing works
“Combining the use of validated scales measuring transportation and narrative engagement from media psychology (e. g. Busselle & Bilandzic, 2009; Green & Brock, 2000) with, for instance, physiological measures of arousal, such as pupil dilation or skin conductance response (see e.g. Benesh, 2011;…”
MethodThe Persuasive Influence of a Fictional Character's Trustworthiness
Appel, M., & Mara, M. (2013) · Journal of Communication · doi:10.1111/jcom.12053 · Cited by 69 · see citing works
“This experience of narrative presence is a key component of the transportation concept (Gerrig, 1993; Green & Brock, 2002) and narrative presence is one of four dimensions of narrative engagement (Busselle & Bilandzic, 2009).”
BackgroundMethodInfluentialMental simulation during literary reading: Individual differences revealed with eye-tracking
Mak, M., & Willems, R. (2018) · Language, Cognition and Neuroscience · doi:10.1080/23273798.2018.1552007 · Cited by 64 · see citing works
“Previous behavioural (questionnaire) research suggests that simulation influences story world absorption, and that absorption correlates with appreciation (Busselle & Bilandzic, 2009; Green & Brock, 2000; Green, Brock, & Kaufman, 2004; Hartung et al., 2016; Kuijpers et al., 2014).”
BackgroundPaolis, L. D. D., Gatto, C., Corchia, L., & Luca, V. D. (2022) · Virtual Reality · doi:10.1007/s10055-022-00712-9 · Cited by 63 · see citing works
“Among the various models developed for storytelling evaluation, the Narrative Engagement Scale (Busselle and Bilandzic 2009) consisted of several items grouped into four dimensions: • Narrative understanding; • Attentional focus; • Emotional engagement, which refers both to the ability to feel the…”
MethodEmbodiment of Narrative Engagement
Sukalla, F., Bilandzic, H., Bolls, P., & Busselle, R. W. (2016) · J. Media Psychol. Theor. Methods Appl. · doi:10.1027/1864-1105/a000153 · Cited by 63 · see citing works
Self-citationUnpacking Engagement: Convergence and Divergence in Transportation and Identification
Tal-Or, N., & Cohen, J. (2016) · Annals of the International Communication Association · doi:10.1080/23808985.2015.11735255 · Cited by 63 · see citing works
“Busselle and Bilandzic (2009) have suggested and tested a scale of narrative engagement based on a mental models approach.”
BackgroundJohnson, J., Harrison, K., & Quick, B. L. (2013) · Journal of health communication · doi:10.1080/10810730.2012.688244 · Cited by 63 · see citing works
Song, H., Shim, W., & Rosenberg, M. (2022) · bioRxiv · doi:10.7554/elife.85487 · Cited by 62 · see citing works
“Paying 429 attention to a comedy sitcom, on the other hand, involves less cognitive effort than attending to 430 controlled psychological tasks, more akin to a “flow”-like state compared to controlled tasks that 431 require top-down exertion of control (Bellana et al., 2022; Busselle and Bilandzic, 2009; 432 Csikszent…”
BackgroundHow can Journalists Promote News Credibility? Effects of Evidences on Trust and Credibility
Henke, J., Leissner, L., & Möhring, W. (2020) · Journalism Practice · doi:10.1080/17512786.2019.1605839 · Cited by 61 · see citing works
“Thus, large amounts of statistical evidence can reduce the comprehensibility of texts, which in turn might lead to increased cognitive effort, frustration, and decreased enjoyment (Busselle and Bilandzic 2009, 325–326).”
BackgroundBilandzic, H., & Sukalla, F. (2019) · Environmental Communication · doi:10.1080/17524032.2019.1575259 · Cited by 60 · see citing works
“Narrative engagement, a state marked by strong attentional focus on the story and intense emotional experience of the plot and the characters (Busselle & Bilandzic, 2009; Green & Brock, 2000), makes the experience of the narrative world more vivid and is likely to influence how viewers think about…”
BackgroundMethodSelf-citation
- Authors
- Busselle, R., & Bilandzic, H.
- Affiliations
- Washington State University (US)
- ORCID
- Busselle, Rick
- Venue
- Media Psychology
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2009-11-23
- Volume
- 12
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 321-347
- ISSN
- 1521-3269 (ISSN-L)
- 1532-785X
- OpenAlex
- W2062865797
- Cited by
- 1,088
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 94 · 2025: 101 · 2024: 89 · 2023: 97 · 2022: 80 · 2021: 111 · 2020: 93 · 2019: 71 · 2018: 65 · 2017: 69 · 2016: 64 · 2015: 43 · 2014: 33 · 2013: 28 · 2012: 24
- FWCI
- 311.26
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- nbn-resolving.org
- Locations
- Media Psychology (publishedVersion)
- OPUS (Augsburg University) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Literature and Literary Theory › Media Influence and Health
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Literature and Literary Theory › Narrative Theory and Analysis
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Flow Experience in Various Fields
- Keywords
- narrative engagement, narrative persuasion, scale development, mental models, narrative comprehension, attentional focus, emotional engagement, narrative presence, media influence, narrative enjoyment, cross-cultural validation
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