lecture 7: evidence

Question 1

definiton statistical evidence

Answer 1

• objective and quantitative information
• factual info, abstract data, numbers, stats about health risk
• can be generalized across a population

Question 2

definiton narrative evidence

Answer 2

• anecdotal info
• concrete and emotional info
• cohesive story, often on a first person account on personal experience with a risk

Question 3

what are narratives + definition

Answer 3

a specific form of communication

• personal story, factual info translated into personal experience
• from: textual, audio, visual
• info: can be more interesting and attractive (than basic info) -> it draws attention, new perspective, feels more recognizable/relatable and more important

definiton:
- contains at least 1 character who goes trough 1 event in a specific setting

Question 4

theoretical principles derived from narratives:

Answer 4

1. ELM: personally relevant health info -> enhances involvement: heuristic and effective processing -> enhances active processing of info and overcomes counter-arguing
2. availability heuristic: recipients can imagine event that person in narrative experiences -> increases likelihood estimates
3. risk-as-feelings hypothesis: vividly presented risk info -> evoke strong emotional reactions -> influences health behavior directly
4. transportation theory: absorption into a story -> integrative melding of attention, imagery and feelings

Question 5

what make narratives affective?

Answer 5

1. the content
   - similarity
   
   • with character: not so promising
   • with setting: more effect
     
     • valence/framing
     • emotional content
2. the form
   - medium
   - narrative perspective (1st person more effective)
   - embedding of health message in narrative (distance between narrative and educational content)
3. context
   - presentation format

Question 6

experiment de wit, das and vet narrative vs. statistical results

Answer 6

conditions: personal account vs. abstract prevalence data
dependent measures: personal risk perception & intention to obtain vaccination

results:

• narrative induces more risk perception
• risk perception mediated the effect of health risk message evidence on intention
• statistics: works when receiver wants to hear congruent info
• narratives: work better when receiver wants to hear inconsistent info (happens more)

why do narratives work better:

• promote a sense of personal risk
• go straight to the emotional brain
• influence persuasion
• are less subject to defensive responses

Question 7

agency assignment

Answer 7

It’s about the question: who did it? With whom lies the action
- example: corona has infected 9 million people ( assign agency to the threat) or 9 million people have gotten corona (assign agency to humans)

results article :
- vulnerability and severity are perceived higher if the agency assignment involved the threat and not the human-beings

Question 8

anthropomorphic agents

Answer 8

is considered as ‘a human form’ or ‘with human characteristics’
- attribution of human qualities to non-human things