2009/11/23 by Rick W. Busselle, Helena Bilandzić · 4 citations
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · Psychology · #Media Influence and Health #Media, Gender, and Advertising #Media Studies and Communication #Narrative #Persuasion #Psychology #Narrative network #Narrative inquiry #Scale (ratio) #Confirmatory factor analysis #Social psychology #Narrative criticism #Experiential learning #Cognitive psychology #Structural equation modeling #Computer science #Art #Literature
paper · doi:10.1080/15213260903287259
openalex publication_date 2009/11/23 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
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.