Lost in a Good Story: The Role of Need for Affect, Genre and Modality on Narrative Transportation

Abstract

The metaphor of being lost in a story is studied in psychology as narrative transportation. This study investigated the role of Need for Affect, genre (horror, romantic comedy, drama), modality (text/film) and affective responses on narrative transportation. One hundred thirty eight undergraduates participated in this online study. Participants who scored high on the approach subscale of the Need for Affect measure showed less narrative transportation in the stories. Those who read the story text reported higher levels of story immersion than those who watched the short film. For affect, pre-test dominance was significantly positively related to post-test dominance overall, but this relationship was somewhat stronger for individuals who scored low on the avoidance subscale of the Need for Affect scale. Participants reported the highest post-test valence scores after engaging with romantic comedy, followed by drama, and horror.