Niederdeppe Jeff, Shapiro Michael A, Kim Hye Kyung, Bartolo Danielle, Porticella Norman
a Department of Communication , Cornell University.
Health Commun. 2014;29(5):431-44. doi: 10.1080/10410236.2012.761805. Epub 2013 Jul 5.
Narrative messages have the potential to convey causal attribution information about complex social issues. This study examined attributions about obesity, an issue characterized by interrelated biological, behavioral, and environmental causes. Participants were randomly assigned to read one of three narratives emphasizing societal causes and solutions for obesity or an unrelated story that served as the control condition. The three narratives varied in the extent to which the character in the story acknowledged personal responsibility (high, moderate, and none) for controlling her weight. Stories that featured no acknowledgment and moderate acknowledgment of personal responsibility, while emphasizing environmental causes and solutions, were successful at increasing societal cause attributions about obesity and, among conservatives, increasing support for obesity-related policies relative to the control group. The extent to which respondents were able to make connections between individual and environmental causes of obesity (complex integration) mediated the relationship between the moderate acknowledgment condition and societal cause attributions. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of this work for narrative persuasion theory and health communication campaigns.
叙事信息有可能传达关于复杂社会问题的因果归因信息。本研究考察了对肥胖问题的归因，肥胖是一个具有相互关联的生物学、行为学和环境学成因的问题。参与者被随机分配阅读三篇强调肥胖的社会成因及解决方案的叙事文章之一，或者阅读一篇作为对照条件的无关故事。这三篇叙事文章在故事中的人物对控制体重所承担的个人责任程度（高、中、无）方面有所不同。那些不承认个人责任以及适度承认个人责任的故事，在强调环境成因及解决方案的同时，成功地增加了对肥胖问题的社会成因归因，并且在保守派中，相对于对照组而言，增加了对肥胖相关政策的支持。受访者能够在肥胖的个体成因与环境成因之间建立联系的程度（复杂整合），调节了适度承认条件与社会成因归因之间的关系。最后，我们讨论了这项研究对于叙事说服理论和健康传播活动的意义。
