Niederdeppe Jeff, Roh Sungjong, Shapiro Michael A
Department of Communication, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2015 Feb 23;10(2):e0117565. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0117565. eCollection 2015.
This study tests whether policy narratives designed to increase support for obesity-reducing public policies should explicitly acknowledge individual responsibility while emphasizing social, physical, and economic (social) determinants of obesity. We use a web-based, randomized experiment with a nationally representative sample of American adults (n = 718) to test hypotheses derived from theory and research on narrative persuasion. Respondents exposed to narratives that acknowledged individual responsibility while emphasizing obesity's social determinants were less likely to engage in counterargument and felt more empathy for the story's main character than those exposed to a message that did not acknowledge individual responsibility. Counterarguing and affective empathy fully mediated the relationship between message condition and support for policies to reduce rates of obesity. Failure to acknowledge individual responsibility in narratives emphasizing social determinants of obesity may undermine the persuasiveness of policy narratives. Omitting information about individual responsibility, a strongly-held American value, invites the public to engage in counterargument about the narratives and reduces feelings of empathy for a character that experiences the challenges and benefits of social determinants of obesity.
本研究旨在测试,旨在提高对减少肥胖的公共政策支持度的政策叙事,在强调肥胖的社会、身体和经济(社会)决定因素时,是否应明确承认个人责任。我们采用基于网络的随机实验,对具有全国代表性的美国成年人样本(n = 718)进行测试,以检验从叙事说服的理论和研究中得出的假设。与接触未承认个人责任的信息的受访者相比,接触到在强调肥胖的社会决定因素时承认个人责任的叙事的受访者,进行反驳的可能性更小,并且对故事主角的同理心更强。反驳和情感同理心完全中介了信息条件与对降低肥胖率政策的支持之间的关系。在强调肥胖的社会决定因素的叙事中未能承认个人责任,可能会削弱政策叙事的说服力。忽略关于个人责任的信息,而个人责任是一种美国人强烈秉持的价值观,这会促使公众对这些叙事进行反驳,并减少对经历肥胖社会决定因素的挑战和益处的角色的同理心。