Story‐Framing in Narrative‐Based Interventions: How Storyteller Identity and the Timing of Identity Disclosure Shape Attitudes Toward Migrants

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Stories about a certain group can foster more positive attitudes toward that group, especially when they elicit identification with the story's characters/narrator. Drawing on narrative‐based interventions' literature and focusing on host society‐migrant relations, our study examined factors influencing the impact of story exposure on attitudes toward migrants. We manipulated information about the storyteller's identity (similar to or dissimilar from the ingroup) and the timing of the disclosure of this information (before or after exposure). We hypothesized that greater similarity and delayed disclosure of the storyteller's identity would increase identification with the storyteller and lead to more positive outcomes. We tested these hypotheses in two online experiments exposing Greek‐Cypriot participants to either an African (Experiment 1, N = 194) or an Arabic folktale (Experiment 2, N = 281), while manipulating Storyteller Identity (Muslim‐African/Arab migrant [double‐outgroup condition] vs. Christian‐African/Arab migrant [mixed‐group condition]) and Timing of Identity Disclosure (identity revealed before vs. after the story). The results were partially consistent with our hypotheses, showing that the mixed‐group and delayed‐disclosure conditions led to more positive outcomes (dehumanization, social distance, and attitudes toward migration). However, Storyteller Identity was significant only in Experiment 1, whereas Timing of Identity Disclosure was significant only in Experiment 2. Furthermore, the effects of Storyteller Identity on intergroup outcomes were mediated by stronger identification with the storyteller, whereas the effects of Timing of Disclosure were mediated by participants' more favorable perceptions of the narrator. The results are discussed in relation to prior literature, the study's limitations, and their implications for narrative‐based interventions and future research.