Abstract:

Story is a strong persuasion, which story persuasion effect carries narrative transportation as the main mechanism. Public-service ads are taken as example to introduce narrative transportation theory in this paper. Narrative transportation is a unique mental process that integrates attention, feeling and imagery. Besides, it changes people’s attitudes and beliefs by reducing negative cognition, liking and identifying story characters, creating immersive presence and triggering strong emotional reactions. The article indicates the enlightenment of narrative transportation on public-service ads from the aspects of dose- response effects, edutainment, matching with the national culture and meeting the aesthetic needs. Finally, future studies are advised conducting from narrative transportation with embodied cognition view, empirical comparison between narrative transportation and process analysis, narrative media matching with individual and the formulation of the stories.

Key words: persuasion, story, narrative transportation, attitude, behaviors, narrative public serving ads