Abstract: Described as “absorption into a story”, narrative transportation is a distinct mental process and a peculiar mechanism by which people are persuaded by stories. Decision-makers who are transported by stories feel as if they were separated from the real world, experienced strong spontaneous emotion, which can be identified to the stories. Finally, their attitudes changed after transportation even though they stepped back into the real world. After reviewing the concepts of narrative processing, narrative transportation and related theories, we compared the distinction between narrative transportation and analytical elaboration by aspects of information organization, approach to persuade, logic for judgment, cognitive effort and distance to decision problems. There are important theoretical and practical implications for further research on the topic of attitude change in stories, such as narrative transportation, analytical elaboration, self-control and choice in context.

Key words: narrative processing, narrative transportation, attitude