ABSTRACT
Scholarly research in narrative persuasion in the past has provided important insights about the impact of narratives. In contrast to traditional persuasion models, narratives persuade individuals by engaging them both cognitively and emotionally. This chapter provides an overview of the narrative persuasion theory and reviews the major factors that have been identified to account for the impact of narratives including transportation, identification, and counterarguing. It also reviews prior research findings regarding the impact of narratives in communicating social, political, and health issues as well as brand and corporate images. The chapter ends with a preview of the other chapters in the book that have explored the effects of narratives or the process of narrative construction.
