ABSTRACT
This chapter includes a study about narrative persuasion in the context of political advertising. The study examined mechanisms of narrative persuasion, including transportation, counterarguing, and three discrete emotions within 2018 senatorial and gubernatorial narrative video ads using a 2 (valence: support vs. attack) × 2 (length: 30-second vs. 60-second) factorial experiment. Results showed the discrete emotion of happiness served as a primary mediator between valence and transportation, and between valence and attitudinal variables (candidate and ad). A valence-by-length interaction also affected happiness and attitude toward the candidate.
