Beyond the Text: Testing Narrative Persuasion Mechanisms with Audio Messages

The affective news extended model (Knobloch-Westerwick et al., 2020) demonstrated that narratives with a suspense-inducing format, a linear compared to inverted pyramid format, led to attitude change across four political topics. Given the lack of narrative persuasion research which considers the audio modality, the present research seeks to extend this model by using audio clip stimuli to (1) investigate whether the findings of Knobloch-Westerwick et al. (2020) will extend to the audio modality and (2) compare persuasive mechanisms and outcomes between the textual and audio modalities to understand the unique impact of suspense on narrative persuasion. Results demonstrated that (1) suspense did not differ by format, nor did it mediate the relationship between format and attitude change in the audio modality. (2) Comparisons between textual and audio modalities revealed that when exposed to the audio modality, participants were persuaded by transportation, feelings of being mentally and emotionally involved in the narrative. Future research and implications for the ANEM, audio narratives, and persuasion are discussed.