Psychological Transportation in Narrative Advertising

This chapter discusses an emerging model with much potential to elucidate the processing and effects of narrative advertising, namely, the Transportation-Imagery Model (TIM). The TIM, by illuminating additional routes to persuasion beyond the two identified by the Elaboration Likelihood Model, seeks to explain the mental processing in narrative-based belief change. This chapter starts with a summary of major research findings on narrative persuasion, and then delineates the basic components, mechanism, and consequences of narrative persuasion via transportation. In addition, we have discussed message, individual, and environmental factors that could influence each of the three antecedents of transportation as well as transportation in general. Directions for future research on further refinement of the model are also provided.