Eudaimonic entertainment overcoming resistance: an update and expansion of narrative persuasion models

Abstract

Abstract A growing body of research reveals that entertainment narratives are persuasive across a variety of topics. Models of narrative persuasion highlight key mechanisms, but one limitation of this theorizing is that it has not directly considered the full range of entertainment narratives that exist. Viewers select media content to fulfill various needs—hedonic needs for pleasure and enjoyment or more eudaimonic needs gratified by appreciation and mixed affective responses. Narrative persuasion theorizing would benefit from explicitly considering eudaimonic entertainment narratives and how they may uniquely lead to persuasion. Doing so will expand on existing narrative persuasion mechanisms and identify contingencies regarding when and for whom distinct types of entertainment narratives may persuade. This article builds on the entertainment overcoming resistance model by advancing a set of testable propositions regarding narrative persuasion by meaningful entertainment and offering an agenda for future research in this area.