Emotional engagement with the plot and characters A narrative film on hearing-impaired sexual assault victims

Based on the Extended-Elaboration Likelihood Model and the Entertainment Overcoming Resistance Model, this study examines the relationships between several variables believed to moderate or mediate narrative effects, including (a) prior issue/topic involvement; (b) plot engagement (transportation); (c) character affiliation/alignment (sympathy and empathy); and (d) narrative-consistent behavioral intentions. The results based on respondents who viewed a movie detailing the abuse of hearing-impaired individuals indicate that prior involvement predicted narrative transportation and emotions (both sympathy and empathy); narrative transportation predicted emotions; and narrative transportation and sympathy predicted narrative-consistent behavioral intentions. The respondents who viewed the movie (707 respondents) were more likely to show narrativeconsistent behavioral intentions than those who did not (323). These results have important theoretical and practical implications.