You are who you watch: Identification and transportation effects on temporary self-concept

Stories can influence the self-concept

“…Ward & Harrison, 2005). More generally, our research suggests that two conditions seem to determine the strength and direction of the impact of stories on the self: In line with previous work (Sestir & Green, 2010), transportation was identified as a factor that facilitates a story's influence on the recipients' self-concept. Notably, transportation was positively associated with self-reported femininity in both the experimental and the control group, indicating that femininity is correlated with transportation irrespective of whether the story contains information related to a feminine gender role.…”

“…On average, participants scored higher on explicit as well as implicit measures that referred to the group of fantasy characters they had just read about. An experiment by Sestir and Green (2010), which focused on personality traits rather than traits of fantasy characters, sheds light on the mechanisms that might be relevant here. In their experiment, participants watched a movie clip and their identification with story characters as well as their transportation into the story world were manipulated by written instructions.…”

Individual Differences in Sensitivity to Style During Literary Reading: Insights from Eye-Tracking

“…Being immersed or transported in(to) a story is linked to mental simulation (e.g. [7,8,26,27], and defined as "the state of feeling cognitively, emotionally, and imaginally immersed in a narrative world" ( [28], see also [29,30], see also [6] on disportation). Immersion is associated with enjoyment [31,32], meaning that the more we engage with a story, the more we enjoy it.…”

Children Adopt the Traits of Characters in a Narrative

“…Pretend play is a distinguishing feature of both early [17] and middle childhood, with research showing that children engage in pretend play until 11 years of age on average [18]. To the extent that engagement in narratives is an extension of children's pretense (possibly because both experiences involve imagining the world from someone else's point of view [19]), children may be more likely than adults to become intensely absorbed in narratives and, in line with research with adults [4,5,20], may be more likely to be affected by these experiences. Unfortunately, very little research to date has examined school-age children's involvement in narratives.…”

“…In one study, participants who either read a chapter of Harry Potter, a book about wizards, or a chapter of Twilight, a book about vampires, afterwards associated themselves with wizards or vampires, respectively: Participants who read Harry Potter were more likely to answer affirmatively to questions about having the traits and abilities of wizards than participants who read Twilight, and the latter group were more likely to answer affirmatively to questions about having the traits and abilities of vampires [1]. Prior research also suggests perspective taking encourages trait adoption: Adult participants adopted characters' traits to a greater extent when instructed to take the character's perspective [2], when they wrote in first person about a day in the life of a character [3], when they reported becoming more transported into the narrative [4], and when their selfconcept was less accessible [5].…”