Jurnal Psikologi
Vol 20, No 2 (2021): October 2021

The Role of Narrative Format in Improving Narrative Transport and Empathy among Fiction and Non Fiction Readers

Savitri, Setiawati Intan (Unknown)
Nuha, Farhah Kamilatun (Unknown)



Article Info

Publish Date
31 Oct 2021

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine whether non-fiction (news) and fiction (short story) narrative formatscould have different effects in increasing narrative transport and readers’ empathy. The study was conductedusing an experimental pre-posttest method and two groups designed. Participants of 62 students (male = 19,female = 43, Mage= 21.6) were randomly assigned to two groups of reading conditions (non-fiction vs. fiction),then their level of empathy and narrative transport were measured after manipulation/treatment. The measuresused were the Narrative Transport Questionnaire and the Interpersonal Reactivity Index. The statistical analysismethod used was the MANCOVA test. Differences in conditions (non-fiction vs. fiction) as independentvariables, baseline narrative transport score and empathy as covariates to be controlled. The test results betweenthe group multivariate test showed that there was a significant difference between the reading groups of non-fiction and fiction on narrative transport and readers’ empathy simultaneously after controlling for the pre-testnarrative transport and pre-test empathy variables, F(2, 57) = 3.291, p < .05, Wilks’ Λ = .896, with power ηp2 =.104 (10.4%). The univariate test on each dependent variable (empathy, narrative transport) in terms of textreading (non-fiction vs. fiction), after controlling for covariates (pre-test empathy, pre-test narrative transport),only differed significantly in the dependent variable narrative transport, F(5, 55) , p < 0.05, with ηp2 = .087 (8.7%),but not significant on the dependent variable empathy. The discussion is related to the familiarity of the readertowards the main character in non-fiction and fiction texts 

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