Leiden University Student Repository

Clingman, Elsa (2020)

Sympathizing With Antiheroes: A Study of Narrative Transportation and Moral Disengagement in Adolescents

Master thesis | Psychology (MSc)

The aim of this study was to investigate whether the extent to which adolescents feel lost in a fictional story (i.e. narrative transportation) affects the extent to which they justify or forgive the protagonist’s immoral actions (i.e. moral disengagement). Ninety-two Dutch secondary school students (37 males) between 12 and 16 years of age participated and were randomly assigned to an instructed fiction or uninstructed fiction condition. While participants in both conditions read the same story, only those in the former condition were instructed to immerse themselves in the narrative. Participants then completed the Narrative Transportation Scale and a moral disengagement questionnaire. Contrary to expectations, this study did not find a significant link between transportation and moral disengagement. Moreover, the transportation-enhancing instructions appeared to be ineffective. Although the results indicate transportation does not affect moral disengagement in adolescents,...Show moreThe aim of this study was to investigate whether the extent to which adolescents feel lost in a fictional story (i.e. narrative transportation) affects the extent to which they justify or forgive the protagonist’s immoral actions (i.e. moral disengagement). Ninety-two Dutch secondary school students (37 males) between 12 and 16 years of age participated and were randomly assigned to an instructed fiction or uninstructed fiction condition. While participants in both conditions read the same story, only those in the former condition were instructed to immerse themselves in the narrative. Participants then completed the Narrative Transportation Scale and a moral disengagement questionnaire. Contrary to expectations, this study did not find a significant link between transportation and moral disengagement. Moreover, the transportation-enhancing instructions appeared to be ineffective. Although the results indicate transportation does not affect moral disengagement in adolescents, several limitations of the study suggest that further research is warranted.Show less

fiction

moral disengagement

narrative transportation

adolescence

Author

Clingman, Elsa

Faculty

Faculty of Social & Behavioural Sciences

Specialisation

School Psychology

Supervisors

Bos, E. van den
Boelens, H.

ECTS Credits

20

Language

en