The Presence of the Protagonist: Explaining Narrative Perspective Effects Through Social Presence

Based on two experiments, this paper advances the concept of social presence as a novel mechanism through which narrative perspective (first- versus third-person) exerts persuasive effects on attitudes toward outgroup policies and behavioral intentions to help outgroup members. Study 1 (N = 503) shows that the first-person perspective, compared to the third-person perspective, increases social presence of the protagonist, but not identification with the protagonist, when the story depicted an outgroup character. This increase in social presence mediates the effect of narrative perspective on support for outgroup policies. Study 2 (N = 410) further suggests that social presence mediates the effect of narrative perspective regardless of the protagonist’s group membership (in-group versus out-group). Furthermore, this project evaluates the role of social presence in light of other, often-studied processes such as identification and transportation. These findings advance the theorizing and research in narrative research and in media psychology more broadly.