Persuasive narratives and costly actions

Persuasive narratives can induce some individuals to engage in costly actions. Entrepreneurs of suicide missions frame the necessity of violent behavior within the context of persuasive narratives to attract potential recruits. Herein we report results from an experiment to test factors involved wit...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Zahedzadeh, Giti (Author) ; Barraza, Jorge A. (Author) ; Zak, Paul J. 1962- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Published: 2017
In: Terrorism and political violence
Year: 2017, Volume: 29, Issue: 1, Pages: 160-172
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Keywords:
costly actions
Motivation
Perspective taking
persuasive narratives
suicide missions
Description
Summary:Persuasive narratives can induce some individuals to engage in costly actions. Entrepreneurs of suicide missions frame the necessity of violent behavior within the context of persuasive narratives to attract potential recruits. Herein we report results from an experiment to test factors involved with costly action linked to a persuasive narrative. We recruited 164 participants (M = 21, SD = 5.20) and measured hormones, electrodermal activity, and personality to predict who would be influenced by the narrative's message. We found that the persuasive narrative we tested resulted in costly action by those who are high-perspective takers and are more physiologically aroused by the narrative. The findings fill lacunae in the literature, providing a novel approach to examine costly behavior (like martyrdom missions) in the laboratory.
Item Description:Gesehen am 01.12.2023
Published online: 17 Mar 2015
Physical Description:Diagramme
ISSN:1556-1836
DOI:10.1080/09546553.2015.1005077