TY  - JOUR
AB  - Purpose China and the USA are among the countries where depression is most prevalent. However, the treatment rate of depression is relatively low in these two countries. Negative attitudes toward depression is one of the major contributor to the low-treatment rate. The purpose of this paper is to examine the use of narratives to promote positive attitudes toward depression in China and the USA. In addition, it examines that the psychological mechanisms underlying narrative persuasion in these two different cultural contexts.Design/methodology/approach An online survey was conducted in both China (n=84) and the USA (n=174). Participants were first asked to complete a short questionnaire about their demographic information and depressive symptoms. They were then asked to read a story featuring a college student with depression. After reading the message, participants completed another questionnaire measuring their attitudes toward depression, transportation (i.e. readers’ involvement with the story), and counterarguing (i.e. the generation of thoughts that dispute the persuasive argument).Findings Results from a multi-group analysis suggested that although narrative messages had similar persuasive effects for readers from different cultures, the relation between narrative transportation and counterarguing was different. For the US participants, the more they were transported to the story world, the less counter arguments they generated. However, transportation was not negatively associated with counterarguing for Chinese readers.Practical implications Findings provide implications for strategically using narrative persuasion to promote positive attitudes toward depression in different cultural contexts.Originality/value This study is the first to test the use of narratives to promote positive attitudes toward depression in different cultural contexts.
VL  - 118
IS  - 3
SN  - 0965-4283
DO  - 10.1108/HE-08-2017-0041
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1108/HE-08-2017-0041
AU  - Ma Zexin
AU  - Nan Xiaoli
AU  - Qin Yan
AU  - Zhou Peiyuan
PY  - 2018
Y1  - 2018/01/01
TI  - Using narrative persuasion to promote positive attitudes toward depression in different cultural contexts
T2  - Health Education
PB  - Emerald Publishing Limited
SP  - 239
EP  - 249
Y2  - 2024/04/19
ER  -