Affective-structural effect and the characters' perception in reception of short stories: An American-Hungarian cross-cultural study

Abstract

To see cross-cultural differences during reading short stories, the study of affective-motivational variables was connected with that of structural variables and perception of characters. American and Hungarian subjects read an American and a Hungarian short story, as well as revised versions in which characters' situation and traits were manipulated. The texts were split into three parts. Following each part, the subject's affective reactions, understanding, and perceptions about characters and structure of the text were measured by several scale-items. Differences between the original and the manipulated stories and between the populations are presented and discussed in detail from the point of view of constructing different mental models.