Convince Me: The Effects of Persuasive Writing on Event Centrality

Abstract

SummaryRecent research has demonstrated that event centrality, the degree to which an event has become part of one's identity, predicts post‐event distress. However, little research has examined factors or situations which may increase centrality. The aim of the current study was to examine how the instructions in a writing task may impact event centrality. Participants identified their ‘worst’ event and then either wrote persuasively about the impact of the event or wrote a factual account of the event and completed self‐report measures pre‐writing and post‐writing. We found no group differences when examining all participants; however, we did find significantly higher centrality in the persuasive group for those participants who had experienced a traumatic event as defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition. Our results demonstrate that event centrality is amenable to change in response to written interventions, and these results may have significant implications for situations in which individuals are required to convincingly describe their traumatic experiences. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.