Lost in Transportation? Ethical Implications of Story Domain, Teller, and Receiver for the Narrative Transportation Effect

Abstract

The recent adoption of storytelling to promote harmful products and services indicates that storytelling poses a key business ethics issue. Extant research demonstrates that a story can persuade story-receivers through the experience of narrative transportation. We introduce the business ethics concerns that storytelling raises because of the superior persuasiveness of the narrative transportation effect, stories’ use to promote harmful products and services, and their reach to vulnerable target groups. By means of a meta-analysis, we further show that the narrative transportation effect is strengthened when (1) the story pertains to marketing (vs. other domains), (2) is told by multiple storytellers, and (3) is received by one story-receiver at a time. We also discuss the ethical implications of these moderators.