Who Can Be a Hero? Genre and Stereotype in Narrative Persuasion

• In Event: 317 - Regular Session. Culture and Narrative

Abstract

If people read stories along the line of genre, then members of disadvantaged groups should be able to gain respect and sympathy by telling their stories as heroic ones. If people read stories rather along the lines of stereotype, then members of disadvantaged groups are unlikely to be seen as heroes. In an experimental design, 452 respondents read heroic stories that were identical but for the race, gender, and imputed class background of the protagonist. We found not only that readers were able to see unconventional protagonists as heroic, but that they were even more likely to see those protagonists as heroic. We conclude that stereotypes may feed into genre expectations by giving readers the sense that lower status protagonists’ heroism comes at a greater cost.

Authors

• Francesca Polletta, University of California, Irvine

• Kelly Marie Ward, University of California, Irvine