Can A Funny Story about Tooth Brushing Decrease Plaque Scores in Children? A Longitudinal Field Experiment.

Dental caries is the most common chronic condition among children, it is thus a necessity to develop health communication tools to increase children's dental hygiene. Prior research among adults indicates that entertaining narrative communication can promote health behaviors, but knowledge on narrative effects on children's health outcomes is limited. In a repeated measures field experiment (N = 94, 4-10 years) we examined the long-term effects of repeated exposure to a humorous tooth brushing narrative about an orange monkey, versus an expository text on dental care, on children's self-reported and biomedical dental hygiene (plaque scores). We also explored narrative, affective and cognitive processes. Findings showed that the humorous narrative increased character engagement, enjoyment, and moral judgment compared with the expository condition. Enjoyment and moral judgment, in turn, predicted increases and decreases in plaque scores, respectively. We conclude that effectiveness of humorous narrative approach crucially depends on whether the child understands it when a story character is violating the rule.

Corrigendum: Watching More Closely: Shot Scale Affects Film Viewers' Theory of Mind Tendency But Not Ability.

[This corrects the article on p. 2349 in vol. 8, PMID: 29387032.].

Watching More Closely: Shot Scale Affects Film Viewers' Theory of Mind Tendency But Not Ability.

Recent research debates the effects of exposure to narrative fiction on recognition of mental states in others and self, referred to as Theory of Mind. The current study explores the mechanisms by which such effects could occur in fictional film. Using manipulated film scenes, we conducted a between subject experiment (N = 136) exploring how film shot-scale affects viewers' Theory of Mind. Specifically, in our methods we distinguish between the trait Theory of Mind abilities (ToM ability), and the state-like tendency to recognize mental states in others and self (ToM tendency). Results showed that close-up shots (compared to long shots) of a character was associated with higher levels of Theory of Mind tendency, when the facial expression was sad but not when it was neutral. And this effect did not transfer to other characters in the film. There was also no observable effect of character depiction on viewers' general Theory of Mind ability. Together the findings suggest that formal and content features of shot scale can elicit Theory of Mind responses by directing attention toward character mental states rather than improving viewers' general Theory of Mind ability.