This chapter describes the use of narratives in health communication and its outcomes. A story usually describes a series of events. These include characters, time sequences (events that occur over time), and causal relationships (events linked in a cause-and-effect order). First, we distinguish narratives from other forms of health communication and briefly discuss different types of narratives, from personal experiences to entertainment education. We emphasize the fact that even fictional stories can convey health information. Next, we will discuss the psychological processes that individuals undergo when reading or viewing a story. Specifically, we focus on the process of narrative engagement, including the factors that make individuals more likely to engage, such as transition to the story world and identification with the characters. We draw on recent meta-analyses to provide an overview of the empirical evidence on healthy persuasion in narratives, including comparisons of narratives across media and comparisons of narrative and non-narrative communication. We summarize lessons learned from this research on how to design effective health narrative messages. Finally, this chapter focuses on current and future directions in health narrative research.
