Fecha de publicación: -- Fuente: PubMed "Cannabis" Health Commun. 2026 Nov 9:1-11. doi: 10.1080/10410236.2026.2757104. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTNarrative messages may help audiences engage with content and identify with characters, thereby enhancing persuasion. This study tests whether empathic concern - a stable other-oriented affective facet of empathy - shapes responses to narrative messages through identification with the protagonist. A two-wave between-subjects online experiment tested video messages targeting driving under the influence of cannabis (DUIC), among adult cannabis users who drive. Participants were randomly assigned to narrative or expository DUIC messages, or a control condition (a skin cancer prevention narrative), all featuring the same protagonist. Message format had no overall effect on any outcome. Among participants who viewed narrative DUIC prevention messages (eligible baseline sample: N = 483; follow-up analytic samples: N = 264-290), empathic concern was positively related to identification and transportation. Identification, once its overlap with transportation was accounted for, was negatively associated with DUIC intentions post-exposure and at follow-up, and with DUIC behaviors at follow-up. Empathic concern may shape responses to narrative messages about risky driving, through identification. Results illustrate who responds to narrative messages about DUIC, rather than whether narrative messages outperform expository ones, and indicate that empathic concern is related to, but conceptually distinct from, identification, with implications for message design and for narrative theory.PMID:43002098 | DOI:10.1080/10410236.2026.2757104