Transportation and transportability in the cultivation of genre-consistent attitudes and estimates

The concept of transportation into narrative (Green & Brock, 2002) is used to gain new insights into cultivation processes. A theoretical framework is developed where cultivation is seen is the result of a self-reinforcing interaction between persuasive and motivational effects of transportation: Repeated highly transportive experiences contribute to the overall cultivation effect by adjusting the viewers' worldviews after each exposure. At the same time, viewers are motivated to return to programming of a given genre because transportation is on enjoyable experience. Our study uses transportability as an indicator of repeated transportive experences and seeks to test its validity and usefulness for cultivation research. Results indicate that transportability predicts transportation within specific viewing experiences. Although no linear moderation effects of transportability are found, the data suggest a nonlinear moderation. Genre-consistent attitudes held prior to exposure facilitate transportation, but transportation was not consistently related to increases in genre-related judgments after a single exposure. Limitations of the transportability measure to represent repeated transportive exposures are discussed.