The Impact of Narrative Role on Consumers’ Purchase Intentions in the Agricultural Product Live Stream: A Study Based on the Theory of Perspective Taking

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the relationships of narrative role, empathy, host identification, spatial distance, and purchase intention. This study conducts three experiments with 460 participants to analyze the influencing mechanism of narrative role (in-group vs. out-group) on consumers’ purchase intentions from the perspective of empathy and host identification through three experiments in different spatial distances (distant vs. close). (a) The study found that in the context of agricultural product live stream, hosts taking an in-group character are more likely to trigger consumers’ purchase intentions than hosts taking an out-group character. (b) Empathy and host identification play a mediating role in the impact of the narrative role on consumers’ purchase intentions. (c) The impact of the host’s narrative role on purchase intention does not significantly differ in a spatially distant location. Compared to the host as an out-group character, the host as an in-group character is more likely to promote consumers’ purchase intention when the spatial distance is close.