Is Self-Character Similarity Always Beneficial?

This paper examines how consumers' immersion in narratives moderates the influence of self-character similarity on narrative and embedded brand evaluations. Traditional information-processing and narrative-processing models are used for understanding these effects. Study 1 showed that when immersion of participants in the narrative was induced, their brand and story evaluations were more favorable when the lead character was unlike themselves than when he or she was similar. Study 2 showed that when immersion in the narrative was induced, participants' unaided and aided brand memory was impeded more when the lead character was unlike themselves than when he or she was like them (indicating greater cognitive burden in the dissimilar condition). This provides a cognitive resource availability explanation for Study 1 results.