The Effects of Sensory Language in Human Trafficking Survival Storytelling: An Empirical Study

Abstract Combatting human trafficking calls for new solutions and strategies. The study aims to test whether sensory language promotes the effect of co-presence in media stories. Apart from the methods of corpus and narrative analyses, which showed the prevalence of visual, tactile, and acoustic sensory modalities, and the first-person presentation, an experiment was conducted. Forty Ukrainian humanity students were exposed to narrative text (G1) versus expository text (G2). The Paired Samples T -Test showed a significantly higher degree of responsiveness within G1, who were more emotionally involved in the story (V1), felt sympathy for the victim (V2), and imagined themselves being in the same situation (V3). The Independent Samples T -Test showed the differences between the reactions of G1 and G2 across six other variables. The results were significant with regards to the feeling of being inside the story (V4), visualising the setting (V6), and the feeling of being touched (V8), and insignificant for the willingness to interview a victim (V5); imagining sounds and voices (V7), experiencing the smell of the places described (V9). The results confirm the value of using media narrative in classroom activities and point to the effect of simulated co-experience evoked by sensory language.