The Personal is Political: Assessing the Effects of Personal Narratives on Public Opinion

Can sharing personal experiences with abortion change public attitudes about this issue? Using a preference-incorporating choice and assignment design, we find that personal narrative accounts reach a broader audience and are more persuasive than appeals conveying the same factual information in a more general manner. These effects, however, are concentrated among women who would likely avoid hearing such personal accounts if given the choice, while men’s attitudes appear largely unmoved. Understanding public opinion change on abortion and other morally divisive political issues requires advocates and scholars to account for the extent of public outreach along with the content of the message. Our work provides new evidence to understand how advocacy can best function on social media platforms where choice is prevalent and powerful.