Hermeneutical closure and cognition in narrative hermeneutics: Aids to conclusion drawing, polysemy reduction, and persuasion with implications for homiletic theory.

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Several studies have examined various effects related to conclusion drawing with a conclusion explicitness manipulation. However, no previous study has utilized such a manipulation with a narrative message form nor a theoretical path model. The fragmented conclusion drawing literature was reviewed and a clearer map of explicitness studies was proposed to aid future research. A model of narrative hermeneutics was then proposed. Participants (N = 301) drawn mostly from churches in the southeastern U.S. were exposed to a narrative sermon with three levels of conclusion explicitness as an attempt to examine a theorized phenomenon, “hermeneutical closure” (defined as words, signs, or symbols at or near the end of an artifact that enable auditors to draw an author-intended conclusion), and the relationship of the following variables: conclusion explicitness, perceived polysemy reduction, conclusion drawing, cognitive elaboration (message elaboration and need for cognition), and persuasion (positive attitude shift in message satisfaction and evangelism interest—the topic advocated by the sermon). The proposed path model of narrative hermeneutics was not supported. However, a revised model that retained the primary hypothesized path fit the data well and revealed the relationship between explicitness, conclusion drawing, and persuasion is more complex than previously thought—at least for narrative messages. A key finding was increased explicitness led to increased perceived polysemy reduction which led to both increased conclusion drawing and increased persuasion (message satisfaction) concurrently (conclusion drawing and message satisfaction were not correlated to each other). Also, message elaboration (but not need for cognition) predicted both perceived polysemy reduction and persuasion (message satisfaction) in the path model. The implications of this research for narrative communication and homiletics is discussed.