There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.
Abstract
Including narratives in health-care interventions is increasingly popular. However,
narrative information may bias individual's decision making, resulting in patients
making poorer decisions. This systematic review synthesises the evidence about the
persuasiveness of narrative information on individuals' decision making. Seventeen
studies met the review criteria; 41% of studies employed first person narration, 59%
third person. Narrative information influenced decision making more than the provision
of no additional information and/or statistically based information in approximately
a third of the studies (5/17); studies employing first person narratives were twice
as likely to find an effect. There was some evidence that narrative information encouraged
the use of heuristic rather than systematic processing. However, there was little
consistency in the methods employed and the narratives' content to provide evidence
on why narratives affect the decision process and outcome, whether narratives facilitate
or bias decision making, and/or whether narratives affect the quality of the decision
being made. Until evidence is provided on why and how narratives influence decision
making, the use of narratives in interventions to facilitate medical decision making
should be treated cautiously.