Current Psychology

https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-03048-4

Character identification is predicted by narrative transportation,

immersive tendencies, and interactivity
Anna Felnhofer1,2   · Lena Wittmann3   · Adelais Reichmann4   · Dorothea König‑Teshnizi5   ·
Oswald D. Kothgassner2,4 

Accepted: 24 March 2022

© The Author(s) 2022

Abstract
The question of what contributes to users’ identification with media characters remains an open issue in research. Apart from
media interactivity, user characteristics like gender, age, immersive tendencies, and factual transportation into the narrative
are promising factors. Yet, research is still in its infancy, and the usage of different media limits cross-study comparability.
Hence, the current study set out to examine predictors of character identification using a text-based fiction with purported
interactivity which was inspired by interactive fiction (IF) games. In an online experiment, 228 participants aged 15–65 years
were randomly assigned to either an active condition where they could choose from different options, or a passive condition
where they only read the story. Additionally, participants filled out questionnaires assessing immersive tendencies, level of
identification, and narrative transportation. A multiple linear regression model tested for predictors of character identifica-
tion. Apart from age and gender which remained non-significant, interactivity, immersive tendencies, and transportation into
narrative significantly predicted identification with the IF’s main character. The current findings support theoretical models
on media interactivity and identification, yet several open issues such as the role of media content (engaging vs. mundane)
and character features (e.g., similarity with user) remain to be answered.

Keywords  Character identification · Narrative transportation · Gender · Immersive tendencies · Interactive fiction

Introduction
* Oswald D. Kothgassner
oswald.kothgassner@meduniwien.ac.at
Identifying with a fictional character lies at the core of
Anna Felnhofer
anna.felnhofer@meduniwien.ac.at many media experiences, be it reading a novel, watching a
movie, or playing a video game (Cohen, 2001). Past stud-
Lena Wittmann
lena.wittmann@webster.ac.at ies have repeatedly linked identification with media char-
acters to increased media enjoyment (Birk et  al., 2016;
Adelais Reichmann
adelais.reichmann@meduniwien.ac.at Busselle & Bilandzic, 2009; Hefner et al., 2007; Trepte &
Reinecke, 2010), more positive affect and empathy (Bachen
Dorothea König‑Teshnizi
dorothea.koenig@univie.ac.at et al., 2012; Birk et al., 2016), a facilitated experience of
flow (Soutter & Hitchens, 2016), greater interest in learn-
1
Department of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Medical ing (Bachen et al., 2016), and enhanced persuasiveness of
University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria media content (Green & Brock, 2000; Moyer-Gusé et al.,
2
Comprehensive Center for Pediatrics, CCP, Medical 2011; Slater & Rouner, 2002). As such, character identifi-
University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria cation is thought to shape the success of applications that
3
Department of Psychology, Webster University Vienna, seek to induce behavior or attitude changes in the context
Vienna, Austria of entertainment-education (see Bachen et al., 2016; Green
4
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Medical & Jenkins, 2014; Slater & Rouner, 2002) or health care (see
University of Vienna, Waehringer Guertel 18‑20, Steinemann et al., 2017). Apart from these beneficial effects,
1090 Vienna, Austria
however, identification has also been shown to be associ-
5
Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, Faculty ated with negative media consequences such as addictive
of Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

13
Vol.:(0123456789)

Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.


behaviors (Smahel et al., 2008) and aggression (Bachen
et al., 2012; Konijn et al., 2007).
While prior conceptualizations of identification (see
Moyer-Gusé, 2008, for an overview) have focused on how
readers or viewers felt about the character in terms of sym-
pathy or similarity, current definitions put their emphasis
on how readers, viewers or gamers feel with the character
(Cohen, 2001). Hence, identification is construed as “an
imaginative process through which an audience member
assumes the identity, goals, and perspective of a character”
(Cohen, 2001, p. 261). As such, a person reading a book,
watching a movie, or playing a video game will experience
and interpret the text, film or game as if she or he was on
the inside and as if the described events were happening to
her or him. In other words, identification may be described
as “a temporary alteration of media users’ self-perception”
(Hefner et al., 2007, p. 40) which, on the one hand, involves
a transitory loss of self-awareness and, on the other hand,
encompasses adopting the character’s point of view (cog-
nitive empathy) and feeling what the character is feeling
(emotional empathy) (Cohen, 2001).
Predictors of Character Identification
Although a considerable body of literature has explored the
effects of character identification on media consumers, find-
ings are still inconsistent with regards to the question of
what contributes to identifying with a fictional character.
Identification is hypothesized to be influenced by a range of
factors, including not only different features of the medium
(e.g., level of interactivity, narrative content) but also spe-
cific attributes of the character (e.g., appearance, customi-
zation options), and a range of user characteristics (e.g.,
gender, age, engagement with content) (see Cohen, 2001).
Among these, interactivity has received considerable
attention in the past, and several theoretical approaches have
incorporated interactivity as a causal factor. For instance,
the Conceptual Model of Interactivity Effects (Green &
Jenkins, 2014) assumes that the extent to which the user
may control the narrative and the story outcome influences
identification. Similarly, the Moderated Mediation Model
of Media Interactivity (Lin, 2013b) proposes that interactiv-
ity, i.e., the possibility to control the video game character,
positively affects identification with this character. Some
empirical data supports this, showing higher identification
scores in users who played rather than watched a video game
(Hefner et al., 2007), or in participants who were able to
select the plot (rather than merely consuming it) in an audio-
visual fiction (Soto-Sanfiel et al., 2010). Other research (Lin,
2013a), however, did not find said associations. Generally,
it is important to note that a consistent definition of interac-
tivity is complicated by the fact that interactivity in a writ-
ten narrative is different from interactivity in a video game
13
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.
Current Psychology
(Green & Jenkins, 2014). While in text-based narratives,
interactivity pertains to the way in which the reader engages
with the narrative (Green & Jenkins, 2014), in video games
it involves customizing the character’s appearance and will-
fully directing its actions (Bachen et al., 2016; Birk et al.,
2016; Christy & Fox, 2016).
It has been argued that interactive fiction (IF) may be
more suitable than video games for answering the question
of whether and how interactivity impacts identification. IF
is comprised of text-based stories which allow the readers
to (ostensibly) influence the direction of the plot at key deci-
sion points (Green & Jenkins, 2014). As such, IF is assumed
to be similar to a video game, yet entail fewer potential con-
founds than those found in video games, such as being able
to customize your avatar, or experiencing embodiment in
immersive virtual environments (see Murphy, 2004). Here,
using IF instead of video games in research allows to test
for the hypothesizes associations whilst controlling for con-
founds (see Sherrick et al., 2014; Steinemann et al., 2017).
Given their rigor, experiments with IF are better suited
than video games to validate the relations between differ-
ent variables (e.g., interactivity, transportation, immersion)
and identification as postulated by theoretical models such
as the one of Green and Jenkins (2014). To date, research
which relates these constructs under controlled conditions
is still rather scarce.
Apart from interactivity, narrative transportation may be
regarded another predictor of identification. Broadly speak-
ing, transportation encompasses the cognitive and emotional
immersion in a story (Green & Brock, 2000; Green & Jen-
kins, 2014). A concise conceptualization is an open issue,
and different terms are currently used to describe it, such as
immersion (Moore & Green, 2020), engagement (Busselle
& Bilandzic, 2008), absorption (Slater & Rouner, 2002),
and involvement (Klimmt & Vorderer, 2003). Generally,
transportation refers to the narrative as a whole, while the
conceptually different phenomenon of identification pertains
solely to the character(s) within the narrative (Green & Jen-
kins, 2014). Several researchers (e.g., Behm-Morawitz &
Mastro, 2009; Christy & Fox, 2016; Green & Brock, 2000)
have hypothesized that transportation into the narrative is
a prerequisite for character identification (see also Slater
& Rouner’s, 2002, theoretical model), yet empirical suste-
nance of this assumption is still scarce, and more studies
are needed to shed light on the hypothesized associations.
Another predictor of identification is thought to lie in the
construct of immersive tendencies. Contrary to transporta-
tion, which describes the factual immersion in the story,
immersive tendencies encompass an individual’s predis-
position to become cognitively and emotionally involved
in a story in the first place (Green & Jenkins, 2014; Maz-
zocco et al., 2010; Witmer & Singer, 1998). As such, it is an
individual trait, which has often been used interchangeably
Current Psychology
with the construct of transportability, which also describes a
person’s ability to be engaged with a narrative (e.g., Moore
& Green, 2020; Skarbez et al., 2017). While past results
support a relationship between transportability/immersive
tendencies and identification for narrative video games
(Christy & Fox, 2016), the effect of immersive tendencies
in the context of interactive narratives like IF remains to be
studied (Green & Jenkins, 2014).
Finally, users’ gender and age may also be of importance
in identifying with media characters. Cohen (2001) hypoth-
esized that diverse demographic variables may influence
the identification process by eliciting feelings of similar-
ity between the user and the media character. Accordingly,
Slater and Rouner (2002) have included homophily as a
predictor in their model. However, past research has not yet
sufficiently considered these variables. Only few contradic-
tory results exist, some showing no connection (Cohen et al.,
2018; Hall, 2020), while others imply that females identify
more strongly with their own gender, and males identify
equally with either gender (Hook, 2019).
Study Objective
On the one hand, past research is characterized by heteroge-
neous definitions and operationalizations of key constructs
(e.g., Cohen, 2001), and on the other hand, it suffers from
a lack of comparability of findings due to the use of dif-
ferent media (i.e., video games vs. text-based narratives)
with varying confounds (e.g., influence of customization
on identification). Also, the downfall to using video games
Fig. 1  Female and male main
characters as displayed during
the interactive fiction
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.
when studying identification are the manifold factors which
may potentially influence character identification and hence,
impede validation of according theoretical models of iden-
tification. Hence, the current study set out to examine the
postulated associations in a text-based fiction with purported
interactivity. It was hypothesized that user’s immersive ten-
dencies, their experience of actual transportation into the
narrative, and the interactivity of the narrative (active vs.
passive) would predict identification with the narrative’s
main character. Moreover, we included gender and age as
possible predictors of character identification to test for their
influence.
Methods
Stimulus Material
An IF was created using Twine (http://​twine​r y.​org) which
is an open-source software allowing the programming of
interactive games. The game used for this study was purely
text-based, yet throughout its course, a static picture of the
main character was visible on the right-hand side of the text.
Two portraits of young Caucasian adults (one male and one
female) were created using Adobe Fuse CC and rendered
with Octane Render. Both characters were designed to
resemble each other with regards to their external features;
hence, both were light-skinned, had brunette hair, and wore
a brown jacket (see Fig. 1).
13
 Current Psychology

The IF created for the purpose of this study included a
murder case, which was told from the first-person perspec-
tive of the detective who was called to the scene to inter-
rogate potential suspects (total word count: 3490 words in
German). The game was activated via a link and was adapted
to run in all standard browsers (i.e., Internet Explorer/Edge,
Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari). In the active
condition, participants were instructed that they would be
playing a game as a detective whose goal was to success-
fully solve a murder case. Also, participants were told that
to achieve this goal, they would have to make several deci-
sions, which would all critically influence the outcome. In
contrast, participants in the passive condition were merely
asked to read the story about a detective solving a murder
case. In both conditions, participants were provided with
the detective’s last name, Kummer, and with her or his static
portrait. Each participant was randomly assigned either to
the story with the male main character or to the one with the
female main character.
Overall, the course of the narrative was comparable
in both conditions, with all subjects ending up reading
all information and arriving at the same end of the story,
where the detective arrests the murderer. The only differ-
ence was that participants in the passive condition clicked
on a continue button, while participants in the active condi-
tion could choose from two to three options (see Fig. 2).
As such, the active condition included real, active choices,
whereas the passive condition did not. Hence, there was a
factual difference between the two conditions regarding the
interactivity of the medium. This is in line with the assump-
tion that while classical text-based narratives are passively
consumed, interactive narratives entail active engagement
(Green & Jenkins, 2014). Presenting the same plot and end-
ing across conditions, allowed us to reduce possible interfer-
ing influences of condition-dependent storylines and end-
ings. This is a method commonly used in studies in the field
of interactive fiction (see Jenkins, 2014; Soto-Sanfiel et al,
2010; Steinemann et al., 2015). Overall, participants had to
click “continue” or choose from different options 24 times;
choices in the interactive version were not recorded.
To assess whether there were any differences between the
male and female images in terms of attractiveness, sympathy,
and estimated age, and to evaluate whether the interactive
narrative was engaging, and the passive and active condition
were perceived as such, a pre-study was conducted with 10
young adults aged between 25–30 years who were randomly
assigned to either the male or female character and to either
the active or passive condition. There were no significant dif-
ferences in how the male and female avatars were evaluated:
Both were estimated to be about 25–30 years old; both were
reported to be equally attractive and sympathetic. Also, the
main character’s gender was always correctly identified by
all pre-study participants. With regards to the two narratives,
the active condition was judged as more interactive and par-
ticipants stated they had the impression they could influence
the outcome of the story and the main character’s decisions.
Procedure
The study was administered in two stages to avoid bias due
to asking about behaviors and assessing them in the same
session (see Sherrick et al., 2014, for a similar procedure).
The first part of the study contained the pre-assessments
(demographic screening), and the second part contained the
experiment and the post-measures (all remaining question-
naires, see Measures section). All self-report questionnaires
were administered online via SoSciSurvey (https://​www.​
sosci​survey.​de). The experiment was carried out in strict
accordance with The Code of Ethics of the World Medi-
cal Association (Declaration of Helsinki). Participants were
informed about the procedure, duration, and purpose of the
study, as well as about voluntary participation and anonymi-
zation, and had to consent to these terms before proceed-
ing. Subsequently, participants were asked to provide their
e-mail address by means of an opt-in question, which they
had to confirm in an e-mail sent to them. To ensure data

Fig. 2  Example of choice
options within the active condi-
tion
A colleague greeted me: "Mrs./Mr. Detective, come with me, I'll show you the
body. But you have most likely come for nothing, to all appearances, it was only
a heart attack. The man had been exercising on the treadmill in their home gym
and must have overexerted himself."

"Who found him?" I asked.

"The wife. She's all broken up - understandably so. She's sitting over there in the
living room if you want to question her."

I would like to take a look at the body.

I would like to talk to the wife.

13

Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.

Current Psychology
protection and anonymity, e-mail addresses were stored in a
separate dataset on SoSciSurvey and could not be matched
to the answers in the questionnaire. After confirming their
e-mail, participants were automatically redirected to the first
part of the study and answered the pre-questionnaires which
entailed the demographic screening (see Measures section)
and took about 2–5 min. Afterwards, subjects were asked to
generate a personalized 6-digit-code to allow for matching
their answers during the second stage. Four days after com-
pletion of the pre-assessment, a link was sent to participants
via e-mail leading them to the IF (the link was valid for two
days to ensure a similar timeframe for the post-responses).
Participants were randomly assigned to either the active or
passive condition; both took about 20–25 min to be com-
pleted and were followed by post-questionnaires (see the
remaining questionnaires in the measures section). Finally,
subjects were asked to enter their personalized code and
were able to choose whether they wanted to receive further
information about the results.
Measures
Demographic Data  A short demographic survey assessed
participant’s age, gender, educational level, as well as their
reading and computer gaming habits, using a single item
each: “How many books do you read in a month?”, “How
many hours per week do you play computer games?”.
Adherence Check  To control for whether participants had
read the story, participants were provided with one ques-
tion following the narrative: “Who murdered Mr. Schwarz?”
(answer options: (1) Mrs. Schwarz, (2) Mr. Fuchs, (3) Mrs.
Graf, (4) Mr. Schubert, (5) there was no murder, (6) I do not
know; correct answer: 2). All participants who chose (2) Mr.
Fuchs as their answer were included in the analysis.
Immersive Tendencies  To assess immersive tendencies
as a valid indicator of participants’ trait transportability,
the Immersive Tendencies Questionnaire (ITQ; Witmer &
Singer, 1998) was used. For the current study, it was trans-
lated into German using the back-translation method (see
Brislin, 1970). Also, the first 14 out of the 18 original items
were included which assess the individual predisposition
to become immersed in a medium on an 8-pt-Likert scale
(1 = never to 8 = always). The mean score in our sample
amounted to 63.79 (SD = 15.27). The internal consistency
(Cronbach’s α) for the total scale was good with α = 0.81.
Transportation  A German version of the Transport Narra-
tive Questionnaire (TNQ, Green & Brock, 2000) assessed
the extent to which participants were transported into and
absorbed by the narrative using 15 items (e.g., “While I
was reading the narrative, I could easily picture the events
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.
in it taking place”) on a 7-pt-Likert scale (1 = not at all to
7 = very much). Again, we used the back-translation method
to develop the German version of the questionnaire. As pro-
posed by the authors (Green & Brock, 2000), we used the
full scale (sum score) for further analyses, which provided
a good internal consistency (Cronbach’s α = 0.84). The full
scale also included 4 items (12–15) pertaining to the impres-
sion the participants had of 4 characters appearing in the
murder case (“As I read the story, I had a vivid impression
of…”: detective Kummer (main character), Mrs. Schwarz
(wife of the murder victim), Mr. Fuchs (murderer), Mrs.
Graf (neighbor). Our sample had a mean score of 59.69
(SD = 13.66) for the total scale.
Identification  The back translated German version of
the 14-item Identification with Characters (EDI; Igartua,
2010; Igartua & Páez, 1998) was used to measure the extent
to which a person loses self-awareness and thus, has the
impression of becoming the character (e.g., “I identified with
the character.”), and feels cognitive and emotional empathy
towards the character (e.g., “In understood the character’s
feelings or emotions.”) on a 5-pt-Likert scale (1 = not at all
to 5 = very much). The mean score in our sample was 39.54
(SD = 11.77), the internal consistency for the total scale of
14 items was α = 0.92.
Data Analyses
Data was analyzed using IBM SPSS version 26 (SPSS, Inc.
Chicago, USA), considering a significance level of p < 0.05.
Power calculations were performed using G*Power (Ver-
sion 3.1.). Aggregated data are stored on a repository of the
Open Science Framework (https://​doi.​org/​10.​17605/​OSF.​
IO/​VKUPB).
Results
Sample
Participants were recruited via designated German Face-
book pages and groups, as well as in gaming related Ger-
man speaking online-forums. Inclusion criteria were at least
15 years of age. Exclusion criteria, in turn, were participa-
tion in the pre-evaluation of the stimulus material.
The pre-assessment was completed by N = 424 individu-
als, of which n = 304 also participated in the second stage.
Among the 304 data sets, n = 67 had to be excluded because
the personal codes could not be matched (and thus the pre-
test and post-test could not be paired). After excluding data
sets with missing responses (< 20% missing) or conspicu-
ous response patterns (e.g., exclusively ticking the middle
category) as well as with outliers (standardized residuals
13
 Current Psychology

beyond ± 2.5), a total of N = 228 participants were included
in the current analyses (see Fig. 3, CONSORT Flow Dia-
gram). A posteriori power calculation was performed. With
a sample of N = 228 and an achieved significant result, a
power (1 – β) of 0.99 was realized. Hence, it can be stated
with over 99% confidence that effects of size f2 = 0.22 or
greater exist.
Participants were randomly allocated to either the active
condition, n = 122 (54%), which could choose from dif-
ferent options, or the passive condition, n = 106 (47%),
which could only click on the continue button. The adher-
ence check showed that all n = 228 participants correctly
answered the question of who had murdered Mr. Schwarz
and hence, all were included in further analyses.
Participants’ age ranged from 15 years to above 65 years,
with the largest proportion being 20 to 29 years old (54%).
Overall, n = 168 (74%) of the participants were female and
n = 60 (26%) identified as male. Almost half of the sample
(47%) reported a university degree as their highest edu-
cational qualification. In addition, n = 160 (70%) of par-
ticipants reported to engage in two or less hours in video
gaming per day. Furthermore, n = 129 (57%) participants
read one to two books per month, n = 52 (23%) read three
to five books, and n = 28 (12%) read more. A small number

Enrollment

Assessed for eligibility (n=424)

Excluded (n=120)
only answered pre-assessment
(n=120)

Randomized (n=304)

Allocation
Allocated to interactive condition (n=152) Allocated to passive condition (n=152)
Received allocated intervention (n=152) Received allocated intervention (n=152)

Follow-Up

Lost to follow-up (codes could not be matched Lost to follow-up (codes could not be matched
with pre-assessment) (n=25) with pre-assessment) (n=42)

Analysis

Analysed (n=122) Analysed (n=106)

Excluded from analysis (outliers) (n=5) Excluded from analysis (outliers) (n=4)

Fig. 3  CONSORT flow diagram

13

Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.

Current Psychology

of participants, n = 19 (8%), reported having read no books
in the past month.
To exclude the possibility that in one of the two condi-
tions, despite randomization, there was a disproportionately
large accumulation of the following (possibly influencing)
characteristics, group differences between the active and
passive condition were analyzed using univariate ANOVA:
Age (p = 0.998), educational qualification (p = 0.760), com-
puter habits (p = 0.875), and reading habits (p = 0.714) did
not yield differences between the active and the passive
condition. Concerning gender, there were marginally more
male participants in the active condition (29%) than in the
passive one (23%), which resulted in non-significant group
differences (p = 0.341) using the Wilcoxon rank-sum test.
The Person-Chi Square test supports this assumption (χ2 (1,
N = 230) = 0.912, p = 0.340).
Multiple Linear Regression Analysis
Prior to the multiple regression analysis, normality tests
were performed and confirmed a normal distribution of the
included metric variables. Linear interrelationships between
the predictors and the outcome as well as homoscedasticity
were graphically verified and the data met the assumption of
independent errors (Durbin-Watson value = 1.68). The cen-
tered leverage criterion [0.006, 0.096] and the Cook-distance
criterion [0.000, 0.081] showed no outliers after excluding
two outliners prior to the calculation of the regression.
Intercorrelations of the three included predictors ranged
between -0.13 and 0.34. The data indicated that multicol-
linearity was not a concern (interactivity: tolerance = 0.96,
variance inflation factor [VIF] = 1.03; narrative transporta-
tion: tolerance = 0.85, VIF = 1.17; immersive tendencies:
tolerance = 0.81, VIF = 1.24).
A multiple linear regression analysis (method: forced
entry) was used to test whether interactivity (active vs.
passive condition), narrative transportation (TNQ), immer-
sive tendencies (ITQ) significantly predicted participants’
identification with the story’s main character (EDI), as well
as age and gender. The multiple regression analysis indi-
cated that 67% of the outcome variance was explained by the
model, R2 = 0.67, F(5, 222) = 91.452, p < 0.001. Interactivity
significantly predicted identification (β = -0.26, p < 0.001),
as did transportation (β = 0.70, p < 0.001), immersive
tendencies (β = 0.09, p < 0.034), and gender (β = 0.08,
p = 0.048; though only barely significant, male gender was
by trend associated with higher levels of identification). Age
group (β = -0.03, p = 0.412) did not show significant effects
on identification. When character gender and interaction of
character gender and participant gender were included in
the regression model, the model remained significant and
gender lost its weak but significant impact. Neither predictor
(character gender: β = -0.09, p = 0.490; interaction: β = 0.14,
p = 0.440) showed a significant effect on outcome, nor did
they influence the results of the other predictors (Table 1).
Discussion
Identification with fictional characters – be it in text-based
narratives, movies, or video games – is thought to posi-
tively shape media persuasiveness, enjoyment, and learn-
ing. Hence, understanding what lies at the core of character
identification is of interest particularly to those applications
that rely on successfully inducing identification for the pro-
motion of social change or health behaviors. Yet, previous
research largely suffers from limited cross-study compara-
bility due to differing definitions of key constructs and due
to the use of media with varying degrees of interactivity
(i.e., video games, film, text-based narratives). Hence, the
current study set out to add to the body of data by evaluat-
ing the influence of media interactivity and user variables

Table 1  Multiple linear Estimate (B) SE B Beta 95% CI (B) p

regression analysis of
identification (as assessed by LL UL
Identification with Characters,
EDI) Fixed effects
Intercept 6.194 3.693 -1.083 14.471 .095
  ­Interactivitya -6.098 0.916 -.259 -7.903 -4.292  < .001
  Immersive tendencies (ITQ) 0.070 0.033 .091 0.005 0.135 .034
  Transportation (TNQ) 0.605 0.036 .702 0.534 0.675  < .001
  Age ­groupb -0.189 0.230 -.034 -0.641 0.264 .412
  ­Genderc 2.044 1.029 .077 0.016 4.071 .048

Total N = 227; ITQ = Immersive Tendencies Questionnaire; TNQ = Transport Narrative Questionnaire;

CI = confidence interval; LL = lower limit; UL = upper limit
a
  1 = active condition, 2 = passive condition. b 1 =  < 15 years; 2 = 15 to 19 years; 3 = 20 to 24 years; 4 = 25
to 29 years; 5 = 30 to 34 years; 6 = 35 to 39 years; 7 = 40 to 44 years; 8 = 45 to 49 years; 9 = 50 to 54 years;
10 = 55 to 59 years; 11 = 60 to 64 years; 12 = 65 years or older. c 1 = female and 2 = male

13

Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.


such as trait immersive tendencies, gender, age, and factual
transportation into the narrative on character identification
in a text-based fiction. Results show that apart from age, all
predictors included in the multiple linear regression model
were significant. In other words, identification with the sto-
ry’s main character, detective Kummer, was predicted by
participants’ gender, their trait immersive tendencies and
experienced transportation into the narrative, as well as the
story’s interactivity.
Interactivity and Identification
The possibility to select from several choices within our
text-based narrative positively and significantly impacted
identification with the story’s main character. This finding
is in line with past studies (Hefner et al., 2007; Soto-Sanfiel
et al., 2010), and it supports theoretical models such as the
Conceptual Model of Interactivity Effects (Green & Jenkins,
2014) or the Moderated Mediation Model of Media Inter-
activity (Lin, 2013b). As such, the current research adds
empirical sustenance for the key role of media interactivity
in the formation of identification.
However, one issue remains: while our media was fac-
tually interactive in that it afforded choices between dif-
ferent options, the storyline and outcome were the same
across conditions (like in Jenkins, 2014; Soto-Sanfiel et al.,
2010; Steinemann et al., 2015). The current results sup-
port the success of the manipulation, yet, it is possible that
some participants may not have believed that their choices
changed the story’s outcome. Future research should care-
fully control for whether and which participants may find
out about the manipulation and react with frustration and/
or disappointment.
Another issue is the question of whether the findings
are also valid for other media types. While IF is considered
well suited for studying the link between interactivity and
identification (see Sherrick et al., 2014; Steinemann et al.,
2017), findings based on IF-research designs may not be
completely comparable to video games. The visual richness
and action dynamics of video game usually exceed those
of IF by far. Video games entail not only choosing, design-
ing, and customizing one’s avatar with regards to her or his
appearance and skills, but they also rely on perceiving the
three-dimensional environment from a fist person perspec-
tive and on performing directed, willfully steered actions
(Bachen et al., 2016; Birk et al., 2016; Christy & Fox, 2016).
Here, the concept of agency seems to be of relevance:
It describes a sense of being the cause of the media char-
acter’s actions (Fox et al., 2015). As such, agency has also
been associated with the experience of embodiment (see
Murphy, 2004), which, in a basic sense of the concept, may
be described as having control over the body of the video
game character (Aymerich-Franch, 2020). Hence, in contrast
13
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.
Current Psychology
to IF, where interactivity mainly relies on deciding about
the direction of the plot, in video games, interactivity may
entail a more multi-faceted concept. As stated by Birk et al.
(2016), “while traditional narratives rely on empathy […]
– the viewer’s identification with the emotions of a charac-
ter – interactive computer games emphasize agency – the
direct control of a player over the behavior and develop-
ment of their character” (p. 2983). In this sense, media with
differing levels of interactivity and action options may tap
into substantially different aspects of identification: While
IF may prompt empathizing with a character (feeling with
the character), video games may rather lead to a shift of self-
perception and to the impression of becoming the character
(Klimmt et al., 2009, 2010).
Transportation, Immersive Tendencies,
and Identification
In our study, the experience of being transported into the
narrative significantly predicted identification with the
story’s main character, adding sustenance to past findings
(see Behm-Morawitz & Mastro, 2009; Christy & Fox, 2016;
Green & Brock, 2000; Slater & Rouner, 2002). An open
issue, however, is the type of narrative used. Generally, it is
assumed that the quality of the text and the story’s genre may
impact transportation (Green & Brock, 2000). A well-writ-
ten story is thought to evoke higher levels of immersion into
the narrative than a poorly crafted story (Mazzocco et al.,
2010). Accordingly, an exciting storyline and emotionally
engaging content – like in adventure novels or horror sto-
ries – is expected to be more transporting than a mundane
story with little excitement or emotional relevance. To assure
comparability with prior studies (see Sherrick et al., 2014,
for a similar approach), we developed a murder story within
which participants assumed the role of a detective. While
a detective narrative is expected to be engaging, it cannot
be ruled out that the quality of writing (i.e., language level)
may lead to a different cognitive and emotional engagement.
Apart from narrative content, the type of medium used
may also be of essence for the experience of transporta-
tion. In contrast to, for instance, video games, texts are
thought to rely on more imaginative investment from
the recipient (Green et al., 2004). By implication, those
individuals who have a higher likelihood of becoming
cognitively and emotionally immersed in media are also
expected to experience more transportation when reading
a story (Christy & Fox, 2016; Green & Jenkins, 2014).
As such, an individual’s immersive tendency is regarded
highly predictive of narrative transportation (Dal Cin
et al., 2007; Mazzocco et al., 2010) and, thus, also for
identifying with the narrative’s character (Christy & Fox,
2016; Dal Cin et al., 2007). The current experiment was
able to confirm this by showing that individuals with
Current Psychology
higher immersive tendencies also reported more identi-
fication with the detective. However, it must be noted
that, among the predictors included in the multiple linear
regression model, the factual immersion, i.e., the trans-
portation into the narrative (as assessed by the TNQ),
was a stronger predictor (β = 0.70) of identification than
immersive tendencies, i.e., the predisposition to become
immersed in a medium (as assessed by the ITQ; β = 0.09);
transportation into the narrative was the strongest of all
included predictors of the model. In future studies, the
effect of immersive tendencies or transportation should be
examined alone, alongside controlling for the confound-
ing influence of the narrative’s interactivity, content and
quality of writing.
Gender, Age, and Identification
In the face of limited data, demographic variables were
also included in the regression model, however, age did
not emerge as a significant predictor of identification.
Given the broad age range (15 to 65 years) of our sample,
the non-significant finding implies that identification may
occur independent of users’ age. A confounding factor,
however, may be that our largest age group was between
20–29 years (approx. 50% of the sample) and as such,
matched the detective’s age of 25–30 years as estimated
in the pre-study. But to conclude that demographic simi-
larity had no impact on identification (see Cohen, 2001;
Slater & Rouner, 2002) is not feasible considering our
study design.
Contrary to age, gender predicted identification with
the story’s main character. Given that this predictor was
barely significant, it is difficult to make reliable statements
about which gender had which effect. We may at this point
only cautiously state that in our sample – and in contrast to
past findings (Hook, 2019) – males tended to report higher
levels of identification. Furthermore, when we included
character gender and interaction of character and partici-
pant gender (as an indicator of demographic similarity
between participants and the characters) in the regression
model, the model remained significant but gender lost its
significant impact (which was weak to begin with). There-
fore, we were not able to confirm Hook’s (2019) finding
that females identify more strongly with their own gender,
while males identify with both genders.
In sum, more research is needed to add further suste-
nance to the question of whether and how gender influ-
ences identification. Studies should strive for a 50:50
gender ratio and for balanced age groups, and include age
as a continuous variable (in the current study, age was col-
lected using categories), as well as control for perceived
demographic similarity with media characters.
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.
Limitations and Conclusion
The strength of the current research lies in the use of
widely applied, comprehensive measures for the assess-
ment of key variables, as well as in closely adhering to
theoretical models of media interactivity and identification
(see Green & Jenkins, 2014; Lin, 2013b; Slater & Rouner,
2002). Furthermore, we followed the recommendation to
use IF as a means of studying said associations, because
this reduces the risk of confounds (Sherrick et al., 2014)
and we included gender and age as possible predictors
(Cohen, 2001). As such, we were able to fill a gap in the
body of data. However, there are also several limitations
to the current study.
In accordance with Sherrick et al. (2014), the story’s
main character was assigned to participants. Hence, they
could not choose between the male or female detective,
let alone customize him or her. Customization, however,
is assumed to potentially impact whether and to what
extent users identify with the fictional character (see Birk
et al., 2016) and should be regarded in future research.
Furthermore, we used a cross-sectional design. Yet, there
is evidence that time may be of essence: For instance, Lin
(2013a) reported that although their participants empa-
thized with a video game character, the duration of game
play did not seem to be long enough to evoke more than
emotional empathy. In support of this, a study (Van Rei-
jmersdal et al., 2013) found that identification intensified
with longer gaming time. Longitudinal designs are needed
to shed more light on this issue.
Furthermore, we used static pictures to depict the detec-
tive. Other IF-studies resorted to animated pictures (see
Sherrick et al., 2014) or did not use any illustrative mate-
rial at all (see Green & Jenkins, 2014). Although we pre-
evaluated the pictures to ensure that they were comparable
across genders and did not elicit any negative responses,
completely dropping them could have had a different
effect on identification. In general, many interactive nar-
ratives are devoid of the rich character description found
in traditional narratives (books etc.); as such they leave
more space for the readers’ imagination (Green & Jenkins,
2014). Yet, whether this lack of concrete character infor-
mation facilitates putting the recipient into the shoes of the
character, remains to be answered in future studies. Also,
the type of recruitment we chose for the current study and
the resulting sample may be regarded a limitation. Given
that IF may be used to foster education and health (Steine-
mann et al., 2017), appropriate target groups (i.e., children
and adolescents or persons at risk of developing a mental
disorder) should be taken into account in future studies.
Finally, in order to increase experimental control, we
used a purportedly interactive story (see Jenkins, 2014;
13

Soto-Sanfiel et al., 2010; Steinemann et al., 2015). Our
active condition included real, active choices, but in fact
the story content and ending were the same as in the pas-
sive reading-only condition. Hence, while the medium was
factually interactive (in that it allowed making choices),
the possibility remains that users may not have perceived it
as such. Although a small pre-study confirmed the success
of this manipulation, more in depth assessment of par-
ticipants’ subjective experiences would allow for a more
differentiated assessment of interactivity (and possible the
feeling of being deceived). Hence, future studies should
include direct evaluations of user experiences.
Hence, the main challenge of upcoming research in the
context of IF will be to simultaneously regard a range of
key factors in the study of character identification, like cus-
tomization vs. assignment of characters, similarity vs. dif-
ferences, and presence vs. absence of illustrative material
(i.e., pictures of the character) and to evaluate these aspects
in different samples.
Funding  Open access funding provided by Medical University of
Vienna. No funds, grants or other support was received for conducting
this research.
Data availability statement  Data is available upon request from the
corresponding author.
Declarations  Dal Cin, S., Gibson, B., Zanna, M. P., Shumate, R., & Fong, G. T.
Conflict of interest statement  The authors declare that they have no
conflict of interest.
Open Access  This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attri-
bution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adapta-
tion, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long
as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source,
provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes
were made. The images or other third party material in this article are
included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated
otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in
the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not
permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will
need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a
copy of this licence, visit http://​creat​iveco​mmons.​org/​licen​ses/​by/4.​0/.
References
Aymerich-Franch, L. (2020). Towards a common framework for medi-
ated embodiment. Digital Psychology, 1(2), 3–12. https://​doi.o​ rg/​
10.​24989/​dp.​v1i2.​1824
Bachen, C. M., Hernández-Ramos, P. F., & Raphael, C. (2012). Simu-
lating REAL LIVES: Promoting global empathy and interest in
learning through simulation games. Simulation & Gaming, 43(4),
437–460. https://​doi.​org/​10.​1177/​10468​78111​432108
Bachen, C. M., Hernández-Ramos, P., Raphael, C., & Waldron, A.
(2016). How do presence, flow, and character identification affect
13
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.
Current Psychology
players’ empathy and interest in learning from a serious computer
game? Computers in Human Behavior, 64, 77–87. https://​doi.​org/​
10.​1016/j.​chb.​2016.​06.​043
Behm-Morawitz, E., & Mastro, D. (2009). The effects of the sexualiza-
tion of female video game characters on gender stereotyping and
female self-concept. Sex Roles, 61(11–12), 808–823. https://​doi.​
org/​10.​1007/​s11199-​009-​9683-8
Birk, M. V., Atkins, C., Bowey, J. T., & Mandryk, R. L. (2016). Fos-
tering intrinsic motivation through avatar identification in digital
games. In Proceedings of the 2016 CHI conference on human
factors in computing systems (pp. 2982–2995). https://​doi.​org/​10.​
1145/​28580​36.​28580​62
Brislin, R. W. (1970). Back-translation for cross-cultural research.
Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 1(3), 185–216. https://​
doi.​org/​10.​1177/​13591​04570​00100​301
Busselle, R., & Bilandzic, H. (2008). Fictionality and perceived real-
ism in experiencing stories: A model of narrative comprehen-
sion and engagement. Communication Theory, 18(2), 255–280.
https://​doi.​org/​10.​1111/j.​1468-​2885.​2008.​00322.x
Busselle, R., & Bilandzic, H. (2009). Measuring narrative engage-
ment. Media Psychology, 12(4), 321–347. https://​doi.​org/​10.​
1080/​15213​26090​32872​59
Christy, K. R., & Fox, J. (2016). Transportability and presence as
predictors of avatar identification within narrative video games.
Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 19(4), 283–
287. https://​doi.​org/​10.​1089/​cyber.​2015.​0474
Cohen, J. (2001). Defining identification: A theoretical look at the
identification of audiences with media characters. Mass Com-
munication & Society, 4(3), 245–264. https://​doi.​org/​10.​1207/​
S1532​7825M​CS0403_​01
Cohen, J., Weimann-Saks, D., & Mazor-Tregerman, M. (2018). Does
character similarity increase identification and persuasion?
Media Psychology, 21(3), 506–528. https://​d oi.​o rg/​1 0.​1 080/​
15213​269.​2017.​13023​44
(2007). Smoking in movies, implicit associations of smoking
with the self, and intentions to smoke. Psychological Science,
18(7), 559–563. https://​d oi.​o rg/​1 0.​1 111/j.​1 467-​9 280.​2 007.​
01939.x
Fox, J., Ahn, S. J., Janssen, J. H., Yeykelis, L., Segovia, K. Y., &
Bailenson, J. N. (2015). Avatars versus agents: A meta-analysis
quantifying the effect of agency on social influence. Human-
Computer Interaction, 30(5), 401–432. https://​doi.​org/​10.​1080/​
07370​024.​2014.​921494
Green, M. C., & Brock, T. C. (2000). The role of transportation in
the persuasiveness of public narratives. Journal of Personality
and Social Psychology, 79(5), 701–721. https://​doi.​org/​10.​1037/​
0022-​3514.​79.5.​701
Green, M. C., & Jenkins, K. M. (2014). Interactive narratives: Pro-
cesses and outcomes in user-directed stories. Journal of Com-
munication, 64(3), 479–500. https://​doi.​org/​10.​1111/​jcom.​12093
Green, M. C., Brock, T. C., & Kaufman, G. F. (2004). Understand-
ing media enjoyment: The role of transportation into narrative
worlds. Communication Theory, 14(4), 311–327. https://​doi.​org/​
10.​1111/j.​1468-​2885.​2004.​tb003​17.x
Hall, A. E. (2020). Audience responses to diverse superheroes: The
roles of gender and race in forging connections with media char-
acters in superhero franchise films. Psychology of Aesthetics,
Creativity, and the Arts. Advance online publication. https://​doi.​
org/​10.​1037/​aca00​00363
Hefner, D., Klimmt, C., & Vorderer, P. (2007). Identification with
the player character as determinant of video game enjoyment.
In L. Ma, M. Rauterberg, & R. Nakatsu (Eds.), Entertain-
ment computing – ICEC 2007. Lecture Notes in Computer Sci-
ence (Vol. 4740, pp. 39–48). Springer. https://​doi.​org/​10.​1007/​
978-3-​540-​74873-1_6
Current Psychology
Hook, N. (2019). May the force of gender be with you: Identity, iden-
tification and “own-gender bias.” In J. Barry, R. Kingerlee, M.
Seager, & L. Sullivan (Eds.), The Palgrave handbook of male
psychology and mental health (pp. 165–182). Palgrave Macmillan.
https://​doi.​org/​10.​1007/​978-3-​030-​04384-1_9
Igartua, J. J. (2010). Identification with characters and narrative per-
suasion through fictional feature films. Communications, 35(4),
347–373. https://​doi.​org/​10.​1515/​COMM.​2010.​019
Igartua, J. J., & Páez, D. (1998). Validez y fiabilidad de una escala de
empatia e identificacion con los personajes [Validity and reliabil-
ity of a empathy and identification with characters scale]. Psico-
thema, 10(2), 423–436.
Jenkins, K. M. (2014). Choose your own adventure: Interactive narra-
tives and attitude change. Doctoral dissertation, The University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Klimmt, C., & Vorderer, P. (2003). Media psychology “is not yet
there”: Introducing theories on media entertainment to the pres-
ence debate. Presence, 12(4), 346–359. https://​doi.​org/​10.​1162/​
10547​46033​22391​596
Klimmt, C., Hefner, D., & Vorderer, P. (2009). The video game experi-
ence as “true” identification: A theory of enjoyable alterations of
players’ self-perception. Communication Theory, 19(4), 351–373.
https://​doi.​org/​10.​1111/j.​1468-​2885.​2009.​01347.x
Klimmt, C., Hefner, D., Vorderer, P., Roth, C., & Blake, C. (2010).
Identification with video game characters as automatic shift of
self-perceptions. Media Psychology, 13(4), 323–338. https://​doi.​
org/​10.​1080/​15213​269.​2010.​524911
Konijn, E. A., Nije Bijvank, M., & Bushman, B. J. (2007). I wish I
were a warrior: The role of wishful identification in the effects
of violent video games on aggression in adolescent boys. Devel-
opmental Psychology, 43(4), 1038–1044. https://​doi.​org/​10.​1037/​
0012-​1649.​43.4.​1038
Lin, J. H. (2013a). Do video games exert stronger effects on aggres-
sion than film? The role of media interactivity and identification
on the association of violent content and aggressive outcomes.
Computers in Human Behavior, 29(3), 535–543. https://​doi.​org/​
10.​1016/j.​chb.​2012.​11.​001
Lin, J. H. (2013b). Identification matters: A moderated mediation
model of media interactivity, character identification, and video
game violence on aggression. Journal of Communication, 63(4),
682–702. https://​doi.​org/​10.​1111/​jcom.​12044
Mazzocco, P. J., Green, M. C., Sasota, J. A., & Jones, N. W. (2010).
This story is not for everyone: Transportability and narrative
persuasion. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 1(4),
361–368. https://​doi.​org/​10.​1177/​19485​50610​376600
Moore, M. M., & Green, M. C. (2020). Immersion. The International
Encyclopedia of Media Psychology, 1–6.
Moyer-Gusé, E. (2008). Toward a theory of entertainment persuasion:
Explaining the persuasive effects of entertainment-education mes-
sages. Communication Theory, 18(3), 407–425. https://d​ oi.o​ rg/1​ 0.​
1111/j.​1468-​2885.​2008.​00328.x
Moyer-Gusé, E., Chung, A. H., & Jain, P. (2011). Identification
with characters and discussion of taboo topics after exposure
to an entertainment narrative about sexual health. Journal of
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.
Communication, 61(3), 387–406. https://​doi.​org/​10.​1111/j.​1460-​
2466.​2011.​01551.x
Murphy, S. C. (2004). ‘Live in your world, play in ours’: The spaces
of video game identity. Journal of Visual Culture, 3(2), 223–238.
https://​doi.​org/​10.​1177/​14704​12904​044801
Sherrick, B., Hoewe, J., & Waddell, T. F. (2014). The role of stereo-
typical beliefs in gender-based activation of the Proteus effect.
Computers in Human Behavior, 38, 17–24. https://​doi.​org/​10.​
1016/j.​chb.​2014.​05.​010
Skarbez, R., Brooks, F. P., Jr., & Whitton, M. C. (2017). A survey of
presence and related concepts. ACM Computing Surveys (CSUR),
50(6), 1–39. https://​doi.​org/​10.​1145/​31343​01
Slater, M. D., & Rouner, D. (2002). Entertainment—education and
elaboration likelihood: Understanding the processing of narrative
persuasion. Communication Theory, 12(2), 173–191. https://​doi.​
org/​10.​1111/j.​1468-​2885.​2002.​tb002​65.x
Smahel, D., Blinka, L., & Ledabyl, O. (2008). Playing MMORPGs:
Connections between addiction and identifying with a character.
CyberPsychology & Behavior, 11(6), 715–718. https://d​ oi.o​ rg/1​ 0.​
1089/​cpb.​2007.​0210
Soto-Sanfiel, M. T., Franch, L. A., & Guàrdia, F. X. R. (2010). Impacto
de la interactividad en la identificación con los personajes de fic-
ciones. Psicothema, 22(4), 822–827.
Soutter, A. R. B., & Hitchens, M. (2016). The relationship between
character identification and flow state within video games. Com-
puters in Human Behavior, 55(Part B), 1030–1038. https://​doi.​
org/​10.​1016/j.​chb.​2015.​11.​012
Steinemann, S. T., Iten, G. H., Opwis, K., Forde, S. F., Frasseck, L.,
& Mekler, E. D. (2017). Interactive narratives affecting social
change. A closer look at the relationship between interactivity and
prosocial behavior. Journal of Media Psychology, 29(1), 54–66.
https://​doi.​org/​10.​1027/​1864-​1105/​a0002​11
Steinemann, S. T., Mekler, E. D., & Opwis, K. (2015). Increasing
donating behavior through a game for change: The role of inter-
activity and appreciation. Proceedings of the 2015 Annual Sym-
posium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play (pp. 319–329).
https://​doi.​org/​10.​1145/​27931​07.​27931​25
Trepte, S., & Reinecke, L. (2010). Avatar creation and video game
enjoyment. Effects of life-satisfaction, game competitiveness, and
identification with the avatar. Journal of Media Psychology, 22(4),
171–184. https://​doi.​org/​10.​1027/​1864-​1105/​a0000​22
Van Reijmersdal, E. A., Jansz, J., Peters, O., & Van Noort, G. (2013).
Why girls go pink: Game character identification and game-play-
ers’ motivations. Computers in Human Behavior, 29(6), 2640–
2649. https://​doi.​org/​10.​1016/j.​chb.​2013.​06.​046
Witmer, B. G., & Singer, M. J. (1998). Measuring presence in virtual
environments: A presence questionnaire. Presence, 7(3), 225–240.
https://​doi.​org/​10.​1162/​10547​46985​65686
Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to
jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
13
Terms and Conditions
Springer Nature journal content, brought to you courtesy of Springer Nature Customer Service Center GmbH (“Springer Nature”).
Springer Nature supports a reasonable amount of sharing of research papers by authors, subscribers and authorised users (“Users”), for small-
scale personal, non-commercial use provided that all copyright, trade and service marks and other proprietary notices are maintained. By
accessing, sharing, receiving or otherwise using the Springer Nature journal content you agree to these terms of use (“Terms”). For these
purposes, Springer Nature considers academic use (by researchers and students) to be non-commercial.
These Terms are supplementary and will apply in addition to any applicable website terms and conditions, a relevant site licence or a personal
subscription. These Terms will prevail over any conflict or ambiguity with regards to the relevant terms, a site licence or a personal subscription
(to the extent of the conflict or ambiguity only). For Creative Commons-licensed articles, the terms of the Creative Commons license used will
apply.
We collect and use personal data to provide access to the Springer Nature journal content. We may also use these personal data internally within
ResearchGate and Springer Nature and as agreed share it, in an anonymised way, for purposes of tracking, analysis and reporting. We will not
otherwise disclose your personal data outside the ResearchGate or the Springer Nature group of companies unless we have your permission as
detailed in the Privacy Policy.
While Users may use the Springer Nature journal content for small scale, personal non-commercial use, it is important to note that Users may
not:

1. use such content for the purpose of providing other users with access on a regular or large scale basis or as a means to circumvent access
control;
2. use such content where to do so would be considered a criminal or statutory offence in any jurisdiction, or gives rise to civil liability, or is
otherwise unlawful;
3. falsely or misleadingly imply or suggest endorsement, approval , sponsorship, or association unless explicitly agreed to by Springer Nature in
writing;
4. use bots or other automated methods to access the content or redirect messages
5. override any security feature or exclusionary protocol; or
6. share the content in order to create substitute for Springer Nature products or services or a systematic database of Springer Nature journal
content.
In line with the restriction against commercial use, Springer Nature does not permit the creation of a product or service that creates revenue,
royalties, rent or income from our content or its inclusion as part of a paid for service or for other commercial gain. Springer Nature journal
content cannot be used for inter-library loans and librarians may not upload Springer Nature journal content on a large scale into their, or any
other, institutional repository.
These terms of use are reviewed regularly and may be amended at any time. Springer Nature is not obligated to publish any information or
content on this website and may remove it or features or functionality at our sole discretion, at any time with or without notice. Springer Nature
may revoke this licence to you at any time and remove access to any copies of the Springer Nature journal content which have been saved.
To the fullest extent permitted by law, Springer Nature makes no warranties, representations or guarantees to Users, either express or implied
with respect to the Springer nature journal content and all parties disclaim and waive any implied warranties or warranties imposed by law,
including merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose.
Please note that these rights do not automatically extend to content, data or other material published by Springer Nature that may be licensed
from third parties.
If you would like to use or distribute our Springer Nature journal content to a wider audience or on a regular basis or in any other manner not
expressly permitted by these Terms, please contact Springer Nature at

onlineservice@springernature.com