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What makes narratives feel right? The role of metacognitive experiences

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 May 2023

Norbert Schwarz*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-1061, USA. Norbert.Schwarz@usc.edu https://dornsife.usc.edu/norbert-schwarz/

Abstract

Conviction Narrative Theory holds that reasoners adopt “a narrative that feels ‘right’ to explain the available data” and use “that narrative to imagine plausible futures” (target article, Abstract). Drawing on feelings-as-information theory, this commentary reviews the role of metacognitive experiences of ease or difficulty and highlights that fluently processed narratives are more likely to “feel right.”

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press

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