Who is Persuaded by Stories to Help Combat Period Poverty? Gender Difference in Processing and Responding to Individual and Collective Narratives.

Abstract

Period poverty (a lack of access to menstrual products, sanitation, and education), affects over a billion people worldwide, posing threats to physical, mental, and emotional well-being. Effective messaging is critical to combating this public health issue. This study investigated how message format (narrative versus non-narrative) and narrative focus (individual versus collective narrative) shape audience members' processing of and responses to Period poverty messaging. In a between-subjects online experiment withU.S. adults (N = 1104), participants were randomly assigned to one of three message conditions. Results revealed no significant effects of message format or narrative focus in the full sample. However, subgroup estimates revealed significant indirect effects. Within the male subsample, the individual narrative (vs. non-narrative) increased policy support and donation intention through transportation and anger. Additionally, the individual (vs. collective) narrative enhanced policy support via compassion and anger. Within the female subsample, persuasive outcomes were not shaped by message format or narrative focus. Overall, these patterns suggest that audience gender identity may warrant further investigation as a potential boundary condition in communicating period poverty. The results highlight the importance of tailoring period poverty messages to audiences with different genders and advancing theory on identity-contingent narrative persuasion.