Storytelling as a food safety training tool in school foodservice

Abstract

Understanding what motivates food handlers is important for developing effective interventions to increase compliance with food safety guidelines. Traditional food safety training techniques improve knowledge, but do not always result in improved performance in the workplace. Studies have consistently demonstrated the persuasive power of stories to influence beliefs and behavior. Transportation into a narrative world is a state of immersion into a story. When individuals are transported into the world of a story, they integrate story information into their real-world beliefs and behavior. In this study, foodservice employees were shown a brief video dramatizing a foodborne illness outbreak. Behavioral intent to comply with food safety guidelines was measured both before and after watching the video. Transportation into the story and story-specific beliefs were measured as well. Study results confirmed previous findings involving narrative transportation. Participants who were highly transported into the story of Glenda’s Horrible Day reported stronger food safety behavioral intent, specifically in areas highlighted by the story, after viewing the video. Highly transported participants also reported stronger agreement with food safety messages after viewing the video. For participants who experienced low transportation into the story, there were no significant increases in behavioral intent or story-specific beliefs after viewing the video. Highly transported participants were those who (a) were familiar with the story topic, (b) were mentally engaged with the story, (c) responded emotionally to the story, and (d) identified with and felt empathy for the story characters.