Measuring Narrative Believability: Development and Validation of the Narrative Believability Scale (NBS-12)

Believability has been proposed as a factor influencing the persuasiveness of narratives. A measure of narrative believability was developed and validated. Study 1 details the construction and evaluation of the Narrative Believability Scale (NBS-12) in terms of internal consistency. Study 2 evaluates the criterion-related and construct validity of the scale. Study 3 tests the predictive validity of the measure for identifying juror verdicts and verdict confidence over and above the influence of other measures, including presentation order, attorney credibility, bias, and transportation. The NBS-12 was found to be a psychometrically robust measure of narrative believability and was able to predict variance in verdicts and verdict confidence. These results have implications for narrative persuasion research and understanding juror decision making.