Perceived realism of fictional dialogues and every-day conversations

Description

Direct speech in fiction is often embedded in dialogues, i.e. in written conversational exchanges between characters. These are assumed to be a means of realistic depiction of the fictional world. However, fictional dialogues also differ in many ways from real speech and from every-day conversations. In an experimental study, we examined whether readers fall into the illusion of experiencing fictional dialogues as realistic, as if those could also have happened in real life. According to our preliminary data-analysis, adults can differentiate transcripts of real-life conversations and fictional dialogues. However, adolescents might perceive fictional dialogues to be more realistic compared to adults.

Period	5 Jun 2025
Held at	International Society for the Empirical Study of Literature and Media, Netherlands
Degree of Recognition	International