The Narrativization Scale is a newly developed measure designed to capture the extent to which individuals experience their own lives as if they were narratives. The concept is based on the idea that people, to different extent, tend to search for meaning behind unpredictable circumstances, expect real events to follow a coherent logic with clear beginnings and endings, and view themselves as central characters in a story. Of course, real life does not work this way. 

A central question guiding this project is whether long-term exposure to narrative media (books, films, TV series, etc.) contributes to this narrative mode of thinking. To address this question, we first have to construct a reliable scale that measures this tendency.

The project aims to develop a measure that identifies a consistent inclination to interpret reality using narrative rules. This scale will provide the foundation for examining how narrative habits may influence everyday expectations and judgments, and how narrative thinking relates to broader cognitive and emotional processes. 

The scale is currently in development and undergoing validation. 

Most existing media measures focus on short-term behavior: what people watched, read, or consumed last week or last month. However, many narrative effects emerge from years of engaging with story-rich media.

This project develops a new tool designed to assess lifetime exposure to narratives across diverse formats. The goal is to distinguish narrative exposure from general media use and to capture cumulative experience in a way existing measures cannot.

We are currently testing the instrument’s reliability and exploring how long-term narrative exposure relates to our attitudes and beliefs.