The Other Side of COVID-19: The Familiar Unfamiliar

Storytelling is innate for humanity.[1] Narratives help us to understand and interpret our lives and the world around us by connecting unrelated events, characters, or activities, enriching social communications, and enabling cultural diffusion.[2]

These narratives are powerful. As individuals immerse themselves within them, they find themselves transported into narrative worlds, and their world of origin, or reality, becomes partially inaccessible.[3] In this suspended state, the narrative traveller can experience strong emotions, beliefs and attitudes, and real-life facts become fluid. This often leaves travellers somehow changed as they return to reality, marked by their journey into the narrative realm.[4]

But what do these ideas mean for the post-COVID-19 consumers?

For many around the world, our current state of living feels as if reality is in suspension. Much like being transported into a narrative, consumers are experiencing a state of flux – where the familiar is now unfamiliar.

For those emerging from a long period in lockdown, their world appears dramatically different. Whilst the physical landscape may not have changed, the way they interpret it is likely to have shifted. In Wuhan, China, where the lockdown measures have begun to be lifted, the return to normalcy was marked with unease – the buzzing sounds of the city are too noisy and meeting up with friends feels strange.[5] The ability to walk down the street is met with joy and apprehension, excitement and trepidation, as what was once routine is now a strange memory. As if emerging from a narrative experience, consumers are now looking at their once familiar world with fresh eyes.

Much like how a powerful story can alter our perspective, this extraordinary experience could just change how consumers see the world and their activities within it.

[1] Boyd, B. (2009). On the Origin of Stories: Evolution, Cognition, and Fiction. London, United Kingdom: Harvard University Press.

[2] van Laer, T., de Ruyter, K., Visconti, L. M., & Wetzels, M. (2014). The Extended Transportation-Imagery Model: A Meta-Analysis of the Antecedents and Consequences of Consumers’ Narrative Transportation. Journal of Consumer Research, 40(5), 797-817. doi:10.1086/673383

[3] van Laer, T., de Ruyter, K., Visconti, L. M., & Wetzels, M. (2014). The Extended Transportation-Imagery Model: A Meta-Analysis of the Antecedents and Consequences of Consumers’ Narrative Transportation. Journal of Consumer Research, 40(5), 797-817. doi:10.1086/673383

[4] Green, M., Brock, T., & Green, M. (2000). The role of transportation in the persuasiveness of public narratives. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79(5), 701–721. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.79.5.701

[5] Wong, Y. (2020, April 5). ‘It’s not so easy to return from the dead’: coming back to life after lockdown in Wuhan. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/05/its-not-so-easy-to-return-from-the-dead-coming-back-to-life-after-lockdown