Stories were read to 62 male third grade children from two elementary schools in Urbana, Illinois. They were randomly assigned to one of four story conditions: vicarious role playing, symbolic modeling, a combination of the two, and a control condition. The basis of the present experiment is the assumption that vicarious role playing is similar to the process whereby one identifies with or takes the role of the major character in a story. The effects of stories designed to induce modeling and vicarious role playing were assessed both separately and in combination. The basic story concerned a family of duck hunters that magically changes places with a family of wild birds and are subsequently hunted by their former prey. The behavioral effects of hearing the stories were assessed immediately afterward, and the attitudinal effects were surveyed six weeks later. Both measures showed internal consistency. As evidence for the validity of the measures, it was demonstrated that: (1) the behavioral measure discriminated boys with hunting fathers from boys with non-hunting fathers, and (2) both measures successfully discriminated male from additional female respondents. Despite the evidence for their validity and reliability, neither the behavioral nor the attitudinal measure was affected by the experimental stories. The results of this experiment provide no evidence that exposure to children's literature has any immediate behavioral or long term attitudinal effects on children. (Author/AM)