Exploring the link between reading fiction and empathy: Ruling out individual differences and examining outcomes

Changing English, 2014

This article is located at the crossroads between two distinctive human traits, empathy and rational thought, with narrative emerging as a particularly powerful means to enable young readers to bring them together. Specifically, we discuss the role that critical literary exegesis plays in the development of empathic consciousness in literary readers. The discussion is conducted through the critical narrative discourse analysis of a short story that is widely read by Portuguese young students. The story deals with what has become a living experience for many studentsemigrationand puts opposing social ideologies about this experience in a subtle dialogue. Narratological critical analysis provides an essential tool for readers to turn those ideologies inside out. It enables them to escape the main character's conformist positioning and develop a liberating empathy, and hence a more sensitive perspective about the social reality that the narrator offers for our consideration.

Scientific Study of Literature, 2014

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of reading medium and a paratext manipulation on aspects of narrative engagement. In a 2 (medium: booklet vs. iPad) by 2 (paratext: fiction vs. nonfiction) between-subjects factorial design, the study combined state oriented measures of narrative engagement and a newly developed measure of interface interference. Results indicated that, independently of prior experience with reading on electronic media, readers in the iPad condition reported dislocation within the text and awkwardness in handling their medium. Also, iPad readers who believed they were reading nonfiction were less likely to report narrative coherence and transportation, while booklet readers who believed they were reading nonfiction were, if anything, more likely to report narrative coherence. Finally, booklet (but not iPad) readers were more likely to report a close association between transportation and empathy. Implications of these findings for cognitive and em...

Australian Journal of Education

Children's attitudes towards, and frequency of recreational reading influence their reading skill level. The aim of this study was to determine the relative influence of research-supported intrinsic and extrinsic variables that can shape this attitude and practice, and to investigate the use of artificial neural network as an adjunct approach in such analysis. Data from 997 Australian students in primary Years 4 and 6 were analysed to examine the influence of 10 variables on reading frequency and attitudes. Data were subject to analysis using artificial neural network, binomial logistic regression and linear regression. The results from the three methods of analysis indicate that library visitation, perception of importance and early literacy are the top three ranked variables in artificial neural network, with all three also significant (p < .001) in binomial logistic regression and linear regression. Providing students regular opportunity for library visitation may be a valuable intervention for educators and parents seeking to enhance children's reading frequency and attitudes.

Challenges

In the first part of this paper, we have introduced a novel theoretical approach to mating dynamics, known as Tie-Up Theory (TU). In this second part, in the context of the bio-cultural approach to literature, that assigns to fictional narratives an important valence of social cognition, we apply the conceptual tools presented in the first part to the analysis of mating-related interaction dynamics in some blockbuster Hollywood movies from WWII to today. The interaction dynamics envisioned by our theory accurately reflect, to a significant level of detail, the narrative development of the movies under exam from the viewpoint of the mating dynamics of the couple of main characters, accounting for the specific reasons that lead them to react to certain situations via certain behaviors, and for the reasons why such behaviors lead to certain outcomes. Our analysis seems thus to bring some further legitimacy to the bio-cultural foundation of the narrative structure of the movies that we analyze, and moreover to the idea that it is possible to 'inquire' characters about their choices according to the narratological-experimental lines suggested by some proponents of the bio-cultural approach.

The British Journal of Sociology

An invitation to a public cultural sociology On 15 January 2019, along with millions of people around the world, I was watching the live stream from the British House of Commons. Collectively, we saw the spectacle unfold. Parliamentarians shouting, booing, cheering and leering. Emotional speeches for and against the EU, Britain and Brexit, especially this Brexit. The Speaker of the House shouting 'Order! Order!', instantly becoming an Internet meme. Finally, we watched as MPs crammed into one crowded and another rather empty hall, posting illicit group selfies on Twitter, as Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit deal, for which she had negotiated for almost two years, was voted down. Which was exactly the outcome that everybody knew was coming. So why was I watching? Why were we all watching? There are many possible answers to this. The appeal of a good tragedy, promising to end with a stage strewn with corpses, the chorus lamenting human hubris. The effectiveness of a well-hyped global media event. The possibility to watch one of the fateful moments of twenty-first century. But having just read 'From "having" to "being"', Michèle Lamont's inspiring BJS lecture, I think that an important reason for the global appeal of the Brexit saga is that it dramatizes the 'diagnosis' of the socio-cultural crisis that Lamont describes in her lecture. The anguish and anger of the increasingly uncertain, precarious, unrecognized 'bottom half', causing political instability and polarization-though not without the help from politicians, journalists and opinion makers who converted anguish into votes. The exhausted upper-middle classes, glued to their screens in their comfortable but heavily mortgaged homes, still shaken about the discovery that cultural hegemony does not make electoral majority. The

Cognition & emotion, 2017

Prior experiments indicated that reading literary fiction improves mentalising performance relative to reading popular fiction, non-fiction, or not reading. However, the experiments had relatively small sample sizes and hence low statistical power. To address this limitation, the present authors conducted four high-powered replication experiments (combined N = 1006) testing the causal impact of reading literary fiction on mentalising. Relative to the original research, the present experiments used the same literary texts in the reading manipulation; the same mentalising task; and the same kind of participant samples. Moreover, one experiment was pre-registered as a direct replication. In none of the experiments did reading literary fiction have any effect on mentalising relative to control conditions. The results replicate earlier findings that familiarity with fiction is positively correlated with mentalising. Taken together, the present findings call into question whether a single...

Cognition and Instruction, 2015

This study explored whether a month-long instructional intervention in affective evaluation can help struggling high school readers to engage in literary interpretation in ways similar to expert readers' practices. We compared pre-and post-intervention think-aloud protocols from five high school students as they read a literary short story with the protocols from five experienced English teachers for the same story. After the intervention, student readers attended more frequently to story details that expert readers also found salient to interpretation. Students also made interpretive moves similar to those made by experts, such as inferences about character goals, interpretation of potential symbols, and attention to patterns and juxtapositions in the text. Further, students' focus on interpretively salient details influenced their thematic inferences. These findings suggest that the recruitment of everyday, affect-based practices can help novice readers develop more "expert-like" literary schemata and construct more meaningful interpretations of a literary text. A primary goal of English Language Arts teachers is to guide their students toward independence and expertise in literary interpretation, not just so students can understand symbols, imagery, or other literary devices, but also so they can appreciate the power of language, empathize with human plights, and engage the range of worldviews suggested in literary texts (Mar & Oatley, 2008; Scholes, 1985; Zunshine, 2006). Yet many students are inexperienced literary readers who struggle when asked to move beyond literal sense-making. Teaching literary interpretation remains challenging and sometimes frustrating, and teachers often resort to lecture or interpretive strong-arming in their attempts to help novice literary readers engage in interpretive sense-making as experienced readers do (

AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples, 2017

Despite the recent Truth and Reconciliation Report in Canada, rates of Indigenous children being apprehended by the state remain disproportionality high when compared to non-Indigenous children. Starting with a critical decolonizing methodology, this article charts connections between historic and contemporary settler-colonial state interventions into lives and places of Indigenous families. We interrogate resiliencies of false settler-state logics based on “for their own good” logics about Indigenous peoples. We then turn to the recent ascendance of cultural safety, considering the concept’s positive possibility, and potential limitations, with reference to child-welfare and apprehension of Indigenous children. Finally, based on established evidence that child welfare is a crucial determinant of broader Indigenous health and well-being, the article concludes with thoughts about how those working with settler-colonial state apparatuses might achieve culturally safe engagements with ...

Frontiers in Psychology, 2021

We investigated the impact of exposure to literary and popular fiction on psychological essentialism. Exposure to fiction was measured by using the Author Recognition Test, which allows us to separate exposure to authors of literary and popular fiction. Psychological essentialism was assessed by the discreteness subscale of the psychological essentialism scale in Study 1, and by the three subscales of the same scale (such as discreteness, informativeness, and biological basis) in Study 2 that was pre-registered. Results showed that exposure to literary fiction negatively predicts the three subscales. The results emerged controlling for political ideology, a variable that is commonly associated with psychological essentialism, and level of education.

Scientific Study of Literature, 2016

Storytelling is a hallmark human activity. We use stories to make sense of the world, to explain it to our children, to create communities, and to learn about others. This article focuses on fictional stories and their impact on complex sociocognitive abilities. Correlational and experimental evidence shows that exposure to fiction recruits and hones our ability to represent others’ mental states, or theory of mind (ToM). Experimental studies suggest this effect is specific to literary fiction. Using a unique set of texts, we replicate the finding that literary fiction improves ToM performance. Consistent with the expectation of greater focus on characters in literary fiction, linguistic analysis of the texts revealed that the literary texts contain more markers of reflective function, a sophisticated manifestation of ToM. Further analysis showed the prevalence of markers of reflective function partially mediated the effect of literary fiction on ToM performance.

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 2021

Research shows that reading literary but not popular fiction enhances the Theory of Mind (ToM). This article builds on the symmetry between literary theory and film theory and investigates whether exposure to art films, but not Hollywood films, enhances ToM. Participants (N = 232) were randomly assigned to view either art or Hollywood films and then answered questions about the film and its characters before completing two separate measures of ToM (the Read the Mind in the Eyes Test and the Moral Judgement Task). Results showed that art film viewers scored higher on both ToM measures and that the effect was sequentially mediated by perception of complexity and predictability of the characters. The findings are discussed in the context of the emerging literature on the impact of fiction on social cognition.

Wiley interdisciplinary reviews. Cognitive science, 2017

Why a species as successful as Homo sapiens should spend so much time in fiction, in telling one another stories that neither side believes, at first seems an evolutionary riddle. Because of the advantages of tracking and recombining true information, capacities for event comprehension, memory, imagination, and communication evolved in a range of animal species-yet even chimpanzees cannot communicate beyond the here and now. By Homo erectus, our forebears had reached an increasing dependence on one another, not least in sharing information in mimetic, prelinguistic ways. As Daniel Dor shows, the pressure to pool ever more information, even beyond currently shared experience, led to the invention of language. Language in turn swiftly unlocked efficient forms of narrative, allowing early humans to learn much more about their kind than they could experience at first hand, so that they could cooperate and compete better through understanding one another more fully. This changed the payo...

Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 2016

This essay provides an overview of research and theory on narrative and its important, functional role in human experience, including the ways people use media to interrogate their own beliefs and feelings, and derive social meaning. Thought-provoking film, television, and books can help us make meaning of our lives and grow in ways that are important for our successful social functioning. Research reviewed here demonstrates that exposure to fiction can increase empathy and social skills and reduce prejudice. Our connection to

Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 2018

The present study builds upon established best practices in narrative comprehension instruction by redesigning a story map, to both retain the benefits of text structure instruction, while also facilitating students to reach deeper levels of character-based comprehension. We entitled our revised story map the Chart for Multiple Perspectives (CHAMP). Using the CHAMP, we provided a 15 day, one-on-one tutoring intervention to four 3 rd grade students (three intervention, one control). Drawing upon developmental theories regarding perspective-taking, the students used the CHAMP to consider the characters at multiple levels. The research design of this exploratory, mixed-methods research was single-subject design with the primary outcome measure of performance on plot-and inference-based comprehension questions. Additionally, we used qualitative analysis of the retelling and conversations during story reading to inform the quantitative results. Considered in concert, the data from this study suggests that explicit instruction in perspective-taking, supported by use of the CHAMP, deepened the plot and character comprehension of third grade readers.

Journal of personality assessment, 2018

The Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET; Baron-Cohen, Wheelwright, Hill, Raste, & Plumb, 2001 ), originally designed for use in clinical populations, has been used with increasing frequency as a measure of advanced social cognition in nonclinical samples (e.g., Domes, Heinriches, Michel, Berger, & Herpertz, 2007 ; Kidd & Castano, 2013 ; Mar, Oatley, Hirsh, de la Paz, & Peterson, 2006 ). The purpose of this research was to use item response theory to assess the ability of the RMET to detect differences at the high levels of theory of mind to be expected in neurotypical adults. Results indicate that the RMET is an easy test that fails to discriminate between individuals exhibiting high ability. As such, it is unlikely that it could adequately or reliably capture the expected effects of manipulations designed to boost ability in samples of neurotypical populations. Reported effects and noneffects from such manipulations might reflect noise introduced by inaccurate measurement; a mo...