Fiction as a Means to Understanding the Dynamics of Empathy (original) (raw)
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When Fiction is Better than Reality: The Influence of Reading Fictional Narrative on Empathy
2020
The fictional narrative is a form of literature often found in everyday life, such as in novels or short stories, comic strips in newspapers, and in poetry. Reading fictional literature has a positive effect, however previous research had not as yet shown any conclusive evidence that such reading increases empathy. This research was aimed at testing the influence of reading fictional narratives on empathy, mediated by narrative engagement. The method used in the research was an experimental one, with a pretest post-test control group design. 194 undergraduate students were actively involved as the research participants. The results of the analysis of data, using a Wilcoxon signed-rank test and a causal step approach indicated that reading a fictional narrative may significantly increase the empathy of the reader, and that the relationship of these two variables were partially mediated by narrative engagement. This research provided supportive data to the idea that fictional narrativ...
European Journal of Psychology Students
Research suggests that both life-time experience of reading fiction and the extent to which a reader feels ‘transported’ by the narrative are associated with empathy. This study examined these relationships further by delineating empathy into cognitive and affective components. Thirty-three participants were tested on prior exposure to fiction, transportation, and different measures of cognitive empathy, affective empathy and helping tendency. The results revealed that exposure to fiction was associated with trait cognitive, but not affective, empathy, while the experience of being transported was associated with story-induced affective empathy. Story-induced affective empathy was also associated with helping tendency. The results are discussed by considering implications for relationships between reactions to fictional worlds and reactions to real-world behaviours.
One of the primary objections to the ‘simulation model’ of engagement with fiction is that it does not allow for genuine emotional response on the part of readers. In this paper, I argue that empathy, whether with real people or with fictional characters, involves simulation, and that empathy can produce genuine as well as simulated emotions. Empathy is common to our experiences both in friendship and in engagements with fiction, and empathetic experiences are deeply connected in complex ways to some of the strongest emotions that we can have. I develop an account of empathy and argue that it applies to relations both with fictional characters as well as to relations with real people. I then show that though empathy involves imagined beliefs and emotions, it can nonetheless, through ‘spillover’, lead to genuine emotion. Hence, we need not abandon the simulation model out of fear that it will rob us of real emotions.
ANIMA Indonesian Psychological Journal, 2020
The fictional narrative is a form of literature often found in everyday life, such as in novels or short stories, comic strips in newspapers, and in poetry. Reading fictional literature has a positive effect, however previous research had not as yet shown any conclusive evidence that such reading increases empathy. This research was aimed at testing the influence of reading fictional narratives on empathy, mediated by narrative engagement. The method used in the research was an experimental one, with a pre-test/post-test control group design. 194 undergraduate students were actively involved as the research participants. The results of the analysis of data, using a Wilcoxon signed-rank test and a causal step approach indicated that reading a fictional narrative may significantly increase the empathy of the reader, and that the relationship of these two variables were partially mediated by narrative engagement. This research provided supportive data to the idea that fictional narrati...
Reading other minds: Effects of literature on empathy
Scientific Study of Literature, 2013
The potential of literature to increase empathy was investigated in an experiment. Participants (N = 100, 69 women) completed a package of questionnaires that measured lifelong exposure to fiction and nonfiction, personality traits, and affective and cognitive empathy. They read either an essay or a short story that were equivalent in length and complexity, were tested again for cognitive and affective empathy, and were finally given a non-self-report measure of empathy. Participants who read a short story who were also low in Openness experienced significant increases in self-reported cognitive empathy (p .05). No increases in affective empathy were found. Participants who were frequent fiction-readers had higher scores on the non-self-report measure of empathy. Our results suggest a role for fictional literature in facilitating development of empathy.
Communications, 2000
Readers of fiction tend to have better abilities of empathy and theory of mind . We present a study designed to replicate this finding, rule out one possible explanation, and extend the assessment of social outcomes. In order to rule out the role of personality, we first identified Openness as the most consistent correlate. This trait was then statistically controlled for, along with two other important individual differences: the tendency to be drawn into stories and gender. Even after accounting for these variables, fiction exposure still predicted performance on an empathy task. Extending these results, we also found that exposure to fiction was positively correlated with social support. Exposure to nonfiction, in contrast, was associated with loneliness, and negatively related to social support.
Introduction: Empathy, Fiction, and Imagination
Topoi
In contemporary discourses, it has become common sense to acknowledge that humans and some species of animals, from their very inception, are embedded in social and intersubjective contexts. As social beings, we live, interact, communicate, and cooperate with others for a range of different reasons: sometimes we do so for strategic and instrumental reasons, while at other times it is purely for its own sake. Moreover, in one way or another, we encounter others not only as rational but also as sentient beings; our interactions with others are shaped by reason, though not exclusively so. They are also affected by our emotions, feelings, moods, and environments. In this way, we seek understanding both for and by others. We are able to recognize, interpret, and categorize others' expression and behavior; in turn, we express our emotions, desires, and motivations to act towards others and hope that others will react adequately and appropriately. Empathy is usually understood as the capacity to apprehend others' mental states-especially emotions. In recent decades, it has become one of the most widely discussed concepts, especially in the philosophy of mind, ethics, and aesthetics. Although there is a vast array of publications on the topic of empathy, a number of controversies have persisted, particularly in relation to how the process, outcome, and value of empathy should be understood. One recent debate concerns the question of whether we directly perceive others' mental states or whether we rather imagine their perspective. Another central discussion is ongoing regarding empathy in respect of narratives and fictional characters. The aim of this Special Issue is to interrelate these two branches-fiction and imagination-and to examine the role of imagination in the empathic process, especially in relation to the thesis of direct perception of others' mental states. Despite the wealth of recent research into empathy that has emerged from a diverse range of disciplinary perspectives, there is still no consensus about the nature and role of imagination and whether empathizing with fictions should be categorically or just gradually distinguished from empathizing with real persons.
Empathy, Fiction and Imagination
Special Issue Topoi, 2019
The concept of empathy has been central to many recent debates in the humanities and neurosciences. Since the discovery of “mirror neurons” in the 1990s (e.g. Rizzolatti et al. 2006), there has been much discussion about the process, the outcome, and the function of empathy. For instance, there is still some controversy over whether empathy – broadly understood as the understanding of mental states (such as emotions, beliefs, and desires) of others – implies a kind of theoretical inference (Theory Theory), imaginative simulation (Simulation Theory), or direct perception (Direct Perception Approach) (for an overview, see Batson 2009; Coplan 2011; Stueber 2017). Whereas cognitivist approaches from the Theory of Mind – such as Theory Theory (Carruthers 1996) and especially Simulation Theory (Goldman 2006) – took prominence for a while, more recently attention has also been given to phenomenological accounts, which take the direct intersubjective encounter and the embeddedness of the self more seriously (Gallagher/Hutto 2008; Gallagher 2012; Zahavi 2001; Zahavi/Overgaard 2012). In drawing on historical phenomenologists like Max Scheler and Edith Stein, as well as current theories of embodiment, such phenomenological approaches to empathy argue that we have an unmediated and experiential access to the mental states, especially emotions, of other persons (Zahavi 2014). According to this view, we see immediately in the expressions of others what they experience. For this to happen, face-to-face and intersubjective interaction is necessary. However, this seems problematic in relation to fictions – such as narrative films or literature – for there is no real encounter, nor are any real persons involved. Rather, imagination and narrative frames seem necessary to become empathetically engaged with fiction and the emotional situations of the characters. This is why some authors, especially from film and literary studies, emphasize the imaginative impact of empathic processes (Carroll 1990; Currie 1995; Gaut 2010; Grodal 1997), or argue for an additional contextual, narrative approach (Gallagher 2012). But in order to better understand the mental states of fictional characters, we must use our capacity of imagination, broadly understood as the ability to represent entities which are not present or do not exist. But is imagining fictional worlds therefore an appropriate or sufficient basis for our experience with various forms of fiction – be it a text or a film? Surely, insofar as there is no real encounter, we have to fill in the gap via our imaginative capacity and comprehend the perspectives of characters by way of a particular form of perspective-taking (Goldie 1999). Of course, the question then arises as to what extent these aspects are interrelated and even compatible: direct perception, narrative comprehension, and imaginative perspective-taking. The issue contains a selection of invited contributions, including: Robert Blanchet, Fritz Breithaupt, Thiemo Breyer, Marco Caracciolo, Jens Eder, Shaun Gallagher, Suzanne Keen, Catrin Misselhorn, Jan Müller, Matthias Schloßberger, Thomas Szanto, Christiana Werner.
Empathy and Literature, 2024
There is a long tradition in philosophy and literary theory defending the view that engagement with literature promotes readers' empathy. Until the last century, few of the empirical claims adduced in that tradition were investigated experimentally. Recent work in psychology and neuropsychology has now shed new light on the interplay of empathy and literature. This article surveys the experimental findings, addressing three central questions: What is it to read empathically? Does reading make us more empathic? What characteristics of literature, if any, affect readers' empathy? While experimental studies have delivered no conclusive answers to these questions, it has exposed their psychological complexity and constructed a more nuanced picture of the diverse ways in which literature interacts with our empathic capacities.