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Chapter 14. Absorption in narrative fiction and its possible impact on social abilities
... Furthermore, the cultivation of affective empathy and ToM are often regarded as essential for moral education (Dolby, 2012;Nussbaum, 1995; for a contrary view see Bialystok and Kukar, 2018). In recent years, researchers have become increasingly interested in testing whether social and moral cognition can be improved by reading fictional narratives (Calarco et al., 2017). In this paper we address this question, but we go further by testing whether effects on social and moral cognition are modulated by the narrative perspective in a fictional story. ...
... Several lines of thought make that a plausible view. Stories are typically about characters and their social interactions; hence readers must apply their social cognition, including affective empathy and ToM, in order to understand narratives (e.g., Calarco et al., 2017;Salem et al., 2017;Deane et al., 2019;Mar, 2018a;Mar, 2018b). Furthermore, the social content of (fictional) narratives frequently broadens the scope of social information individuals are exposed to by describing experiences they would not have in real life, or by presenting events from novel perspectives (Calarco et al., 2017). ...
... Stories are typically about characters and their social interactions; hence readers must apply their social cognition, including affective empathy and ToM, in order to understand narratives (e.g., Calarco et al., 2017;Salem et al., 2017;Deane et al., 2019;Mar, 2018a;Mar, 2018b). Furthermore, the social content of (fictional) narratives frequently broadens the scope of social information individuals are exposed to by describing experiences they would not have in real life, or by presenting events from novel perspectives (Calarco et al., 2017). In addition written narratives provide a safe environment to practice social cognition since, unlike in real life, readers can re-read passages several times in order to make sense of social situations, and misunderstandings do not result in adverse consequences for the reader or anyone else (Mar and Oatley, 2008). ...
There is a long tradition in philosophy and literary criticism of belief in the social and moral benefits of exposure to fiction, and recent empirical work has examined some of these claims. However, little of this research has addressed the textual features responsible for the hypothesized cognitive effects. We present two experiments examining whether readers' social and moral cognition are influenced by the perspective from which a narrative is told (voice and focalization), and whether potential effects of perspective are mediated by transportation into the story or by identification with the protagonist. Both experiments employed a between-subjects design in which participants read a short story, either in the first-person voice using internal focalization, third-person voice using internal focalization, or third-person voice using external focalization. Social and moral cognition was assessed using a battery of tasks. Experiment 1 (N 258) failed to detect any effects of perspective or any mediating roles of transportation or identification. Implementing a more rigorous adaptation of the third-person story using external focalization, Experiment 2 (N 262) largely replicated this pattern. Taken together, the evidence reported here suggests that perspective does not have a significant impact on the extent to which narratives modulate social and moral cognition, either directly or indirectly via transportation and identification.
... Empathy is the ability to put oneself in the position of others, both affectively and cognitively (Nomura & Akai, 2012). Empathy encourages an individual to perform prosocial behavior such as helping others, which is one of the social skills needed to interact with fellow humans (Calarco et al., 2017). Thus, reading texts with a narrative format will encourage readers to empathize through the narrative transport mechanism (Bal & Veltkamp, 2013). ...
... Based on this, the empathy baseline for each participant needs to be controlled to ensure that changes after the intervention are the effect of the intervention, not caused by the initial conditions. Similarly, in the narrative transport variable, individuals have the ability to be transported by a text that varies depending on how long they are exposed to fiction reading or "lifetime exposure" (Calarco et al., 2017), so the initial conditions of participants need to be controlled by making it a covariate variable. The results of the descriptive test after reading treatment (non-fiction vs. fiction) on the two dependent variables (empathy, narrative transport) are as shown in Table 2 .097 ...
The purpose of this study was to determine whether non-fiction (news) and fiction (short story) narrative formats could have different effects in increasing narrative transport and readers' empathy. The study was conducted using an experimental pre-posttest method and two groups designed. Participants of 62 students (male = 19, female = 43, Mage= 21.6) were randomly assigned to two groups of reading conditions (non-fiction vs. fiction), then their level of empathy and narrative transport were measured after manipulation/treatment. The measures used were the Narrative Transport Questionnaire and the Interpersonal Reactivity Index. The statistical analysis method used was the MANCOVA test. Differences in conditions (non-fiction vs. fiction) as independent variables, baseline narrative transport score and empathy as covariates to be controlled. The test results between the group multivariate test showed that there was a significant difference between the reading groups of non-fiction and fiction on narrative transport and readers' empathy simultaneously after controlling for the pre-test narrative transport and pre-test empathy variables, F(2, 57) = 3.291, p < .05, Wilks' Λ = .896, with power ηp 2 = .104 (10.4%). The univariate test on each dependent variable (empathy, narrative transport) in terms of text reading (non-fiction vs. fiction), after controlling for covariates (pre-test empathy, pre-test narrative transport), only differed significantly in the dependent variable narrative transport, F(5, 55) , p < 0.05, with ηp 2 = .087 (8.7%), but not significant on the dependent variable empathy. The discussion is related to the familiarity of the reader towards the main character in non-fiction and fiction texts.
... Future research could therefore also investigate the role of functional aspects of narratives (i.e., related to the experience) as opposed to extensional aspects (i.e., related to form/content; Tay et al., 2018). For example, Calarco et al. (2017) argue that absorption and identification might facilitate the social-cognitive potential of narratives: the more readers are absorbed in the narrative and align themselves with the characters, the more social processes might be activated and thus trained. ...
... Besides emotional disposition, socialcognitive development, verbal abilities, personal experience and preference, additional relevant characteristics that have been found to play a role in other narrative processes include the need for affect (Maio & Esses, 2001) and the need for cognition (Cacioppo & Petty, 1982; see also Appel & Richter, 2010;Green et al., 2008;Kuijpers et al., 2019). Finally, the individual differences approach will not only advance our understanding of the precise workings of the social-cognitive potential of narratives but will also open up the possibility of reliably and strategically putting this potential into practice, for example in patient populations that need additional empathy training (Calarco et al., 2017). ...
It is often argued that narratives improve social cognition, either by appealing to social-cognitive abilities as we engage with the story world and its characters, or by conveying social knowledge. Empirical studies have found support for both a correlational and a causal link between exposure to (literary, fictional) narratives and social cognition. However, a series of failed replications has cast doubt on the robustness of these claims. Here, we review the existing empirical literature and identify open questions and challenges. An important conclusion of the review is that previous research has given too little consideration to the diversity of narratives, readers, and social-cognitive processes involved in the social-cognitive potential of narratives. We therefore establish a research agenda, proposing that future research should focus on (1) the specific text characteristics that drive the social-cognitive potential of narratives, (2) the individual differences between readers with respect to their sensitivity to this potential, and (3) the various aspects of social cognition that are potentially affected by reading narratives. Our recommendations can guide the design of future studies that will help us understand how, for whom, and in what respect exposure to narratives can advantage social cognition.
... It has been suggested that reading (fictional) stories improves social cognition because stories typically deal with characters and their social relationships, and so readers must deploy their social cognitive abilities in order to comprehend narratives (e.g., Calarco, Fong, Rain, & Mar, 2017;Deane, Somasundaran, Lawless, Persky, & Appel, 2019;Mar, 2018aMar, , 2018bSalem, Weskott, & Holler, 2017). Furthermore, the social content of (fictional) narratives often widens the range of social information individuals are exposed to by describing experiences they have never had, or by presenting events from novel viewpoints (Calarco et al., 2017). ...
... It has been suggested that reading (fictional) stories improves social cognition because stories typically deal with characters and their social relationships, and so readers must deploy their social cognitive abilities in order to comprehend narratives (e.g., Calarco, Fong, Rain, & Mar, 2017;Deane, Somasundaran, Lawless, Persky, & Appel, 2019;Mar, 2018aMar, , 2018bSalem, Weskott, & Holler, 2017). Furthermore, the social content of (fictional) narratives often widens the range of social information individuals are exposed to by describing experiences they have never had, or by presenting events from novel viewpoints (Calarco et al., 2017). Mar (2018b) assumes that narratives (including fictional ones) influence social cognitive processes as a result of frequent engagement over prolonged periods of time; such an influence should therefore manifest itself best through positive correlations of social cognition with lifetime exposure to such texts. ...
Two pre-registered studies investigated associations of lifetime exposure to fiction, applying a battery of self-report, explicit and implicit indicators. Study 1 (N=150 university students) tested the relationships between exposure to fiction and social and moral cognitive abilities in a lab setting, using a correlational design. Results failed to reveal evidence for enhanced social or moral cognition with increasing lifetime exposure to narrative fiction. Study 2 followed a cross-sectional design and compared 50-80 year-old fiction experts (N=66), non-fiction experts (N=53), and infrequent readers (N=77) regarding social cognition, general knowledge, imaginability, and creativity in an online setting. Fiction experts outperformed the remaining groups regarding creativity, but not regarding social cognition or imaginability. In addition, both fiction and non-fiction experts demonstrated higher general knowledge than infrequent readers. Taken together, the present results do not support theories postulating benefits of narrative fiction for social cognition, but suggest that reading fiction may be associated with a specific gain in creativity, and that print (fiction or non-fiction) exposure has a general enhancement effect on world knowledge.
... The present findings relate to typically developing adults of a relatively young age and do not rule out the possibility that narrative-based interventions are effective for certain populations such as typically developing children (Cates & Nicolopoulou, 2019;Kucirkova, 2019) and children with Autism Spec-trum Disorder (ASD; Dodd et al., 2011;Tsunemi et al., 2014). Nevertheless, even in these populations, it appears that an improvement of social cognition requires that exposure to stories is combined with targeted discussion of characters' mental life (Calarco et al., 2017). ...
We present two experiments examining the effects of reading narrative fiction ( vs. narrative non-fiction vs. expository non-fiction) on social and moral cognition, using a battery of self-report, explicit and implicit indicators. Experiment 1 ( N = 340) implemented a pre-registered, randomized between-groups design, and assessed multiple outcomes after a short reading assignment. Results failed to reveal any differences between the three reading conditions on either social or moral cognition. Experiment 2 employed a longitudinal design. N = 104 participants were randomly assigned to read an entire book over seven days. Outcome variables were assessed before and after the reading assignment as well as at a one-week follow-up. Results did not show any differential development between the three reading conditions over time. The present results do not support the claim that reading narrative fiction is apt to improve our general social and moral cognition.
... Green and Brock (2000) argued that for the highly transported individual, "all mental systems and capacities become focused on the events occurring in the narrative" (701). Although transportation encompasses a variety of phenomena, including attentional focus on the narrative and a feeling of being present in the narrative , prior research suggests that the emotional aspects of transportation may play a particularly key role (e.g., Bal and Veltkamp 2013;Calarco et al. 2017). ...
Sacred stories and religious texts play a central role in religion, yet there is a paucity of research investigating the relationship between religiosity and individual differences in how people engage with stories. Here, we examine the relationship between religiosity, as well as a belief in God, and three variables related to how individuals interact with narratives: a tendency to become absorbed in stories (transportability), a tendency to form relationships with the characters in stories (parasociability), and a reluctance to imaginatively engage with immoral fictions (imaginative resistance). Although transportability was only weakly related to intrinsic religiosity, both parasociability and imaginative resistance were correlated with a range of religiosity measures. Notably, the relationship between parasociability and religiosity was mediated by personal involvement with religious texts.
... Green and Brock (2000) argued that for the highly transported individual, "all mental systems and capacities become focused on the events occurring in the narrative" (701). Although transportation encompasses a variety of phenomena, including attentional focus on the narrative and a feeling of being present in the narrative , prior research suggests that the emotional aspects of transportation may play a particularly key role (e.g., Bal and Veltkamp 2013;Calarco et al. 2017). ...
Sacred stories and religious texts play a central role in religion, yet there is a paucity of research investigating the relationship between religiosity and individual differences in how people engage with stories. Here, we examine the relationship between religiosity, as well as a belief in God, and three variables related to how individuals interact with narratives: a tendency to become absorbed in stories (transport-ability), a tendency to form relationships with the characters in stories (parasociability), and a reluctance to imaginatively engage with immoral fictions (imaginative resistance). Although transportability was only weakly related to intrinsic religiosity, both parasociability and imaginative resistance were correlated with a range of religiosity measures. Notably, the relationship between parasociability and religiosity was mediated by personal involvement with religious texts.
... Guajardo and Watson (2002) provided evidence that storybook reading combined with discussion about the mental states of the characters in the story can improve young children's theory of mind performance. Reading and thinking about narrative may even be of benefit for individuals on the autism spectrum (Navona Calarco, Rain, & Mar, 2017). It is thus natural to consider what effects reading and thinking about stories may have on people's ability to understand social situations and take unfamiliar perspectives. ...
One of the major goals of the English Language Arts is to teach students to read, understand, and write narratives. This report examines the ways in which the skills that support narrative develop during the school years, outlines a model of narrative as a “key practice” in which the ability to model social situations supports narrative understanding, and feeds into the ability to use stories to reflect about stories and the classes of social situations they represent. Narrative is important precisely because it helps people develop their understanding of the social world and reason about their place in it. Assessments of narrative reading and writing need to take this broader construct into account.
Scholars from both the social sciences and the humanities have credited fiction reading with a range of positive real-world social effects. Research in psychology has suggested that readers may make good citizens because fiction reading is associated with better social cognition. But does fiction reading causally improve social cognition? Here, we meta-analyze extant published and unpublished experimental data to address this question. Multilevel random-effects meta-analysis of 53 effect sizes from 14 studies demonstrated that it does: compared to nonfiction reading and no reading, fiction reading leads to a small, statistically significant improvement in social-cognitive performance (g = .15–.16). This effect is robust across sensitivity analyses and does not appear to be the result of publication bias. We recommend that in future work, researchers use more robust reading manipulations, assess whether the effects transfer to improved real-world social functioning, and investigate mechanisms.
Research in psychology has suggested that reading fiction can improve individuals' social-cognitive abilities. Findings from neuroscience show that reading and social cognition both recruit the default network, a network which is known to support our capacity to simulate hypothetical scenes, spaces, and mental states. The current research tests the hypothesis that fiction reading enhances social cognition because it serves to exercise the default subnetwork involved in theory of mind. While undergoing functional neuroimaging, participants read literary passages that differed along two dimensions: (i) vivid vs. abstract, and (ii) social vs. nonsocial. Analyses revealed distinct subnetworks of the default network respond to the two dimensions of interest: the medial temporal lobe subnetwork responded preferentially to vivid passages, with or without social content; the dorsomedial prefrontal (dmPFC) subnetwork responded preferentially to passages with social and abstract content. Analyses also demonstrated that participants who read fiction most often also showed the strongest social cognition performance. Finally, mediation analysis showed that activity in the dmPFC subnetwork in response to the social content mediated this relation, suggesting that the simulation of social content in fiction plays a role in fiction's ability to enhance readers' social cognition.
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Empathy is a multidimensional process that incorporates both mentalizing and emotional sharing dimensions. Empathic competencies are important for creating interpersonal relationships with other people and developing adequate social behaviour. The lack of these social components also leads to isolation and exclusion in healthy populations. However, few studies have investigated how to improve these social skills. In a recent study, Kidd and Castano (2013) found that reading literary fiction increases mentalizing ability and may change how people think about other people's emotions and mental states. The aim of our study was to evaluate the effects of reading literary fiction, compared to nonfiction and science fiction, on empathic abilities. Compared to previous studies, we used a larger variety of empathy measures and utilized a pre and post-test design. In all, 214 healthy participants were randomly assigned to read a book representative of one of three literary genres (literary fiction, nonfiction, science fiction). Participants were assessed before and after the reading phase using mentalizing and emotional sharing tests, according to Zaki and Ochsner' s (2012) model. Comparisons of sociodemographic, mentalizing, and emotional sharing variables across conditions were conducted using ANOVA. Our results showed that after the reading phase, the literary fiction group showed improvement in mentalizing abilities, but there was no discernible effect on emotional sharing abilities. Our study showed that the reading processes can promote mentalizing abilities. These results may set important goals for future low-cost rehabilitation protocols for several disorders in which the mentalizing deficit is considered central to the disease, such as Autism Spectrum Disorders and Schizophrenia.
Previous research has shown that reading award-winning literary fiction leads to increases in performance on tests of theory of mind (Kidd & Castano, 2013). Here, we extend this research to another medium, exploring the effect of viewing award-winning TV dramas on subsequent performance on a test of theory of mind ability, the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (Baron-Cohen, Wheelwright, Hill, Raste, & Plumb, 2001). In 2 separate studies, participants were randomly assigned to watch either an award-winning TV drama (Mad Men or West Wing for Study 1; The Good Wife or Lost for Study 2) or a TV documentary (Shark Week or How the Universe Works for Study 1; NOVA Colosseum or Through the Wormhole for Study 2). In both studies, participants who viewed a TV drama performed significantly higher on the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test than did those who viewed a documentary. These results suggest that film narratives, as well as written narratives, may facilitate the understanding of others’ minds.
Research in psychology has suggested that reading fiction can improve individuals' social-cognitive abilities. Findings from neuroscience show that reading and social cognition both recruit the default network, a network which is known to support our capacity to simulate hypothetical scenes, spaces, and mental states. The current research tests the hypothesis that fiction reading enhances social cognition because it serves to exercise the default subnetwork involved in theory of mind. While undergoing functional neuroimaging, participants read literary passages that differed along two dimensions: (i) vivid vs. abstract, and (ii) social vs. nonsocial. Analyses revealed distinct subnetworks of the default network respond to the two dimensions of interest: the medial temporal lobe subnetwork responded preferentially to vivid passages, with or without social content; the dorsomedial prefrontal (dmPFC) subnetwork responded preferentially to passages with social and abstract content. Analyses also demonstrated that participants who read fiction most often also showed the strongest social cognition performance. Finally, mediation analysis showed that activity in the dmPFC subnetwork in response to the social content mediated this relation, suggesting that the simulation of social content in fiction plays a role in fiction's ability to enhance readers' social cognition.
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Even though there is extensive research on absorbing experiences with narrative media, an instrument able to measure different aspects of absorption in the story world of a textual narrative has yet to be developed. Such an instrument should be able to predict different evaluative responses while at the same time being sensitive to various stimulus materials, because it could help further the research into the relationships between narrative texts, absorbing experiences and entertainment outcomes. This paper develops such an instrument through a literature review, interview study, pilot study, and exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Attention, transportation, emotional engagement and mental imagery were found to be dimensions of story world absorption. The final scale is reliable, sensitive to different stimulus materials and able to predict two different evaluative responses: enjoyment and impact. It is argued that the text a reader reads determines the particular evaluative response to a story world absorption experience.
Previous studies have found a positive relationship between exposure to fiction and interpersonal
sensitivity. However, it is unclear whether exposure to different genres of fiction may be differentially
related to these outcomes for readers. The current study investigated the role of four fiction genres (i.e.,
Domestic Fiction, Romance, Science-Fiction/Fantasy, and Suspense/Thriller) in the relationship between
fiction and interpersonal sensitivity, controlling for other individual differences. Participants completed
a survey that included a lifetime print-exposure measure along with an interpersonal sensitivity task.
Some, but not all, fiction genres were related to higher scores on our measure of interpersonal sensitivity.
Furthermore, after controlling for personality, gender, age, English fluency, and exposure to nonfiction,
only the Romance and Suspense/Thriller genres remained significant predictors of interpersonal sensitivity.
The findings of this study demonstrate that in discussing the influence of fiction print-exposure on
readers it is important to consider the genre of the literature being consumed.
Two experiments investigated the idea that individual differences in need for affect are critical for narrative persuasion. Need for affect, that is, the disposition to approach emotions, was assumed to facilitate the experience of being transported into the mental world of the narrative. An intense experience of transportation, in turn, should enhance the persuasive impact of narrative information on readers' beliefs. A mediated moderation analysis was used to test these assumptions. In both experiments (N = 314), need for affect (approach) and transportation moderated the persuasive effects of a fictional narrative compared to a belief-irrelevant control story (Experiment 1) and the persuasive effects of a story with high emotional content compared to a story with low emotional content (Experiment 2). The moderator effects of need for affect were shown to be mediated by the moderator effects of transportation. In sum, the magnitude of a person's need for affect determines whether and to what extent the person experiences transportation into the story world and is persuaded by the information presented in the narrative.
One of the major characteristics of autism is impairment of communication and socialization. While such impairment per se has been well documented, research into effective interventions for children with this developmental disorder is still limited. Here we present preliminary evidence for the possibility of improvement of the capability of social perspective-taking in schoolchildren with autism by having intensive experience with narrative, in which they were exposed to narrative in story books read by their parents over a consecutive 5- to 6-day-period. When their capability was evaluated on the basis of a conventional role-taking task, the mean score tended to increase after the exposure as compared to before the exposure, whereas such a change was not recorded in children who did not experience such exposure. These effects were confirmed when the children were retested 4 months later. Although preliminary, the current study represents a step toward the development of more effective social perspective-taking interventions for children with autism.
Understanding others’ mental states is a crucial skill that enables the complex social relationships that characterize human
societies. Yet little research has investigated what fosters this skill, which is known as Theory of Mind (ToM), in adults.
We present five experiments showing that reading literary fiction led to better performance on tests of affective ToM (experiments
1 to 5) and cognitive ToM (experiments 4 and 5) compared with reading nonfiction (experiments 1), popular fiction (experiments
2 to 5), or nothing at all (experiments 2 and 5). Specifically, these results show that reading literary fiction temporarily
enhances ToM. More broadly, they suggest that ToM may be influenced by engagement with works of art.
A taxonomy of emotions of literary response is presented. Some emotions occur as readers confront a text: they depend on curiosity as new material is assimilated to schemata, or on dishabituation as schemata accommodate. Further modes of emotion arise if readers enter the world of a story: they arise as a writer represents eliciting patterns of emotion and the reader responds with sympathy as story characters face these patterns, from personal memories of emotion, and by identification with characters' goals and plans. Based on cognitive theory and literary criticism, a theory of identification in fictional literature is presented, derived from Aristotle's concept mimesis. The usual translations, ‘imitation’ or ‘representation’, are misleading: mimesis means something closer to ‘simulation’, as in computers. Fictional simulations run on people's minds. For them to run successfully readers (a) adopt a character's goals and use their own planning procedures to connect actions together meaningfully, (b) form mental models of imagined worlds, (c) receive speech acts addressed to them by the writer, and (d) integrate disparate elements to create a unified experience. In providing materials for these functions, great writers allow readers to respond creatively, to feel moved emotionally, to understand within themselves some of the relations between actions and emotions, and sometimes to undergo cognitive change.
Fiction literature has largely been ignored by psychology researchers because its only function seems to be entertainment, with no connection to empirical validity. We argue that literary narratives have a more important purpose. They offer models or simulations of the social world via abstraction, simplification, and compression. Narrative fiction also creates a deep and immersive simulative experience of social interactions for readers. This simulation facilitates the communication and understanding of social information and makes it more compelling, achieving a form of learning through experience. Engaging in the simulative experiences of fiction literature can facilitate the understanding of others who are different from ourselves and can augment our capacity for empathy and social inference.
© 2008 Association for Psychological Science.
The potential of literature to increase empathy was investigated in an experi-ment. 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 sug-gest a role for fictional literature in facilitating development of empathy.
This study investigated the use of a narrative-based language intervention program for teaching perspective-taking skills to students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The participants consisted of 18 students between the ages of 9 years 7 months and 12 years 2 months (M = 10:8) who had a diagnosis of an ASD. Students received 500 minutes of either a narrative-based intervention that focused on teaching perspective taking (PTI) or a traditional narrative-based language intervention (NBLI) that focused on story elements and semantics. Intervention was provided in small groups consisting of five students and one speech-language pathologist. The participants who received the PTI demonstrated greater growth in their ability to retell the story from the perspective of different characters compared to those who participated in the NBLI. Clinical implications are included.
The current study investigated whether fiction experiences change empathy of the reader. Based on transportation theory, it was predicted that when people read fiction, and they are emotionally transported into the story, they become more empathic. Two experiments showed that empathy was influenced over a period of one week for people who read a fictional story, but only when they were emotionally transported into the story. No transportation led to lower empathy in both studies, while study 1 showed that high transportation led to higher empathy among fiction readers. These effects were not found for people in the control condition where people read non-fiction. The study showed that fiction influences empathy of the reader, but only under the condition of low or high emotional transportation into the story.
This study assessed storybook reading at home with reference to kindergartners’ empathy, socioemotional adjustment, language, and alphabetic skills. Beyond considering the frequency of storybook reading, measures included maternal expertise in choosing books. Findings indicated various relations between aspects of storybook reading and early development. Frequency of storybook reading was related to the child's language ability, whereas maternal expertise in choosing books was related to the child's empathy and socioemotional adjustment. These results suggest the need for further study of differential connections between shared reading and child development.
It was hypothesized that overt movement can either augment or inhibit certain cognitive activities depending on whether the movement has been positively associated with or negatively associated with that cognitive activity in the past. Seventy-two subjects who believed that they were testing headphone sets engaged in either vertical, horizontal, or no-instructed head movements while listening to a simulated radio broadcast. Subjects in the vertical headmovement conditions agreed with the editorial content of the radio broadcast more than did those in the horizontal head-movement conditions. This effect was true for both counterattitudinal and proattitudinal editorial content. A surreptitious behavioral measure indicated that vertical movements in the counterattitudinal message condition and horizontal movements in the proattitudinal message condition were more difficult than vertical movement in the proattitudinal message condition or horizontal movement in the counterattitudinal message condition. The processes involved are compared with context learning wherein: (1) the generation of counterarguments is learned in the context of horizontal head movement with poor transfer to vertical head movement; and (2) the generation of agreement responses is learned in the context of vertical head movement with poor transfer to horizontal head movement.
This study examined the influence of print exposure on syllogistic reasoning and knowledge of mental-state verbs. One hundred thirty-three college students completed measures of reading comprehension, knowledge of mental-state verbs, syllogistic reasoning, and print exposure. A series of hierarchical regression analyses indicated that the print-exposure measure accounted for significant unique variance in performance on a measure of knowledge or- mental-state verbs, even after years of college completed, grade point average, and reading comprehension were statistically controlled. Print exposure proved to be a less robust predictor of performance on a syllogistic reasoning task when examined with a parallel series of analyses. These findings suggest that even the variation in literacy activity found among college students is associated with the ability to interpret texts by enhancing the ability to deal with subtle distinctions among mental-state terms. However, the view that print exposure fosters decontextualized reasoning, as typified in syllogistic reasoning, received only very modest support from this study.
Fictional narrative experience is assumed to have a profound impact on human behavior, but the possible outcomes and the processes through which fictional narrative experience influence behaviors have rarely been studied. This paper introduces a model of the consequences of fictional narrative experience through transportation and transformation processes. We discuss a framework for understanding the effects of fictional narrative experience, distinguishing affective and behavioral effects, and temporality of effects (short-term or persistent). Exemplary outcomes of fictional narrative experience are presented, including recovery, creativity and interpersonal behavior. Finally, we propose that the effects of fictional narrative experience are dependent upon a person's frame of reference, as well the extent to which a reader can identify with the main characters, the perceived usefulness of a narrative, and degree of verisimilitude in the narrative. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Although fiction treats themes of psychological importance, it has been excluded from psychology because it is seen as involving flawed empirical method. But fiction is not empirical truth. It is simulation that runs on minds of readers just as computer simulations run on computers. In any simulation, coherence truths have priority over correspondences. Moreover, in the simulations of fiction, personal truths can be explored that allow readers to experience emotions-their own emotions-and understand aspects of them that are obscure, in relation to contexts in which the emotions arise. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
When people read a story, feelings of rightness from regulatory fit (consistency between regulatory state and strategic means) could suggest that the story is “right on” relative to feelings of wrongness from regulatory nonfit. Under these conditions, individuals who are experiencing feelings of rightness should engage more with the narrative and be more persuaded by its implicit messages. Results from two experiments supported these hypotheses. Participants in Experiment 1 were more mentally engaged (transported) by the story when they experienced regulatory fit. We replicated this effect in Experiment 2 and extended it to endorsement of story-consistent beliefs, an indicator of persuasion via narratives. Additionally, we found that drawing participants' attention to an earlier event as a source of feelings of rightness eliminated the regulatory fit effects on transportation and persuasion, suggesting attribution of feelings of regulatory fit/nonfit to the plausibility of the narrative world. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Readers of fiction tend to have better abilities of empathy and theory of mind (Mar et al., 2006). 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.
Fact-related information contained in fictional narratives may induce substantial changes in readers' real-world beliefs. Current models of persuasion through fiction assume that these effects occur because readers are psychologically transported into the fictional world of the narrative. Contrary to general dual-process models of persuasion, models of persuasion through fiction also imply that persuasive effects of fictional narratives are persistent and even increase over time (absolute sleeper effect). In an experiment designed to test this prediction, 81 participants read either a fictional story that contained true as well as false assertions about real-world topics or a control story. There were large short-term persuasive effects of false information, and these effects were even larger for a group with a 2-week assessment delay. Belief certainty was weakened immediately after reading but returned to baseline level after 2 weeks, indicating that beliefs acquired by reading fictional narratives are integrated into real-world knowledge.
This study investigates how game playing experience changes when a story is added to a first-person shooter game. Dependent variables include identification, presence, emotional experiences and motivations. When story was present, game players felt greater identification, sense of presence, and physiological arousal. The presence of story did not affect self-reported arousal or dominance. This study clearly demonstrates that story is something that video game players enjoy; it helps involve them in the game play, makes them feel more immersed in the virtual environment, and keeps them aroused. The greater character identification may be especially worrisome, as past research has shown that justified media violence disinhibits actual aggression on the part of the audience.
This meta-analysis investigates the extent to which people’s leisure reading may produce better social–cognitive abilities. Researchers have hypothesized that experiences of fiction (more so than nonfiction) will improve readers’ empathy and theory of mind. To capture the size of this effect, we aggregated correlations between measures of lifetime reading habits for both fiction and nonfiction with measures of empathy and theory of mind. Consistent with previous evidence, fiction reading had a larger correlation with the social–cognitive measures compared to nonfiction reading. However, the effects were small in magnitude. Heterogeneity analyses indicated that the effect sizes were consistent across studies. We also examined gender, publication status, and design as moderators. However, none of the moderators reached significance. We suggest that the results of this meta-analysis sanction a shift in research agenda toward understanding causal mechanisms.
Fiction simulates the social world and invites us into the minds of characters. This has led various researchers to suggest that reading fiction improves our understanding of others’ cognitive and emotional states. Kidd and Castano (2013) received a great deal of attention by providing support for this claim. Their article reported that reading segments of literary fiction (but not popular fiction or nonfiction) immediately and significantly improved performance on the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET), an advanced theory-of-mind test. Here we report a replication attempt by 3 independent research groups, with 792 participants randomly assigned to 1 of 4 conditions (literary fiction, popular fiction, nonfiction, and no reading). In contrast to Kidd and Castano (2013), we found no significant advantage in RMET scores for literary fiction compared to any of the other conditions. However, as in Kidd and Castano and previous research, the Author Recognition Test, a measure of lifetime exposure to fiction, consistently predicted RMET scores across conditions. We conclude that the most plausible link between reading fiction and theory of mind is either that individuals with strong theory of mind are drawn to fiction and/or that a lifetime of reading gradually strengthens theory of mind, but other variables, such as verbal ability, may also be at play.
“This marvelous book reconnects the study of literature to the themes that have made it eternally fascinating, and connects it for the first time to the sciences of mind and brain. It is a landmark in modern intellectual life, heralding an exciting new integration of the sciences and humanities.” Steven Pinker, Johnstone Professor of Psychology, Harvard University
“With painstaking scholarship and subtle theorizing, Patrick Colm Hogan marshals a compelling case for the transcultural reach of narrative forms. He shows in rich detail how plot structures recurring across world literature express emotional universals. The Mind and Its Stories is stimulating on several levels. It contributes a nuanced conception of universals to the philosophical debate. It offers cognitive scientists a remarkable occasion for rethinking the relation of emotion to culture and to human nature. And by providing enormously wide-ranging evidence for narrative universals, Hogan may touch off nothing short of a revolution in literary studies.” David Bordwell, Jacques Ledoux Professor of Film Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison
“The Mind and Its Stories is in the forefront of the scientific study of literature as a product of the capacities of the human mind. Patrick Colm Hogan shows how human cognitive processes of story lie at the center of both cognitive science and the study of verbal art.” Mark Turner, Distinguished University Professor, The University of Maryland, and Associate Director, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of reading material on both social and non-social cognition. Prior research supports the hypothesis that reading fiction improves theory of mind (Kidd and Castano, 2013, Mar et al., 2006 and Mar et al., 2009a); however, little has been done to test its effects on other cognitive abilities. In this study, we tested the effect of reading literary fiction vs. non-fiction on both theory of mind and intuitive physics understanding. In line with previous research, results indicate a small but significant within-subject effect of reading material on theory of mind once other variables are controlled. Although the experimental manipulation (literary fiction vs. nonfiction) had no effect on intuitive physics understanding, we found that familiarity with fiction predicted intuitive physics ability. These results are discussed in terms of theories of fiction.
Several studies have shown that exposure to media violence can lead to strong emotional reactions. This may be particularly true for video game violence and anger. Yet, few studies have explored the relationship between video game play and more complex emotions, such as guilt and shame. Further, prior research has not explored how exposure to the narratively rich violence found in role-playing video games may cause feelings of guilt. The research experiment presented here (n = 184) aims to fill this gap in the literature by explaining how the immoral actions of a video game character impact the player’s feelings of guilt. Specifically, results show that playing as a video game character that has committed immoral actions caused players to feel guilty and ashamed, especially if they felt transported or “wrapped-up” in the narrative. Exposure to immoral actions also caused players to show increases in aggressive behavioral tendencies.
This study explored the relation between preschoolers' television exposure and one important indicator of cognitive processing called theory of mind (ToM). A total of 107 preschoolers and their parents provided data on the preschoolers' television exposure (including both intentional viewing and exposure via background television), parent–child discussion of television, and preschoolers' ToM. The results indicated that preschoolers who were exposed to more background television and who had a television in their bedroom performed more poorly on ToM assessments compared with other children. Parent–child discussion of television was positively related to ToM performance, however. These results have implications for how we understand the effects of television on preschoolers.
Some scholars have suggested that fiction builds upon our capacity for daydreaming and imagination, while others have proposed that it appeals to our capacity for getting inside the minds of others. However, very little research has investigated the way that individuals with deficits in imagination and social cognition view and develop preferences for fiction. Here, I review research on one such population: individuals with autism spectrum conditions (ASC) and present an experiment that investigates fiction preferences in ASC. As a whole, this work suggests that both fictionality and social content may play an important role in the appeal of fiction—and that the scientific study of fiction could benefit by taking into account the perspectives of individuals who view the world in different ways.
Studies in the Proteus Effect (N. Yee & J. Bailenson, 200727.
Yee , N. and
Bailenson , J. 2007. The proteus effect: The effect of transformed self-representation on behavior. Human Communication Research, 33: 271–290. [CrossRef], [Web of Science ®]View all references) have shown that the appearance of avatars (i.e., digital representations of ourselves) can lead to behavioral changes in users. For example, participants in attractive avatars became friendlier to confederate strangers than participants in unattractive avatars. While the Proteus Effect is premised on self-perception theory (D. Bem, 19723.
Bem , D. 1972. “Self-perception theory.”. In Advances in experimental social psychology Edited by:
Berkowitz , L. Vol. 6, New York: Academic Press. [CrossRef]View all references)—the notion that we infer our own attitudes by observing ourselves as if from a third party—it is also possible that the previous findings were caused by priming (i.e., behavioral assimilation; J. Bargh, M. Chen, & L. Burrows, 19961.
Bargh , J. ,
Chen , M. and
Burrows , L. 1996. The automaticity of social behaviour: Direct effects of trait concept and stereotype activation on action. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71: 230–244. [CrossRef], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®]View all references). In our study, we used immersive virtual environment technology to experimentally tease apart embodiment from perception of the same visual stimulus. Our results showed that embodiment produced significantly larger behavioral changes than mere observation of the same visual stimuli. These findings support the claim that our avatars provide a unique lever to behavioral change; however, more work is needed to pin down the exact mechanism behind the effect.
Increasingly, people interact with others via digital representations, or avatars, that feature indicators of race. Nonetheless, little is known about the effects of avatar race on attitudes and behaviors. We conducted a study to determine how people's implicit racial bias is affected by the race of their avatar in an immersive virtual environment (IVE). Our results indicate that the effects of avatar race extend beyond digital spaces. People embodied by Black avatars in an IVE demonstrated greater implicit racial bias outside the IVE than people embodied by White avatars. These findings have important implications for strategies to reduce racial prejudice and provide new insights into the flexibility of racial identity and racial attitudes afforded by virtual technologies.
In this article I argue that although the notion of identification with media characters is widely discussed in media research, it has not been carefully conceptualized or rig- orously tested in empirical audience studies. This study presents a theoretical discus- sion of identification, including a definition of identification and a discussion of the consequences of identification with media characters for the development of identity and socialization processes. It is suggested that a useful distinction can be made be- tween identification and other types of reactions that media audiences have to media characters. A critical look at media research involving identification exposes the in- herent conceptual problems in this research and leads to hypotheses regarding the antecedents and consequences of identification with media characters. The impor - tance of a theory of identification to media research and communication research, more broadly, is presented. When reading a novel or watching a film or a television program, audience members often become absorbed in the plot and identify with the characters portrayed. Unlike the more distanced mode of reception—that of spectatorship—identification is a mechanism through which audience members experience reception and interpreta- tion of the text from the inside, as if the events were happening to them. Identification is tied to the social effects of media in general (e.g., Basil, 1996; Maccoby & Wilson, 1957); to the learning of violence from violent films and television, specifically (Huesmann, Lagerspetz, & Eron, 1984); and is a central mechanism for explaining such effects. As Morley (1992) said: "One can hardly imagine any television text having any effect whatever without that identification" (p. 209). The most promi-
Theorists from diverse disciplines purport narrative fiction serves to foster empathic development and growth. In two studies, participants’ subjective, behavioral, and perceptual responses were observed after reading a short fictional story. In study 1, participants who were more transported into the story exhibited higher affective empathy and were more likely to engage in prosocial behavior. In study 2, reading-induced affective empathy was related to greater bias toward subtle, fearful facial expressions, decreased perceptual accuracy of fearful expressions, and a higher likelihood of engaging in prosocial behavior. These effects persisted after controlling for an individual’s dispositional empathy and general tendency to become absorbed in a story. This study provides an important initial step in empirically demonstrating the influence of reading fiction on empathy, emotional perception, and prosocial behavior.
Two central avenues for audience involvement in entertainment are identification and transportation. This study conceptually and empirically differentiated between these processes by manipulating information about the hero of a film and about the plot in order to affect the ways viewers respond to the film and character. The valence of information about the hero affected the level of identification (but not the level of transportation), and the time of deeds affected the level of transportation (but not the level of identification). These results provide evidence that identification and transportation are distinct processes and an analysis of how each of them relates to enjoyment supports this conclusion. Results are discussed in terms of their theoretical and methodological contribution to the study of audience involvement.
This second of two articles concludes the examination of narrative in computer and video games. Where appropriate, results are schematically and chronologically presented to illustrate the unique nature of interactive narrative. Despite modern advances in games technology and design, the findings reveal notable gaps in areas such as the use of back stories, cut scenes, narrative structure and content, emotions, and archetypes, all of which may be expanded to offer richer and potentially more believable narratives. The findings from both essays draw attention to three salient aspects warranting greater efforts during the future development of interactive narrative: temporal, depth, and depiction.
This essay is the first of a two-part article examining the use of narrative in computer and video games, which provides an overview and discussion of the definitions and representation of stories, plots, and narratives. A range of traditional and emerging narrative techniques are considered, including The Hero’s Journey, three-act structure, the portrayal of human emotions, and character archetypes, from where an in-depth examination of interactive narrative is performed on a range of old and modern games. Initial results pertaining to the time allocated to narrative, the use of back stories, cut scenes, on-screen text, prompts, and game structure are also presented, which reveal a distinct level of uniformity of how interactive narrative is depicted in games spanning over two decades of industry development. The analysis is concluded in the second article, where further results are revealed to help uncover the precise nature of game narratives.
To investigate the influence of media figures on self-perception, online gamers reported how central their main videogame character (avatar) is to their own identity and answered questions about their avatar's body size either before or after questions about their own body size. When the avatar was not central to the gamer's identity, the avatar's body size influenced gamer's own body judgments only when the avatar was brought to mind by preceding questions. When the avatar was central to the gamer's identity, it influenced gamers' own body judgments independent of question order. In both cases, accessible avatars elicited assimilation effects on self-judgment. We conclude that media figures exert a chronic influence on self-judgment when they are central to the self.
The authors explored psychological mechanisms underlying a teaching exercise [Hillman, J., & Martin, R. A. (2002). Lessons about gay and lesbian lives: A spaceship exercise. Teaching of Psychology, 29, 308–311] that may improve attitudes toward homosexuals. Heterosexual participants were randomly assigned to a simulation intervention or control lecture condition. In the simulation condition, participants imagined life on an alien planet that inadvertently simulated situational constraints parallel to those faced by homosexuals. The simulation (vs. control lecture) produced significantly more intergroup perspective-taking, empathy, and favorable attitudes toward homosexuals and marginalized groups. Tests of a structural equation model supported the assumption that the simulation (vs. control) provided an experience that heightened intergroup perspective-taking, which indirectly predicted favorable attitudes via independent cognitive (inclusive intergroup representations) and affective (empathy) paths. The model held after statistically controlling for prior attitudes and ideological individual differences predicting anti-homosexual bias. Implications for prejudice-reduction simulations and intergroup contact are considered.
Research indicates that the extent to which one becomes engaged, transported, or immersed in a narrative influences the narrative's potential to affect subsequent story-related attitudes and beliefs. Explaining narrative effects and understanding the mechanisms responsible depends on our ability to measure narrative engagement in a theoretically meaningful way. This article develops a scale for measuring narrative engagement that is based on a mental models approach to narrative processing. It distinguishes among four dimensions of experiential engagement in narratives: narrative understanding, attentional focus, emotional engagement, and narrative presence. The scale is developed and validated through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses with data from viewers of feature film and television, in different viewing situations, and from two different countries. The scale's ability to predict enjoyment and story-consistent attitudes across different programs is presented. Implications for conceptualizing engagement with narratives as well as narrative persuasion and media effects are discussed.
Twenty-two second and third grade children experiencing difficulties with social relationships and reading comprehension participated in small group Relationally Oriented Reading Instruction for eight weeks. Developmental and literacy assessments done before and after the reading intervention showed statistically significant improvements in the understanding of text and in social imagination. Analysis of writing samples resulted in a typology of relationally oriented response. Together these data provide initial evidence linking the understanding of texts to the development of other relational capacities like social imagination, and indicate that purposeful use of picture books within relationally oriented reading instruction may enhance this development.
The innovative features of multi-player computer games offer compelling opportunities for self-representation during interactions, and the ways in which these avatars are chosen and manipulated may change interactive experiences. This study investigated the effects of avatar choice (choice vs. no choice) and visual point of view (POV; first-person vs. third-person) on the physiological arousal and subjective evaluations of game experiences. A 2 (Avatar Choice, No Avatar Choice) × 2 (first-person POV, third-person POV) × 2 (female players, male players) mixed-design experiment was conducted (N = 22). The results demonstrated that being able to pick the character that will represent the player in the game leads to greater arousal, especially for males. Visual POVs alone did not affect the game player's arousal, but moderated the effect of avatar choice on the game player's heart rates. Avatar choice produced a more pronounced effect in the third-person POV (where the “camera” was located behind the avatar) in which avatar choice was visually more reinforced than in the first-person POV (where the “camera” was the eyes of the avatar). The results also revealed that the gender of the game player was a significant factor in game play experience. The results suggest theoretical implications of video game self-representation and effects on game player's psychophysiological responses.
This study examined whether books that are typically read to preschool children contain theory of mind concepts. The parents of 47 preschool children recorded books read by or to their child over a one-week period. The books were analyzed for theory of mind content. It was found that 78% of the books contained internal state language, 34% contained false beliefs, and 43% contained personality descriptors. Thus, theory of mind concepts appear to be an integral part of the literature read to preschool children. These results are discussed in light of recent work on individual differences in theory of mind development.
Ten autistic, 10 mentally retarded and 10 normal children, matched on verbal mental age, were asked to narrate a story from a wordless picture book. The narratives were coded on a range of measures tapping the following characteristics: story length and complexity, story structure, referential devices, and affective and social-cognitive narrative enrichment devices. The main findings were that, compared to both control groups, the autistic children produced significantly shorter stories and were less likely to include any causal statements to explain the relationship between events in the stories. For the autistic children, the use of a story schema, referential devices that took account of their listener's needs, and the frequency of enrichment devices were all significantly correlated, suggesting that they reflect the same underlying knowledge. These findings are discussed in relation to the theory of mind hypothesis of autism.
Virtual environments, such as online games and web-based chat rooms, increasingly allow us to alter our digital self-representations dramatically and easily. But as we change our self-representations, do our self-representations change our behavior in turn? In 2 experimental studies, we explore the hypothesis that an individual’s behavior conforms to their digital self-representation independent of how others perceive them—a process we term the Proteus Effect. In the first study, participants assigned to more attractive avatars in immersive virtual environments were more intimate with confederates in a self-disclosure and interpersonal distance task than participants assigned to less attractive avatars. In our second study, participants assigned taller avatars behaved more confidently in a negotiation task than participants assigned shorter avatars. We discuss the implications of the Proteus Effect with regards to social interactions in online environments.