🔄FROM THE ARCHIVE: There might some truth to the beloved quote, 'A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies.' Researchers say reading fiction can show us different viewpoints — and shape how we relate to each other.
Then, the researchers measured participants' improvement on. The theory of mind, which is a concept related to empathy, refers to our ability to comprehend that other people hold beliefs and desires, and that they might be different than our own. People who were assigned to read literary fiction showed the most improvement on the empathy tests. People who were assigned to read a work of non-fiction, popular genre fiction or nothing at all didn’t get a boost in scores.
Some of the most powerful examples of fiction’s influence on empathy come from studies that specifically looked at people's attitudes toward members of stigmatized groups. For example, a 2014after readingIn their work, the researchers explained that “the world of Harry Potter is characterized by strict social hierarchies and resulting prejudices, with obvious parallels with our society.” People without magical powers are discriminated against in the series, for instance.
— such as sharing resources, help with healing the sick, and protection from predators. And we’ll probably continue needing empathy to move forward. Yet, at this particular moment in history,empathy among college students declined
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