How reading stories nurtures empathy…
Friday February 16, 2024.
Why does immersing yourself in stories have such a powerful effect on the typical mind?
A study and review of research finds that regular reading enhances social-cognitive skills, fostering empathy in children and adults.
Social-cognitive skills, which include empathy and understanding human thoughts, are essential for effective communication, even within a fictional universe.
The study reinforces the enduring power of storytelling for most human beings.
Beyond entertainment, stories shape our ability to relate, enhancing social bonds and fostering a more empathetic society.
Ms. Lynn Eekhof, the study’s first author, said:
“I think we need to capitalize more on the wonder of what stories do, rather than merely seeing reading as a practical skill.”
Whether a human is chatting or reading, empathy plays a crucial role in understanding other humans , Ms Eekhof said:
“Although stories tend to involve people who are not real or whom you cannot see, we assume that people use the same skills to understand these people.”
How the study was conducted
Hundreds of humans read diverse stories for the study, and their socio-cognitive skills were carefully measured.
Eye-movement cameras revealed improved social cognition from regular reading, enabling quicker and more effective empathy with story characters.
Ms. Eekhof elaborated:
“This showed that there is a mutually reinforcing relationship between social cognition and stories.
Because we use our social-cognitive skills to understand stories, these skills get better and better with regular reading.
And this, in turn, ensures that we’re able to empathize with characters more effectively and more quickly when we’re reading.”
Reading only one single story doesn’t move the needle on empathy. Indeed, it may temporarily hinder social-cognitive abilities.
Ms. Eekhof made an exciting and unusual metaphor. She likened reading stories to emotional strength training:
“In the same way that doing ten push-ups temporarily fatigues our arm muscles, reading one story temporarily exhausts our social-cognitive ‘muscles.’
In the long term, however, doing a set of push-ups on a daily or weekly basis will have a positive effect on our muscles.
In much the same way, extensive and regular reading of stories also has a reinforcing effect on social cognition.”
The power of a love for stories…
I’ve mentioned this before, and it bears repeating…developing a love for reading, especially at a tender age, provides access to an infinity of human thought and experience. The bottom line is reading reinforces social-cognitive skills, I would suspect, for most humans.
Ms. Eekhof clarified the point of the research…
“I think we need to capitalize more on the wonder of what stories do, rather than merely seeing reading as a practical skill on which you are tested.
It is SO important to develop a love of reading.
And this can be done, for example, by taking pleasure in the access that reading gives you to other people’s lives and thoughts, whether it’s through a Donald Duck comic or through well-known literature.”
The problem is… neurodivergent humans might have an entirely different take on this…
Be well, stay kind, and Godspeed.
REFERENCES:
Reading about minds: The social-cognitive potential of narratives
LS Eekhof, K Van Krieken, RM Willems - Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 2022
