Forsooth!! A Degree in Literature Mediators Doth Make
From the Law and Humanities Blog, we learn that Reading Literature Gives You More Empathy
(click on the image left for the Law and Humanities Institute, sponsor of the Blog)
How could this not be true? At ten, I was reduced to sobs by the fate of a sled dog in Call of the Wild; longed to eat peppermints on a Brooklyn fire escape near the tree growing there; watched Atlanta burn with reddened eyes by flashlight while my sister slept peacefully in the next bed; and, came of age in sunny suburban San Diego reading Anne Frank's desperate hopes for a new life in her family's hiding place.
Now the British Psychological Society tells us what every Lit Major has always known, "the more fiction a person reads, the more empathy they have." Not only that, but
the better they perform on tests of social understanding and awareness. By contrast, reading more non-fiction, fact-based books shows the opposite association. That’s according to Raymond Mar and colleagues who say their finding could have implications for educating children and adults about understanding others.
Finding out how much people read is always difficult because it’s socially desirable for people to report that they read a lot. Mar and colleagues avoided this by asking 94 participants to identify the names of fiction and non-fiction authors embedded in a long list of names that also included non-authors. Prior research has shown this test correlates well with how much people actually read. Among the authors listed were Matt Ridley, Naomi Wolf (non-fiction), Toni Morrison and PD James (fiction).
The more authors of fiction that a participant recognised, the higher they tended to score on measures of social awareness and tests of empathy – for example being able to recognise a person’s emotions from a picture showing their eyes only, or being able to take another person’s perspective. Recognising more non-fiction authors showed the opposite association.
For the complete post and links to the source material, click here. Who said we'd never put those endless hours of dreamy, solitary reading to good use?
Comments (2)
Read through and enter the discussion by using the form at the endTammy - February 28, 2007 5:30 AM
Vickie - Aha! So I can finally say that my Literary Studies degree from undergrad is truly being put to a pragmatic purpose in my mediation work! :)
Vickie - February 28, 2007 11:36 AM
There's more to this (reading fiction)for mediators than meets the eye.
As our clients tell their stories, they are writing what Chekov calls "the lie that tells the truth," the deeper relational narrative upon which the misperceptions that led to the dispute often rest -- disrespect; isolation; fear; anger.
The difference between "fact" and "fiction" is the difference between the MISPERCEPTION that objective facts EXIST and the dawning realization that the "truth" is subjective. This is the wisdom of the Buddha.
We are liberated from the conflict the moment we realize that we can and do co-create our mutual subjective reality; that we are not trapped by the iron bars that we call "what really happened."
Memories, the brain scientists tell us, are CREATED in the present. There's not REALLY a little lock box in our heads where an accurate depiction of the past resides.
Etc., etc. I could talk about this stuff forever but must go mediate a few people's objective reality and subjective experience. It's a new and challenging experience every time.
Cheers!