Friday, September 11, 2009

How Fiction Reading Affects Empathy

Through a series of studies, we have discovered that fiction at its best isn't just enjoyable. It measurably enhances our abilities to empathize with other people and connect with something larger than ourselves.

h/t Neuroanthropology

5 comments:

Cahya said...

What an interesting article.

Anonymous said...

Percy Bysshe Shelley arrived at this conclusion nearly 200 years ago:

"The great secret of morals is Love; or a going out of our own nature, and an identification of ourselves with the beautiful which exists in thought, action, or person, not our own. A man, to be greatly good, must imagine intensely and comprehensively; he must put himself in the place of another and of many others; the pains and pleasures of his species must become his own. The great instrument of moral good is the imagination; and poetry administers to the effect by acting upon the cause."

From A Defense of Poetry, 1820

jon said...

Really great article. It makes a lot of sense too, given that behavorial cognitive therapy works on a similiar basis.

Unknown said...

Do they really work similarly?
__________
Elearning

Character Education said...

Well Article is Good,but fiction will not educate your character, its will show you all the non real things that will get you away from real life.