Potentiating empathic growth: Generating imagery while reading fiction increases empathy and prosocial behavior.

Johnson, Dan R.; Cushman, Grace K.; Borden, Lauren A.; McCune, Madison S.

doi:10.1037/a0033261

Cited by 103 publications

(75 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…Of particular interest, Johnson, Cushman, Borden, and McCune () have demonstrated that a person is likely to feel an increased connection to others following a mental imagery manipulation. Results of this study demonstrate that participants who generated highly vivid images of a fictional narrative reported higher empathy for the story's characters and were more likely to adopt pro‐social behaviours.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…That is, we explored whether the mental image of future self would become significantly more vivid over time (Callow et al, ; Nobbe et al, ) for participants in the mental imagery condition. As a consequence, we explored whether these participants would feel more empathy for that self (Johnson et al, ) than those in the present‐focused meditation condition. In turn, we explored whether participants who experienced greater change in vividness and empathy for future self would experience more future self‐continuity and report less procrastination over time .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Mental Imagery Intervention to Increase Future Self‐Continuity and Reduce Procrastination

Blouin-Hudon

Pychyl

2016

Applied Psychology

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This research examined how mental imagery practice can increase future selfcontinuity to reduce procrastination. A total of 193 undergraduate students were randomly assigned to a present-focused meditation or to a future selffocused mental imagery condition. Participants in both conditions were asked to listen to their respective audio recording twice per week for four consecutive weeks and to complete a pre-intervention, half-point, and post-intervention questionnaire. At the four-week mark, hierarchical regression analyses revealed that both future self-continuity and empathic perspective taking were significantly higher for the mental imagery condition than the meditation condition. While vividness of future self moderated change in future selfcontinuity, affective empathy for future self mediated the relation between vividness of future self and future self-continuity. Lastly, only empathic perspective taking was a significant moderator of change in procrastination across time. The influence of empathy and future self-continuity on procrastination is discussed.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Mental Imagery Intervention to Increase Future Self‐Continuity and Reduce Procrastination

Blouin-Hudon

Pychyl

2016

Applied Psychology

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“…The past few years have seen a surge of empirical research in literary studies, psychology, and neuroscience, investigating connections between literary reading and aspects of prosocial behavior, most prominently, those of empathy and mentalizing (see e.g. Black & Barnes, ; Djikic, Oatley, & Moldoveanu, ; Johnson, Cushman, Borden, & McCune, ; Koopman, , , ; Mar, Oatley, Hirsh, dela Paz, & Peterson, ; Mar, Oatley, & Peterson, ; Pino & Mazza, ; see Keen, , for a book‐length overview; and Burke, Fialho, & Zyngier, , for a review of studies of empathy in light of contemporary literary theory and neuroscience). Several studies (e.g.…”

Section: Introduction: Empathy and Literary Readingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Empathy and literary style

et al. 2018

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This article presents the design, methodology, and materials of an inter-Nordic, empirical study of literary reading among students in teacher education, in which relations between literary style and experiential aspects of literary reading (e.g. empathy and transportation) were assessed empirically. The primary aim of the article is to introduce paradigms and measures from interdisciplinary empirical research on literary reading which is less known in a Nordic context but which is rapidly gaining momentum internationally. The participants in the study read Katherine Mansfield's short story "The Fly" (1922) in the original version versus in a manipulated version in which typical features of literariness (e.g. metaphors and similes) were removed. Combining quantitative measures of empathy, appreciation of literature, and aspects of reading engagement with qualitative methods, the aim is to probe deeper into readers' subjective reading experience. K E Y W O R D S literariness, literary reading experience, qualitative methods, quantitative methods

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“…Through stories, individuals may develop and test those capacities for attention, intelligence and cooperation that are necessary for an effective management of the most complex social interactions [59]. The emphatic and prosocial effect of fiction exposure is moreover potentiated when subjects generate imagery that makes the narrative situation more concrete to them [125]. Personal characteristics, however, imply different consequences of exposure to certain fictional narratives in terms of emphatic understanding and prosocial behavior [126].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tie-Up Cycles in Long-Term Mating. Part II: Fictional Narratives and the Social Cognition of Mating

Basili

Sacco

2017

Challenges

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Abstract:In the first part of this paper, we have introduced a novel theoretical approach to mating dynamics, known as Tie-Up Theory (TU). In this second part, in the context of the bio-cultural approach to literature, that assigns to fictional narratives an important valence of social cognition, we apply the conceptual tools presented in the first part to the analysis of mating-related interaction dynamics in some blockbuster Hollywood movies from WWII to today. The interaction dynamics envisioned by our theory accurately reflect, to a significant level of detail, the narrative development of the movies under exam from the viewpoint of the mating dynamics of the couple of main characters, accounting for the specific reasons that lead them to react to certain situations via certain behaviors, and for the reasons why such behaviors lead to certain outcomes. Our analysis seems thus to bring some further legitimacy to the bio-cultural foundation of the narrative structure of the movies that we analyze, and moreover to the idea that it is possible to 'inquire' characters about their choices according to the narratological-experimental lines suggested by some proponents of the bio-cultural approach.Keywords: bio-cultural approach; fictional narratives; mating; Tie-Up Cycle; ways; interaction diagrams Because authors of fiction are free to construct narrative and characters unencumbered by the irrelevant detail that makes it hard to pierce real-life emotional events, we can read plays and novels as the closest thing to a controlled experiment involving high-stakes human emotions.Elster [1] (pp. 107-108)

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Potentiating empathic growth: Generating imagery while reading fiction increases empathy and prosocial behavior.

Cited by 103 publications

References 37 publications

A Mental Imagery Intervention to Increase Future Self‐Continuity and Reduce Procrastination

A Mental Imagery Intervention to Increase Future Self‐Continuity and Reduce Procrastination

Empathy and literary style

Tie-Up Cycles in Long-Term Mating. Part II: Fictional Narratives and the Social Cognition of Mating

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