Empathic reactions after reading: The role of genre, personal factors and affective responses
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Koopman (2015) found that reading a narrative about grief, whether literary fiction or a nonliterary non-fiction life story, increased empathy compared to reading an expository text about grief.
“Some empirical support for this claim is found in Koopman (2015), where reading a narrative about grief-whether a literary fiction or a nonliterary, non-fiction”
From The effects of reading narrative fiction on social and moral cognition (2021) · cites this paper as Koopman (2015)
Koopman (2015) found that prosocial behaviour after reading was more frequent in the non-literary narrative non-fiction group than in the remaining groups.
“The above-mentioned experiment by Koopman (2015) also investigated prosocial behaviour after reading, which was found to be more frequent in the non-literary narrative non-fiction group than in the remaining groups”
From The effects of reading narrative fiction on social and moral cognition (2021) · cites this paper as Koopman (2015)
Koopman's (2015) findings have limited validity because social and moral cognition were assessed via self-report questionnaires and a behavioural test of prosociality, both subject to social desirability biases.
“(Although this experiment is sophisticated in many ways, social and moral cognition were assessed via self-report questionnaires and a behavioural test of prosociality.Since both types of assessment are subject to social desirability biases (see below), the validity of these findings is limited).”
From The effects of reading narrative fiction on social and moral cognition (2021) · cites this paper as Koopman (2015)
Out of all previous experiments in the field, only Koopman (2015) used reading stimuli with matched content across conditions.
“out of all previous experiments in the field, only Koopman (2015) used reading stimuli with matched content across conditions.”
From The effects of reading narrative fiction on social and moral cognition (2021) · cites this paper as Koopman (2015)
Cites
Measuring individual differences in empathy: Evidence for a multidimensional approach.
Davis, M. H. (1983) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.44.1.113 · Cited by 10,272 · see citing works
Structural Equation Modelling: Guidelines for Determining Model Fit
Hooper, D., Coughlan, J., & Mullen, M. R. (2008) · Dublin Institute of Technology · doi:10.21427/d7cf7r · Cited by 8,746 · see citing works
The role of transportation in the persuasiveness of public narratives.
Green, M. C., & Brock, T. C. (2000) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.79.5.701 · Cited by 4,861 · see citing works
Baron‐Cohen, S., Wheelwright, S., Hill, J., Raste, Y., & Plumb, I. (2001) · Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry · doi:10.1111/1469-7610.00715 · Cited by 4,555 · cited 1× · see citing works
“Moreover, some measures of empathy that are commonly used, like the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET, see Baron-Cohen et al., 2001) bear little relation to compassion and prosocial action in real-life.”
MethodReading literary fiction improves theory of mind
Kidd, D. C., & Castano, E. (2013) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1239918 · Cited by 1,642 · cited 1× · see citing works
“To some extent, they are also backed up by empirical evidence showing a relation between reading stories and scores on empathy measures (e.g., Mar et al., 2006, 2009; Kidd and Castano, 2013).”
BackgroundThe Function of Fiction is the Abstraction and Simulation of Social Experience
Mar, R. A., & Oatley, K. (2008) · Perspectives on Psychological Science · doi:10.1111/j.1745-6924.2008.00073.x · Cited by 1,345 · see citing works
Measuring Narrative Engagement
Busselle, R., & Bilandzic, H. (2009) · Media Psychology · doi:10.1080/15213260903287259 · Cited by 1,088 · cited 1× · see citing works
“…the two, with ‘‘empathy’’ designating the experience of feeling someone else’s feelings (‘‘feeling with’’), and ‘‘sympathy’’ designating the feeling of concern for another, without feeling what the other feels (‘‘feeling for’’) (e.g., Busselle and Bilandzic, 2009; Coplan, 2004; Mar et al., 2011).”
Mar, R. A., Oatley, K., & Peterson, J. B. (2009) · COMM · doi:10.1515/comm.2009.025 · Cited by 552 · see citing works
Johnson, D. R. (2012) · Personality and Individual Differences · doi:10.1016/j.paid.2011.10.005 · Cited by 343 · see citing works
Meetings of minds: Dialogue, sympathy, and identification, in reading fiction
Oatley, K. (1999) · Poetics · doi:10.1016/s0304-422x(99)00011-x · Cited by 332 · see citing works
Reading other minds: Effects of literature on empathy
Djikic, M., Oatley, K., & Moldoveanu, M. C. (2013) · Scientific Study of Literature · doi:10.1075/ssol.3.1.06dji · Cited by 187 · see citing works
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Fiction reading has a small positive impact on social cognition: A meta-analysis.
Dodell-Feder, D., & Tamir, D. I. (2018) · Journal of Experimental Psychology: General · doi:10.1037/xge0000395 · Cited by 223 · see citing works
Effects of “literariness” on emotions and on empathy and reflection after reading.
Koopman, E. M. (. (2016) · Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts · doi:10.1037/aca0000041 · Cited by 110 · see citing works
Self-citationPersonal Relevance in Story Reading
Kuzmičová, A., & Bálint, K. (2019) · Poetics Today · doi:10.1215/03335372-7558066 · Cited by 69 · see citing works
The effects of reading narrative fiction on social and moral cognition
Wimmer, L., Currie, G., Friend, S., & Ferguson, H. J. (2021) · Scientific Study of Literature · doi:10.1075/ssol.21010.wim · Cited by 16 · see citing works
- Authors
- Koopman, E. M. (.
- Affiliations
- Erasmus University Rotterdam (NL)
- Corresponding author
- Koopman, Eva Maria (Emy)
- Venue
- Poetics
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2015-06
- Volume
- 50
- Pages
- 62-79
- ISSN
- 0304-422X (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2050089922
- Cited by
- 154
- References
- 11
- Citations by year
- 2026: 10 · 2025: 15 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 15 · 2021: 15 · 2020: 20 · 2019: 8 · 2018: 30 · 2017: 9 · 2016: 7 · 2015: 3
- FWCI
- 264.35
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- Licence
- Locations
- Poetics (publishedVersion)
- EUR Research Repository (Erasmus University Rotterdam) (submittedVersion)
- EUR Research Repository (Erasmus University Rotterdam) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Funders
- NWO, The Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Literature and Literary Theory › Media Influence and Health
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Empathy and Medical Education
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Literature and Literary Theory › Narrative Theory and Analysis
- Keywords
- empathic understanding, prosocial behavior, donating, textual genres, life stories, literary narrative, expository texts, trait empathy, personal experience, depression, grief
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