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Reading other minds: Effects of literature on empathy
Abstract
The potential of literature to increase empathy was investigated in an experiment. Participants (N = 100, 69 women) completed a package of questionnaires that measured lifelong exposure to fiction and nonfiction, personality traits, and affective and cognitive empathy. They read either an essay or a short story that were equivalent in length and complexity, were tested again for cognitive and affective empathy, and were finally given a non-self-report measure of empathy. Participants who read a short story who were also low in Openness experienced significant increases in self-reported cognitive empathy (p .05). No increases in affective empathy were found. Participants who were frequent fiction-readers had higher scores on the non-self-report measure of empathy. Our results suggest a role for fictional literature in facilitating development of empathy.
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“In addition to fiction providing a means of better understanding themselves, adolescents also recognized the potential of fiction reading for developing empathy and helping them to understand others (Djikic et al., 2013; Eekhof et al., 2022; Vezzali et al., 2015).”
From How Does Reading Fiction Support Adolescents’ Wellbeing? A Qualitative Study Examining Positive Affect, Connection and Personal Growth (2025) · cites this paper as Djikic et al., 2013
In the citing paper
“It has been suggested that fiction literature may have a greater influence on readers' emotions and behaviour than non-fiction literature (Djikic et al., 2013).”
From Longitudinal associations between reading for pleasure and child maladjustment: Results from a propensity score matching analysis (2020) · cites this paper as Djikic et al., 2013
In the citing paper
“However, many studies that deployed the model (e.g., Bal & Veltkamp, 2013;Chlebuch et al. 2020;Djikic et al., 2013) sought and claimed to find effects that became manifest after reading a single text.”
From The effects of reading narrative fiction on social and moral cognition (2021) · cites this paper as Djikic et al., 2013
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Metadata
- Authors
- Djikic, M., Oatley, K., & Moldoveanu, M. C.
- Affiliations
- University of Toronto (CA)
- Venue
- Scientific Study of Literature
- Published
- 2013-05-31
- Volume
- 3
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 28-47
- ISSN
- 2210-4372 (ISSN-L)
- 2210-4380
- OpenAlex
- W2003469141
- Cited by
- 187
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 12 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 12 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 22 · 2021: 23 · 2020: 20 · 2019: 14 · 2018: 13 · 2017: 19 · 2016: 10 · 2015: 14 · 2014: 5 · 2013: 2
- FWCI
- 7.30
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Scientific Study of Literature (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Empathy and Medical Education
- Social Sciences › Communication › Media Influence and Health
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Literature and Literary Theory › Narrative Theory and Analysis
- Keywords
- empathy, fiction reading, cognitive empathy, affective empathy, short stories, openness to experience, personality traits
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