The relationship between reading and empathy: An integrative literature review

“Affective empathy is the ability to share/understand someone else’s feelings without experiencing any direct emotional stimulus, whereas cognitive empathy is the ability to recognize and understand someone else’s mental state (Davis, 1983).”

“In this sense, this review is based on the procedures proposed by Mendes et al. (2008), namely: 1. identifying a theme; 2. establishing inclusion/exclusion criteria; 3. categorizing studies; 4. assessing the studies selected; 5. interpreting results; and 6. synthesizing knowledge.”

“In this sense, reading this type of genre has shown an important relationship with the development of empathy (Mar & Oatley, 2008) because when a narrative engages a reader, they start to understand different points of view and may develop both affection and cognition (Israelashvili et al., 2020).”

“The concept of empathy may be understood as a person being psychologically attuned to someone else’s feelings and perspectives (Decety & Lamm, 2006; Szalavitz & Perry, 2010).”

“…and adolescents to understand the perspective of others (Guarisco & Freeman, 2015), improving the student-teacher relationship (Bostic, 2014), and encouraging students to engage and, consequently, reach higher levels of reading comprehension and interpretation (Schonert-Reichl et al., 2015).”

“Fiction texts are those that tell a story, stimulating the readers’ imagination (Oatley, 2016).”

“The reason is that readers of fiction texts tend to have better empathic skills than those who do not read this textual genre (Mar et al., 2011).”

“Studies suggest that people who frequently read fiction texts become more empathic because fiction simulates social experiences, which is an opportunity for people to practice and improve interpersonal skills (McCreary & Marchant, 2017; Mumper & Gerrig, 2017).”

“…timeframe was chosen because a study published in 2009 is repeatedly cited by other papers and presents an important contribution to the debate on empathy considering children’s reading practices (Aram & Aviram, 2009); 2. empirical studies addressing the relationship between reading and empathy.”

“However, some studies show that children attending the first, second, or third grades, or initiating the literacy process, present more significant development of the affective component (Karniol, 2012; Merga, 2017; Nikolajeva, 2012) than the cognitive one.”

“In turn, the students’ level of empathy may be related to their reading comprehension skills (Lonigro et al., 2014).”

“Only one study collected the perception of the students’ parents/legal guardians (Deschamps et al., 2014).”

“%) that literary fiction encourages, develops and strengthens one’s empathic skills (Hibbin, 2016; Lysaker & Sedberry, 2015).”

“This statement is supported by various empirical pieces of evidence (Chisholm et al., 2017; Merga, 2017; Newstreet et al., 2018).”

“The development of cognitive empathy, promoted by reading literary texts, has been associated with creative writing, decreased anxiety (Betzalel & Shechtman, 2010; Hibbin, 2016), a higher level of understanding of social justice, and decreased prejudice and discriminant behavior toward different…”

“Furthermore, reading fictional books develops both the affective and emotional components of empathy (McTigue et al., 2015) – something non-fiction texts, such as newspapers and magazines, for instance, do not seem to promote (McTigue et al., 2015).”

“Hence, the journey initiated with reading narrative texts transforms students, as it incites various processes, including emotional involvement with the story and identification with characters (Hibbin, 2016; Lysaker & Sedberry, 2015; McTigue et al., 2015).”

“…a competence or attitude toward other people’s feelings (Israelashvili et al., 2020), research in the education and psychology fields have shown that interventions may increase empathic competence among students from different educational levels (Guarisco & Freeman, 2015; Riquelme & Montero, 2013).”

“This statement is supported by various empirical pieces of evidence (Chisholm et al., 2017; Merga, 2017; Newstreet et al., 2018).”

“In line with this, Chisholm et al. (2017) implemented an intervention so that students developed empathy through reading fiction texts.”

“Palabras clave: desarrollo, lectura, empatía, niños, adolescentes Reading books is an activity that becomes part of students’ lives from the early days of elementary school (Piasta et al., 2018).”

“Affective empathy has also been established as an essential component for understanding and enjoying reading (Hogan, 2010).”

“Studies suggest that people who frequently read fiction texts become more empathic because fiction simulates social experiences, which is an opportunity for people to practice and improve interpersonal skills (McCreary & Marchant, 2017; Mumper & Gerrig, 2017).”

“The case studies primarily involved observations (Venegas, 2019) and interviews (Lysaker & Sedberry, 2015) based on fiction texts, including empathy (Parsons, 2013) and reading measures (Newstreet et al., 2018).”

“Even though all the studies were conducted in public schools, one study also included private schools (Jensen et al., 2011).”

“However, some studies show that children attending the first, second, or third grades, or initiating the literacy process, present more significant development of the affective component (Karniol, 2012; Merga, 2017; Nikolajeva, 2012) than the cognitive one.”

“It occurs because fiction simulates real-world problems, which has consequences for readers (Guarisco & Freeman, 2015; Fjällström & Kokkola, 2015).”

“Few studies included the teachers’ perceptions (Ness, 2019) or those of parents/legal guardians (Deschamps et al., 2014).”

“However, a few studies investigated the readers’ level of empathy and how it influences reading (Bostic, 2014; Lonigro et al., 2014).”

“In recent years, researchers from the psychology and language fields have noted a significant association between fictional narratives and emotional experiences (Aram & Aviram, 2009; Brett, 2016; Karniol, 2012).”

“Hence, reading helps elementary school children and adolescents to understand the perspective of others (Guarisco & Freeman, 2015), improving the student-teacher relationship (Bostic, 2014), and encouraging students to engage and, consequently, reach higher levels of reading comprehension and…”

““Emotional identification” (Roza & Guimarães, 2022, p. 11) of the reader with the protagonist is often the aim of the following narrative suggestions.”

“These skills underlie the well-documented link between reading and developing empathy (Guarisco & Freeman, 2015; Lysaker & Sedberry, 2015; Roza & Guimarães, 2022).”

“The Social Sciences have attributed great importance to the concept of empathy (Roza & Guimarães, 2022 ).”