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A real work of art destroys, in the consciousness of the receiver, the separation between himself and the artist."
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The reading materials used in one or more of experiments in a study on empathy by David Comer Kidd and Emanuele Castano, published in Science
A study published in the journal Science found that after reading literary fiction, as opposed to popular fiction or serious nonfiction, people performed better on tests measuring empathy, social perception and emotional intelligence — skills that come in especially handy when you are trying to read someone’s body language or gauge what they might be thinking. These were the reading selections used in one or more of the experiments in the study.
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New research shows works by writers such as Charles Dickens and Téa Obreht sharpen our ability to understand others' emotions – more than thrillers or romance novels, writes Liz Bury
Have you ever felt that reading a good book makes you better able to connect with your fellow human beings? If so, the results of a new scientific study back you up, but only if your reading material is literaryfiction – pulp fiction or non-fiction will not do.
Psychologists David Comer Kidd and Emanuele Castano, at the New School for Social Research in New York, have proved that reading literary fiction enhances the ability to detect and understand other people's emotions, a crucial skill in navigating complex social relationships.
Claire Williams's curator insight,
October 8, 2013 12:46 PM
This article from the gaurdien, states that reading fiction helps a persons empathy. Even though this article does not nessicarily help a readers reading I found it interesting that reading fiction can help a person feel empathy.
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By allowing our students to be both creators and thoughtful perceivers of art, we help each student develop her/his capacity to empathize.
What will the world look like when our students leave school? While we educators may not know exactly, we can see the direction the world is taking and can make an educated guess as to what our students will need to be able to do; hence the creation of the 21st Century Skills. When I look at those skills like collaboration, cooperation, communication, problem-solving, and creativity what I see is empathy. Without empathy any one of those skills would be nearly, if not entirely, impossible to attain. And what has a great capacity to help people develop empathy? You guessed it – the arts! Deirdre Moore
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The unsung hero of success is empathy. Understanding the needs and desires of others is critical for leaders, salesmen, politicians, lotharios, preachers, CEOs, writers, teachers, consultants ... well, just about everybody. The better one understands others, the more effective one can meet their needs, appeal to their self-interests or, I suppose, manipulate them. And with a global economy, our empathy needs to extend beyond understanding just our next door neighbor.
The question is then - can empathy be learned - and how? Is there a small muscle somewhere in the mind or soul that can be exercised, stretched, and built that allows us to more fully place ourselves in others' shoes?
Reading fiction - especially when the setting is another culture, another time - has to be the best means of building empathic sensibilities
Doug Johnson
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Julia Lennon is a passionate performer. Her love of music and theater has offered exciting opportunities for Julia throughout her life, and has, in many ways, defined who she is today. Julia leads both the women's a Capella group and the improvisational troupe at Greens Farms Academy (GFA), and will be playing Florence in the spring production of Chess. She was the chief orchestrator behind the Concert for the Green and White in January, which donated over $40,000 to Sandy Hook Elementary
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New research suggests that understanding the emotional state of others is something that can be learned and practiced.
Schools could one day add “empathy education” to their curriculum. New research suggests that understanding the emotional state of others is something that can be learned and practiced.
According to a study published in the July issue of Psychology of Music, playing musical games can help cultivate a sense of empathy in children. Eric W. Dolan
Culture of Empathy Builder Page: Tal-Chen Rabinowitch
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Schools could one day add “empathy education” to their curriculum. New research suggests that understanding the emotional state of others is something that can be learned and practiced.
According to a study published in the July issue of Psychology of Music, playing musical games can help cultivate a sense of empathy in children.
“Perhaps the most important thing the study tells us about the development of emotional empathy is that it is amenable to intervention,” Tal-Chen Rabinowitch of the University of Cambridge, the lead author of the study, told PsyPost. “We now have the (very friendly and enjoyable) tools to influence and enhance emotional empathy in children, a significant building block for shaping a more empathic and other-minded society.”
By Eric W. Dolan Culture of Empathy Builder Page: Tal-Chen Rabinowitch
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Recently, in one of my classes, we were asked to take a quotient online. A lot of the questions pertained to social situations and how you react to them, the ability to put yourself in someone else’s shoes, and many other human nature type questions. I found this quotient to be pretty interesting, although it wasn’t until the end that I actually knew what it was for – it was measuring my capacity for empathy.
I wondered why my teacher at a music school would want us to take this quotient. What did empathy have to do with music? But after taking the test and really thinking about it, I realized that my professor might have been on the right track. Perhaps empathy has a larger role in music than we realize.
By Lindsay Kupser
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Paul Bloom gives important and eloquent voice to the critics of “empathy” in his recent piece in the New Yorker. I read it with great interest, respect, and gratitude to him for shining a light on how the idea of empathy can be misperceived and misused, especially politically. Much of the confusion lies in various interpretations of what “empathy” is and is not.
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Reading literary fiction — even something as short as 10 pages — can increase empathy, improve decision-making and make people more comfortable with uncertainty, suggest two new Canadian studies. In other words, the very pursuit we use to distract us from real life might actually make us better at living it.
Lead author Maja Djikic said the findings have particular repercussions for our schools, where she notes a “dangerous trend” away from the arts and soft skills. This observation dovetails with a January report from Scholastic showing that reading for pleasure on a regular basis (five to seven days a week) is indeed a waning activity among youths, having fallen to 34 per cent in 2012 from 37 per cent two years earlier.
John Scott Lucas's comment,
June 20, 2013 5:29 AM
One more reason that high stakes testing is not the answer to our education dilemnas.
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Here's a report on a series of studies that purport to show that reading a few minutes of "literary fiction" improves scores on a test of emotional empathy ("Reading the Mind in the Eyes"), compared to reading non-fiction. Reading popular fiction did nothing to improve scores over those of non-reading controls. People ranging in age from 18 to 75 were recruited for each of five experiments. They were paid $2 or $3 each to read for a few minutes. Some were given excerpts from award-winning literary fiction (Don DeLillo, Wendell Berry). Others were given best sellers like Gillian Flynn’s “Gone Girl,” a Rosamunde Pilcher romance or a Robert Heinlein science fiction tale.
...As I have suggested before, I would rather engage in psychotherapy with a therapist who reads Dostoevsky and Melville than with one who reads books about the brain. It would be lovely if a case could be built that shows that the reading of literature can make you a better (e.g., more empathetic) person.
by Glenn Sullivan
Brenda J. Alegria's curator insight,
December 9, 2013 6:15 PM
I found this article intresting in how studies were conducted to see if reading fiction increases empathy skills.
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A new study suggests that reading literary fiction may have a positive effect on social skills.
The results of a new study published Thursday in Science suggest that reading literary fiction may have a positive effect on social skills. The researchers, David Comer Kidd and Emanuele Castano, who are social psychologists at the New School for Social Research, in New York City, found that subjects who were asked to read just a few minutes of literary fiction, such as works by Don DeLillo or Alice Munro, performed better on subsequent tests measuring empathy, social perception, and emotional intelligence than subjects who were given nonfiction from Smithsonian Magazine or popular fiction like Danielle Steel or Gillian Flynn. Though the study leaves many questions unanswered—like how “literary” the fiction has to be to have an impact, or how long the empathy boost lasts—the researchers hope that studies like this one, which demonstrate the quantifiable benefits of reading literature, could have an impact on curriculum design in schools. (TheCommon Core standards have attracted criticism for emphasizing nonfiction over literature.) POSTED BY RACHEL ARONS
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The types of books we read may affect how we relate to others
How important is reading fiction in socializing school children? Researchers at The New School in New York City have found evidence that literary fiction improves a reader’s capacity to understand what others are thinking and feeling.
Emanuele Castano, a social psychologist, along with PhD candidate David Kidd conducted five studies in which they divided a varying number of participants (ranging from 86 to 356) and gave them different reading assignments: excerpts from genre (or popular) fiction, literary fiction, nonfiction or nothing. After they finished the excerpts the participants took a test that measured their ability to infer and understand other people’s thoughts and emotions. The researchers found, to their surprise, a significant difference between the literary- and genre-fiction readers.
By Julianne Chiaet
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Artistically led by Adrienne Hart, Neon Dance produces visually stunning and socially apt performance work, combining dance with original music and digital media
‘Empathy’ is a new contemporary dance work created by Neon’s Adrienne Hart. The piece explores the human empathy spectrum through movement, sound and set; each component designed to affect and provoke. Empathy will attempt to lure its audience into moments of feeling and unfeeling, but ultimately it is a reflection on how and why we relate to one another in an age of entanglement. Empathy will be a full-length (60-minute) dance work featuring both live and recorded sound.
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Empathy – Sarah Woods Monday 10th June, 2013 “I believe that empathy is a feeling of understanding, a feeling for others, It’s a beginning of a relationship”. Marzena Forristal As part of the creation of THE EMPATHY ROADSHOW, I’ve been doing filmed interviews with people for whom empathy is a key part of their daily lives. I ask them much the same things as I asked Christian Keysers, the neuroscientist. My first interview was with Marzena Forristal, a hairdresser in South London who runs WINK HAIR SALON. I asked her to define empathy and she talked about it as the ‘beginning of a relationship’. This is exactly what Christian said to me. Our empathy commission is in association with Kent County Council. The commission: We are interested in how the arts have the potential to spark emotions such as concern, compassion and sympathy, enabling a better understanding of others and looking at things from a different perspective.
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Introducing three empathy songs written and performed by Theresa Tan!
My two passions, education and music, collided when I decided to write kids songs to help teach empathy. Although I had never written songs before, I was inspired by Start Empathy's mission. What better way to teach young children than through song? In addition to being naturally engaging, studies indicate that the act of playing music may also boost kids' empathy.
As I set out to write the empathy songs, I drew heavily from my experience as a kindergarten teacher and cellist. I designated an emotional literacy learning objective to each song. Then I translated the objectives into kid-friendly lyrics. (The rhyming dictionary definitely came in handy during in this process.) Meanwhile, I brainstormed and tested out melodies with the words. My time spent improvising in an Americana band, playing in orchestras, and simply listening to other kids songs helped immensely. After several editing rounds, I came out with three initial songs.
By Theresa Tan
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Before last night’s performance began, Bill English, Artistic Director at San Francisco Playhouse, had the following to say about empathy:
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Press Release -- According to a new study, empathy is something that can be learned and taught. The research was conducted at the University of Cambridge and the results were published in the Psychology of Music (July 2013). The lead author of the study, Tal-Chen Rabinowitch, predicts that one day school districts will have the option to add “empathy education” to their curriculum. “Perhaps the most important thing the study tells us about the development of emotional empathy is that it is amenable to intervention,” Rabinowitch said. “We now have the (very friendly and enjoyable) tools to influence and enhance emotional empathy in children, a significant building block for shaping a more empathic and other-minded society.”
Debra Manchester's curator insight,
August 2, 2013 11:20 AM
Music is the universal language. See a wonderful example of music and lessons to build social and emotional intelligence in children at KidsEps.org.
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Press Release -- According to a new study, empathy is something that can be learned and taught. The research was conducted at the University of Cambridge and the results were published in the Psychology of Music (July 2013). The lead author of the study, Tal-Chen Rabinowitch, predicts that one day school districts will have the option to add “empathy education” to their curriculum. “Perhaps the most important thing the study tells us about the development of emotional empathy is that it is amenable to intervention,” Rabinowitch said. “We now have the (very friendly and enjoyable) tools to influence and enhance emotional empathy in children, a significant building block for shaping a more empathic and other-minded society.”
Debra Manchester's curator insight,
August 2, 2013 11:20 AM
Music is the universal language. See a wonderful example of music and lessons to build social and emotional intelligence in children at KidsEps.org.
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A 2009 study Within Connections: Empathy, Mirror Neurons and Art Education by Carol S. Jeffers reminds us that the art room might just be the perfect environment for teaching empathy. In her article, Jeffers discusses the experiences students have when identifying with and creating different works of art. Artistic exploration helps a student to identify his or her “self” while figuring out his or her place in the community and the world. Thanks to what are called mirror neurons, a student can experience empathy just by sharing artwork or experiences, even if he or she is not the creator of the piece. This puts a whole new spin on the importance of student reflections, class critiques and artist statements!
Jessica Balsley, Founder of The Art of Education
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Modern and historical scholarship on empathy has consistently demonstrated that people are more likely to empathize with those who are similar to themselves. This empathic bias for similarity means that the affective bonds and ethical motivations that accompany empathy are significantly diminished in relationships with outgroups, as defined by sociological difference. I argue that narrative empathy is uniquely capable of circumventing the similarity bias through compositional strategies related to foregrounding and perspective.
Turning to modern research on reading as well as to accounts of reading in the nineteenth century, I propose a two-part argument: first, that the act of reading can overcome the bias that scholars have observed in relationships between people and, second, that narrative empathy has the potential to prevent future cases of bias by reconfiguring readers' criteria for similarity.
Mary-Catherine Harrison
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Writing forces you to “walk in your characters’ shoes” in a way that reading can’t.
Empathy and fiction: what’s the connection? Empathy is an important thing: when you lack it completely, you’re a psychopath, and no one wants that, except perhaps if you happen to be a character in a thriller.
One of my friends who studies psychology posted this on Facebook a while back: it’s an article about why men should read fictionand claims that reading fiction teaches men to empathize with others.
Victoria Grefer
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