Reading Fictional Narratives to Improve Social and Moral Cognition: The Influence of Narrative Perspective, Transportation, and Identification
There is a long tradition in philosophy and literary criticism of belief in the social and moral benefits of exposure to fiction, and recent empirical work has examined some of these claims. However, little of this research has addressed the textual features responsible for the hypothesized cognitiv...
Main Authors: | , , , |
---|---|
Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2021-02-01
|
Series: | Frontiers in Communication |
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2020.611935/full |
id |
doaj-819d504495844cc680b4470d99d12409 |
---|---|
record_format |
Article |
spelling |
doaj-819d504495844cc680b4470d99d124092021-02-15T05:25:01ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Communication2297-900X2021-02-01510.3389/fcomm.2020.611935611935Reading Fictional Narratives to Improve Social and Moral Cognition: The Influence of Narrative Perspective, Transportation, and IdentificationLena Wimmer0Lena Wimmer1Stacie Friend2Gregory Currie3Heather J. Ferguson4School of Psychology, University of Kent, Canterbury, United KingdomDepartment of Education, University of Freiburg, Freiburg im Breisgau, GermanyDepartment of Philosophy, Birkbeck, University of London, London, United KingdomDepartment of Philosophy, University of York, York, United KingdomSchool of Psychology, University of Kent, Canterbury, United KingdomThere is a long tradition in philosophy and literary criticism of belief in the social and moral benefits of exposure to fiction, and recent empirical work has examined some of these claims. However, little of this research has addressed the textual features responsible for the hypothesized cognitive effects. We present two experiments examining whether readers’ social and moral cognition are influenced by the perspective from which a narrative is told (voice and focalization), and whether potential effects of perspective are mediated by transportation into the story or by identification with the protagonist. Both experiments employed a between-subjects design in which participants read a short story, either in the first-person voice using internal focalization, third-person voice using internal focalization, or third-person voice using external focalization. Social and moral cognition was assessed using a battery of tasks. Experiment 1 (N = 258) failed to detect any effects of perspective or any mediating roles of transportation or identification. Implementing a more rigorous adaptation of the third-person story using external focalization, Experiment 2 (N = 262) largely replicated this pattern. Taken together, the evidence reported here suggests that perspective does not have a significant impact on the extent to which narratives modulate social and moral cognition, either directly or indirectly via transportation and identification.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2020.611935/fullmoralityfocalizationperspectiveidentificationsocial cognitionfiction |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Lena Wimmer Lena Wimmer Stacie Friend Gregory Currie Heather J. Ferguson |
spellingShingle |
Lena Wimmer Lena Wimmer Stacie Friend Gregory Currie Heather J. Ferguson Reading Fictional Narratives to Improve Social and Moral Cognition: The Influence of Narrative Perspective, Transportation, and Identification Frontiers in Communication morality focalization perspective identification social cognition fiction |
author_facet |
Lena Wimmer Lena Wimmer Stacie Friend Gregory Currie Heather J. Ferguson |
author_sort |
Lena Wimmer |
title |
Reading Fictional Narratives to Improve Social and Moral Cognition: The Influence of Narrative Perspective, Transportation, and Identification |
title_short |
Reading Fictional Narratives to Improve Social and Moral Cognition: The Influence of Narrative Perspective, Transportation, and Identification |
title_full |
Reading Fictional Narratives to Improve Social and Moral Cognition: The Influence of Narrative Perspective, Transportation, and Identification |
title_fullStr |
Reading Fictional Narratives to Improve Social and Moral Cognition: The Influence of Narrative Perspective, Transportation, and Identification |
title_full_unstemmed |
Reading Fictional Narratives to Improve Social and Moral Cognition: The Influence of Narrative Perspective, Transportation, and Identification |
title_sort |
reading fictional narratives to improve social and moral cognition: the influence of narrative perspective, transportation, and identification |
publisher |
Frontiers Media S.A. |
series |
Frontiers in Communication |
issn |
2297-900X |
publishDate |
2021-02-01 |
description |
There is a long tradition in philosophy and literary criticism of belief in the social and moral benefits of exposure to fiction, and recent empirical work has examined some of these claims. However, little of this research has addressed the textual features responsible for the hypothesized cognitive effects. We present two experiments examining whether readers’ social and moral cognition are influenced by the perspective from which a narrative is told (voice and focalization), and whether potential effects of perspective are mediated by transportation into the story or by identification with the protagonist. Both experiments employed a between-subjects design in which participants read a short story, either in the first-person voice using internal focalization, third-person voice using internal focalization, or third-person voice using external focalization. Social and moral cognition was assessed using a battery of tasks. Experiment 1 (N = 258) failed to detect any effects of perspective or any mediating roles of transportation or identification. Implementing a more rigorous adaptation of the third-person story using external focalization, Experiment 2 (N = 262) largely replicated this pattern. Taken together, the evidence reported here suggests that perspective does not have a significant impact on the extent to which narratives modulate social and moral cognition, either directly or indirectly via transportation and identification. |
topic |
morality focalization perspective identification social cognition fiction |
url |
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2020.611935/full |
work_keys_str_mv |
AT lenawimmer readingfictionalnarrativestoimprovesocialandmoralcognitiontheinfluenceofnarrativeperspectivetransportationandidentification AT lenawimmer readingfictionalnarrativestoimprovesocialandmoralcognitiontheinfluenceofnarrativeperspectivetransportationandidentification AT staciefriend readingfictionalnarrativestoimprovesocialandmoralcognitiontheinfluenceofnarrativeperspectivetransportationandidentification AT gregorycurrie readingfictionalnarrativestoimprovesocialandmoralcognitiontheinfluenceofnarrativeperspectivetransportationandidentification AT heatherjferguson readingfictionalnarrativestoimprovesocialandmoralcognitiontheinfluenceofnarrativeperspectivetransportationandidentification |
_version_ |
1724269197856342016 |