I haven’t read the article, but I read the abstract, and am startled that it seems like a correlational study. Do they do anything to differentiate “reading fiction increases empathy” from “empathic people read more fiction”?
I haven’t really read it in detail, but in the abstract, see the sentence:
In order to rule out the role of personality, we first identified Openness as the most consistent correlate. This trait was then statistically controlled for, along with two other important individual differences:the tendency to be drawn into stories and gender. Even after accounting the tendency to be drawn into stories and gender. Even after accounting.
Which means that fiction was still predictive after accounting for various self-reported personality traits. So they did try to differentiate the two.
For detail, the corresponding section: “Association between print-exposure and empathy: Ruling out the role of individual differences”
Notion that fiction increases empathy has been making the rounds. Not an area I’ve researched heavily, I am intrigued but skeptical.
I haven’t read the article, but I read the abstract, and am startled that it seems like a correlational study.
Do they do anything to differentiate “reading fiction increases empathy” from “empathic people read more fiction”?
I haven’t really read it in detail, but in the abstract, see the sentence:
Which means that fiction was still predictive after accounting for various self-reported personality traits. So they did try to differentiate the two.
For detail, the corresponding section: “Association between print-exposure and empathy: Ruling out the role of individual differences”
experimental stuff
Thanks. Some of my med school professors have this opinion, but I’m not sure if they’ve got any data to back it up.
I suspect there is a correlation but I’m entirely unsure of the direction of causality.