Reading helps build empathy
Posted on Tuesday, June 13, 2017
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Today is 'Empathy Day', based on research showing that reading stories builds our real-life empathy. The day aims to highlight the power of books to help us better understand and connect to each other.
Empathy Day has been organised by the organisation EmpathyLab, which has published a Read for Empathy guide aimed at adults living and working with children aged 4-11. The guide features 21 books that have worked well in communities. It is available for free via the link, below, and includes picture books, poetry and fiction to help adults and children engage in discussions around other people's feelings and lives, and help open up discussions about issues such as refugees or mental illness. Neuroscience research has shown that reading is empathy-building. As we read fiction, our brains are tricked into feeling that we are genuinely part of the story. The empathy we feel for characters wires our brains to have the same sensitivity towards real people. (Raymond Marr et al, exploring the link between reading fiction and empathy, 2009, York University, Toronto). So reading fiction allows us to practice our empathy skills, which Keith Oatley describes as "the mind's flight simulator". (Keith Oatley, Fiction: Simulation of Social Worlds, Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 2016).
