How Reading Is a Simulator for Empathy
I recently became enthralled with the topic of empathy after completing a course at University of North Florida entitled ‘Reading Matters’, a course designed to independently explore the topic of why reading is important while making weekly visits to an impoverished middle school in the area. At the end of the semester, I concluded that reading matters because reading acts as a simulator for empathy- something America in general would greatly benefit from, as we are often stifled from our limited point of view and inability to accept people who think and believe differently than ourselves.
After the course’s completion- I began to hear the word ‘empathy’ everywhere I went. I realized the possibility of this being some sort of confirmation bias- some coincidence or error in my reasoning. But after months of hearing empathy referenced in an unprecedented amount of situations- I can confidently say this is recently become a universal topic of interest.
So let the conversation continue-
Gregory Berns explanation of the physical effects of reading: “The neural changes that we found associated with physical sensation and movement systems suggest that reading a novel can transport you into the body of the protagonist,” Berns says. “We already knew that good stories can put you in someone else’s shoes in a figurative sense. Now we’re seeing that something may also be happening biologically.”
This is especially influential during childhood because of the overwhelming complexities of social life at a young age. Children that learn and experience empathy at an early age can more effectively grasp the concepts that make up our “theory of mind.” “Narratives offer a unique opportunity to engage this capacity, as we identify with characters’ longings and frustrations, guess at their hidden motives and track their encounters with friends and enemies, neighbors and lover” (1). Because reading aids in identification with others, it becomes crucial in the construction of one’s belief system. In support of this claim, I explored the necessities of reading from a neurological standpoint as well as evaluating how reading affects our political and social standpoint in the world. From there, I will examine why people choose not to read and how technology has diluted the yearn to read for pleasure.
It is not a matter of whether technology is interfering with reading in any general sense; if anything, the modern person is totally preoccupied by the written word: text messages, emails, Buzzfeed articles, that-guy-you-went-to- middle-school-with-sister’s opinion on someone else’s opinion..
the list goes on.
It is a matter of content. Content that is not synonymous with the rousing of emotions that literature, specifically fictional literature, stirs within us. Thanks to neuroscience we now have facts to support why reading matters, but a recent study also concluded that people don’t listen to facts.
In a series of studies in 2005 and 2006, researchers at the University of Michigan found that when misinformed people were exposed to corrected facts in news stories; they rarely changed their minds. “In fact, they often became even more strongly set in their beliefs. Facts, they found, were not curing misinformation. Like an underpowered antibiotic, facts could actually make misinformation even stronger” (1) Because of this, who knows if America can change its course of action.
Detaching from first person consciousness is debatably an art form at this point. Lack of empathy is a catalytic force that results in racial tension, infanticide, factory farming and anything else intentionally destructive to the world we live in. If it is proven that reading (specifically fiction) can elevate our consciousness and in some way detach us from this 1st person point of view- then why, as a society, have we begun to support this emotional illiteracy?
We have grown accustomed to the modern simulators that we now call video chat, namely FaceTime; an application that allows you to do the next closest thing to speaking face-to-face. Instead of working on improving communication, we have begun to sway closer to the convenient alternatives. It is not that these convenient alternatives have been created, but that society has evolved into preferring the substitute of actual physical interaction. People make big decisions through with the Internet mask on- decisions they might not be so confident in if they were face-to-face with someone. Suddenly breaking up with your boyfriend is easier to do online, because doing it in person would be too intense and too real. Our sudden preference to detachment has rejuvenated the need for books. Books take time to read, and a lot of us can’t find that time, or refuse to believe it exists in the modern world. Now opinions are shared with a 150-character limit, which summarizes our intimate beliefs and takes us away from the elaborate embellishments of life.
A picture you take can be seen by anyone around the world, there is no longer a need for transactions, the give and take of communication. Going out of your way to show someone a picture illustrates an intention- getting a job offer, asking someone on a date, seeking out information, all these actions have underlying intentions, which are debatably the most intimate part.
We are eliminating intimacy and delighting in expediency.
Jonathan Safran Foer, a novelist that is passionately concerned about the modern man’s detachment to empathy, explains in an essay titled “How Not to Be Alone”- “Psychologists who study empathy and compassion are finding that unlike our almost instantaneous responses to physical pain, it takes time for the brain to comprehend the psychological and moral dimensions of a situation. The more distracted we become, and the more emphasis we place on speed at the expense of depth, the less likely and able we are to care.”
Foer is not anti-technology, nor does he believe we should abandon our iPhone’s and set up camp with Thoreau in the woods; but our preference to detachment is increasing and the projected outcome of that sounds eerily dystopian.
