I’m wondering how much reading fiction can help with that. I never really thought about it before reading HP:MoR which uses the argument quite extensively, but I do feel that my ability to understand others was greatly improved by the fact that, since early childhood (I remember being like 8 or 9 and spending a whole afternoon just devouring a book) I read a lot of fiction (mostly sci-fi, fantasy, adventure, and a bit of thrillers too).
Reading fiction, especially as a child, forces you to put yourself in the shoes of other people (usually the hero(es) of the book), which will vary greatly from book to book, and to make models of people (both the heroes and the secondary characters) to try to guess what will happen later in the book. It gives some kind of mental flexibility about understanding people, a bit like stretching gives flexibility to your muscles. And it does it much more efficiently than a movie to me, first because books can much more easily than movie speak about what’s happening inside the head of the character (how he takes his decisions, what he feels, …) and because a book gives you much more time to think about it than a movie.
Also, I think role-playing helps too. Even before playing “official” RPGs like D&D with dices and stats and everything, as a child, I was often “role-playing” in an intuitive way with my siblings, so putting myself in the shoes of someone else.
Those two may have a drawback : they may tend to lead me to have stereotyped views of others, to fall more easily to the halo effect, since often (but hopefully not always) the heroes have lot of qualities together, and the villains lots of flaws together.
Do any of you have a pointer to some deeper study about the link of reading fiction (especially as a child) with the ability to empathize with/understand others ?
I read a lot as a child too, but it was writing that I’ve found has motivated me to develop more complete models of people. Whether it was my mom’s detailed criticism of early stories that I wrote (included the dreaded “that’s awfully implausible, sweetie”), or the fact that writing gave me incentive to go out and talk to people or try new things in order to have something to write about, that’s where a lot of my motivation came from to develop better empathy.
Aside: I think a surprising number of my life decisions boil down to wanting to understand people better (whether “just because” or in order to be better at other things.) Example case: choosing to study nursing instead of physics. Despite my mother’s insistence that I would be “an incredible academic”, there was a part of me that always chimed in: “You’re already good at school/studying/learning/etc. You’re terrible at people skills. People skills are more important than study skills for writing good stories. Can you imagine how awesome your people skills would be after 10 years of being a nurse? There you are!”
Example case: choosing to study nursing instead of physics
Whoa, that’s a serious career decision based on that one consideration. Do you feel particularly deficient in this area or attribute greater importance to it than average? It’s not like physicists don’t talk to each other at all.
It was a decision based on multiple factors, including the likelihood that I would find a job after graduating, the likelihood that I would enjoy my day-to-day work (my father hated academia, and our personality is similar enough that I considered this evidence about me, too), and the likelihood that I could be good at my job. (I may not be intelligent enough to be a really good physicist. Then again, I may not be capable of learning enough people skills to be a really good nurse, either...)
Judging by my interaction with a number of physics profs of both genders I had to deal with as a grad student, quite a few of them could definitely use some extra empathy. Probably goes both ways and is not restricted to physics.
I’m wondering how much reading fiction can help with that. I never really thought about it before reading HP:MoR which uses the argument quite extensively, but I do feel that my ability to understand others was greatly improved by the fact that, since early childhood (I remember being like 8 or 9 and spending a whole afternoon just devouring a book) I read a lot of fiction (mostly sci-fi, fantasy, adventure, and a bit of thrillers too).
Reading fiction, especially as a child, forces you to put yourself in the shoes of other people (usually the hero(es) of the book), which will vary greatly from book to book, and to make models of people (both the heroes and the secondary characters) to try to guess what will happen later in the book. It gives some kind of mental flexibility about understanding people, a bit like stretching gives flexibility to your muscles. And it does it much more efficiently than a movie to me, first because books can much more easily than movie speak about what’s happening inside the head of the character (how he takes his decisions, what he feels, …) and because a book gives you much more time to think about it than a movie.
Also, I think role-playing helps too. Even before playing “official” RPGs like D&D with dices and stats and everything, as a child, I was often “role-playing” in an intuitive way with my siblings, so putting myself in the shoes of someone else.
Those two may have a drawback : they may tend to lead me to have stereotyped views of others, to fall more easily to the halo effect, since often (but hopefully not always) the heroes have lot of qualities together, and the villains lots of flaws together.
Do any of you have a pointer to some deeper study about the link of reading fiction (especially as a child) with the ability to empathize with/understand others ?
I read a lot as a child too, but it was writing that I’ve found has motivated me to develop more complete models of people. Whether it was my mom’s detailed criticism of early stories that I wrote (included the dreaded “that’s awfully implausible, sweetie”), or the fact that writing gave me incentive to go out and talk to people or try new things in order to have something to write about, that’s where a lot of my motivation came from to develop better empathy.
Aside: I think a surprising number of my life decisions boil down to wanting to understand people better (whether “just because” or in order to be better at other things.) Example case: choosing to study nursing instead of physics. Despite my mother’s insistence that I would be “an incredible academic”, there was a part of me that always chimed in: “You’re already good at school/studying/learning/etc. You’re terrible at people skills. People skills are more important than study skills for writing good stories. Can you imagine how awesome your people skills would be after 10 years of being a nurse? There you are!”
Whoa, that’s a serious career decision based on that one consideration. Do you feel particularly deficient in this area or attribute greater importance to it than average? It’s not like physicists don’t talk to each other at all.
It was a decision based on multiple factors, including the likelihood that I would find a job after graduating, the likelihood that I would enjoy my day-to-day work (my father hated academia, and our personality is similar enough that I considered this evidence about me, too), and the likelihood that I could be good at my job. (I may not be intelligent enough to be a really good physicist. Then again, I may not be capable of learning enough people skills to be a really good nurse, either...)
Judging by my interaction with a number of physics profs of both genders I had to deal with as a grad student, quite a few of them could definitely use some extra empathy. Probably goes both ways and is not restricted to physics.
Your mom sounds awesome.
It sounds like you really want to be a writer...
What I say to most people is that I already am a writer. I’ve completed a number of novel-length stories. I’m just not a published writer yet.
On the topic of believability, perennial advice from the acting classes I have taken: “What does your character want?”