The Transformative Power of Stories

"We will always learn more about human nature and personality from literature than from psychology" - Noam Chomsky

A study done at Ohio State University showed and explained the unconscious phenomenon of “Experience-Taking”: When we become so immersed in a fictional world that we take the emotions, thoughts, beliefs and internal responses of one of the characters as if they were their own. Of course, every one knows that, from TV-addicts to movie buffs to bookworms. But it goes much deeper than we thought.

Experience-taking can lead to genuine transformation in the lives of readers. This happens because we allow ourselves to merge our own identities with those of the characters, which can, among other things, make us more tolerant. For example, people were asked to read a story about a character of a different race, sexual orientation, gender, etc, and if the people who read it became genuinely immersed in the story they would feel less likely to stereotype and more likely to sympathize with the different group.

In particular, white students who read stories where the character was revealed to be black towards the end of the story felt more favorable towards blacks, but when the race of the character was revealed at the beginning they did not. This is because when we see a character is similar to us in some way a barrier is broken, as it were.

So we can see clearly that stories can make us more empathic, and bring us the opportunity to explore perspectives, feelings, and identities other than our own.

Experience-taking only ever happens if you are able to forget about yourself while reading. For example, the same study pointed out, the researchers found that most college students were unable to undergo experience-taking if they were reading in a cubicle with a mirror. Because they became reminded of their own identities, experience-taking could not occur.

Brain scans have revealed what happens to our grey matter when we are reading a detailed and exciting narrative and we get really sucked into it. In a 2006 study published in the journal Neuroimage, researches in Spain revealed that reading words like “cinnamon”, “soap”, “perfume”, “coffee”, causes the olfactory cortex to light up. It is the same thing with textile descriptors: they light up the sensory context. Descriptors that involve motion light up the motor cortex.

“Reading produces a vivid simulation of reality, one that runs on the minds of readers just as computer simulations run on computers.” - Keith Oatley, Cognitive Psychologist

The brain cannot make much a difference between experiencing something in real life and experiencing it through a novel. Novels can get so immerse that they become for us a living, breathing world.

“If you can can’t explain it to a six year old, you don’t understand it well enough” - Albert Einstein

In light of that above quote, and all of the information that we mentioned above, what do you think is the best way to explain something to a little kid? It is, to me, immediately obvious. You explain it in a story. How many kids learned about the importance of environmentalism through Dr. Seuss’s “The Lorax?”.  How many high-school students have learned about communism and the dangers of totalitarianism through Orwell’s “Animal Farm” and “1984”? How many people, of all ages, have learned about Ethics through the medium of storyship, be it either from Aesop’s Fables or The New Testament?

How many people have learned about the historical tragedy of The Holocaust through “Schindler’s List”, and the complexity of historical figures through movies like “Lincoln” and “I, Claudius?”  While science may never invent a time-machine, we already have one through the medium of fiction.

All of the stories mentioned above have always been in print since they were released. They are immortal, since the issues that they touch upon are also immortal.

But not only that - when we read stories and get emotionally involved and attached to the characters, when we are amused by the rhymes and rhythms of poetry, enjoying a sample of new music, feasting our eyes on a detailed painting, something is happening to us. The information from these pieces of art is hitting us at a much deeper level than if we just looked at it intellectually. It hits us emotionally.

We can not just think about why Totalitarianism is so bad, we can directly experience it through Winston Smith in “1984”, and when you emerge, with him, through the horrors of Room 101, you will be damn sure to keep your eye on anyone who is trying to take your rights away!

Mythologist Joseph Campbell called the most familiar and oldest story type The Hero’s Journey. The structure of such mythic adventures involves leaving home, going on risky travels that are full of obstacles we learn from, and finally returning, changed forever. Not only does every individual go through there own version of the Hero’s Journey in real life, but learning about other people’s heroic journeys (Theseus and the Minotaur, The Odyssey, The Journey to the West, etc) helps us to have the fortitude of our own because we become familiar with the idea of conquering outer challenges and inner demons.

“Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.”- Neil Gaiman, Coraline

In other words, when we emerge, with Frodo from his journey to Mt. Doom and back, we are not the naive, childish little hobbits we were before. Now we are stronger, braver, and wiser - traits that we use on our own journeys, to conquer our own Mt. Dooms.

All of this neuroscience, psychology, etc leads me to declare that All Fiction Is Real!, as real as anything else that passes through our heads. Fiction is a time-machine, a teacher, a friend, and a portal to adventure. What are you waiting for? Go read a story today!