Reading helps with empathy

[LP]

A fascinating insight into the world of reading.

Readers of fiction are more empathetic towards others. By engaging with a story, readers are temporarily placing themselves in a character’s shoes, therefore, the more stories you read, the more shoes you’ve tried on.
By placing yourself into the world of a great novel, you are given the chance to experience something new that could be informative in your interactions with other people.By reading a challenging book, you’re not only becoming a smarter person, you’re also become more empathetic. Literature is not always easy, but by attempting to tackle harder books, we create new connections in our minds that we might not have otherwise.

Literature opens up our minds to the countless ideas that we wouldn’t be able to experience on our own.

What do you think ? Does reading fiction make us more empathetic?

[muqawwee123]

Re: Reading helps with empathy

It does make us empathetic, if we can relate to characters. If you can't relate to characters, then there is no impact of any novel, movie or drama. Yes, some characters from movies / dramas, also change you perspective how you look at / into certain matters.

[the_kaur]

Re: Reading helps with empathy

Good Question. I hardly read fiction though.

[Verrena]

Re: Reading helps with empathy

Reading is always better than watching tv or surfing the net. Books give us a chance to think things over with no pressure. While reading books we learn to make our own choices and conclusions. I don't know about empathy... Fictional characters produce certain impression on me but it's not about empathy, it's more about impersonation - they make me thin about what I would do if I were them.