All 4 Uses
empathy
in
Can Science Explain Why We Tell Stories?
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- "The only way to find out is to do the science," Gottschall says, reasonably enough, and then announces that "the constant firing of our neurons in response to fictional stimuli strengthens and refines the neural pathways that lead to skillful navigation of life's problems" and that the studies show that therefore people who read a lot of novels have better social and empathetic abilities, are more skillful navigators, than those who don't.†
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- ") And if these claims seem almost too large to argue, the more central claim—that stories increase our empathy, and "make societies work better by encouraging us to behave ethically"—seems too absurd even to argue with.†
empathy = the ability or tendency to understand or share in others' feelings
- Surely if there were any truth in the notion that reading fiction greatly increased our capacity for empathy then college English departments, which have by far the densest concentration of fiction readers in human history, would be legendary for their absence of back-stabbing, competitive ill-will, factional rage, and egocentric self-promoters; they'd be the one place where disputes are most often quickly and amiably resolved by mutual empathetic engagement.†
- Surely if there were any truth in the notion that reading fiction greatly increased our capacity for empathy then college English departments, which have by far the densest concentration of fiction readers in human history, would be legendary for their absence of back-stabbing, competitive ill-will, factional rage, and egocentric self-promoters; they'd be the one place where disputes are most often quickly and amiably resolved by mutual empathetic engagement.†
Definitions:
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(1)
(empathy) the ability, tendency, or act of understanding and sharing another's emotional state
- (2) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)