Joseph wharton illustration level 5 501 studio biref 1 essay

Fiction, Empathy and The Just World This essay will investigate fiction’s role in society since the invention of the printing press; the negative view of the escapist aspect of fiction; fiction’s role in major societal shifts; and the effects of fiction on both the individual and society. Illustrators create images that communicate stories, ideas and emotions, often working alongside authors of fiction. Understanding the impact of these narratives and representations on their audience allows illustrators to make conscious decisions in terms of the ethical, cultural and social dimensions of their subject and the concerns of their audience. Starting with the conventional notion of fiction as escapism this essay will consider opposing views of the value of fictional narratives and will explore the complexity of the issues, prejudices and assumptions faced by writers and illustrators.

The author Neil Gaiman (2013) takes the view that: People talk about escapism as if it's a bad thing... Once you've escaped, once you come back, the world is not the same as when you left it. You come back to it with skills, weapons, knowledge you didn't have before. Then you are better equipped to deal with your current reality.

In contrast to this view of escapist activities as essential parts of life that allow us space to make sense of the world around us, escapism is often portrayed in a negative way with the names of famous escapist characters used as insults implying that being a dreamer has no benefit to society and therefore no worth.

One difficulty is that escapism can take a wide range of forms, some more socially acceptable than others. Reading, watching television or playing computer games are common activities that are enjoyed by many people on a regular basis and seen as normal. On the other hand, gambling or taking drugs are activities that also fall under the umbrella of escapism but are viewed as reprehensible behaviours. These behaviours won’t necessarily have a negative effect on the person participating in them but they can become addictions and can have detrimental consequences.

A further, and definitely modern, form of escapism is the use of social media. In 'Escapism and Contemporary Life', Collier (2013) suggests that “the real form of ‘Escapism’ nowadays is the compulsive need to constantly be engaged in living an electronic life of fact-finding, problem-solving, video game playing, and personal chit-

chat.” We have become more and more used to being bombarded with information all day everyday whether it be through television, computers or phones.

The disparity between Gaiman’s views and Collier’s reflects in part the difference between forms of escapism. Gaiman is talking about reading fiction as an exploratory process that allows the reader to see new perspectives, develop emotionally and reflect on their life experiences in an environment removed from the pressures their real life. Collier on the other hand focuses on the bombardment of information that has become a central part of many people’s modern life with changes in communication and recreational technologies. This view sees technology as subverting the possible benefits that can arise from engagement with escapism and the life of the imagination.

The remainder of this essay will focus on fiction as a form of escapism. Writers and illustrators are able to influence their audience through fiction and may not be aware of the implications of their work. The power fiction has is not confined to individuals, fiction is capable of contributing to changes in public opinion and so influencing social policy. When creating fiction it is unlikely that practitioners fully contemplate the ramifications of their work.

Emphasising the power of fiction in promoting social reform Steven Pinker (2011) in The Better Angels of Our Nature concludes: The power of literacy to lift readers out of their parochial stations is not confined to factual writing. We have already seen how satirical fiction, which transports readers into a hypothetical world from which they can observe the follies of their own, may be an effective way to change people's sensibilities without haranguing or sermonizing…The ordering of events is in the right direction: technological advances in publishing, the mass production of books, the expansion of literacy, and the popularity of the novel all preceded the major humanitarian reforms of the 18th century. And in some cases a bestselling novel or memoir demonstrably exposed a wide range of readers to the suffering of a forgotten class of victims and led to a change in policy.

From Pinker’s perspective fiction makes a major positive contribution to society. If fiction has such an impact on social change we need to consider how it works and whether its influence is always a positive one.

Practitioners need to understand how their work influences their audience. Whatever decisions the writers/illustrators make and whatever strategies they adopt will have implications for what their work communicates irrespective of their conscious intentions. If the writer/illustrator wants to understand and direct the response which their audience will have to their work its necessary for them to be conscious of ways in which their methods as well as the content of the narrative have significance for their audience.

The situation, however, is not a simple one, as Jonathan Gottshall notes: … perhaps the most impressive finding is just how fiction shapes us: mainly for the better, not for the worse. Fiction enhances our ability to understand other people; it promotes a deep morality that cuts across religious and political creeds. More peculiarly, fiction’s happy endings seem to warp our sense of reality. They make us believe in a lie: that the world is more just than it actually is. But believing that lie has important effects for society — and it may even help explain why humans tell stories in the first place. (Gottschall, 2012)

One explanation of how fiction alters our perception of the world around us is the Just World hypothesis. Furnham (2003, cited in Waller, 2014) defines just world beliefs as ‘‘good things tend to happen to good people and bad things to bad people despite the fact that this is patently not the case”. Fiction provides us with a moral code based on this belief. If we read the news it is clear that bad things do happen to good people and the majority of crimes go unpunished yet for the most part we adhere to just world beliefs. Austrian psychologist Marcus Appel (2008) looked at whether fictional narratives cultivate ‘just world beliefs’. Appel concluded that: Most importantly, we found the assumed relationship between watching fiction on television and the belief in a just world. The frequent viewing of narratives, containing a just world that often includes the triumph of good over evil, goes hand in hand with the feeling of living in a just world.

It would appear that fiction causes us to apply these beliefs to our real lives, fiction can then be used to promote prosocial behaviour and help society to function to the benefit of its members even though the belief structure is based on a distorted world view. For instance, in 1949 the Institute of American Democracy commissioned DC

Comics to produce an illustration depicting Superman teaching children tolerance in relation to religion, race and national origin. The illustration was originally used for school book covers and was later turned into a poster (Figure 1), and such was its impact and continued relevance that after the 2016 American presidential election it was circulated on social media as ‘a call to battle racism’. (Sacks, 2016) The young people in the illustration are depicted as listening intently to the superhero’s words. They are enthusiastically engaged by his message and the gaze of each of the young people is focused on his face, emphasising his centrality and the importance of what he is saying to them. Important words in the text are capitalised and underlined, and there is repeated stress on the very emotive word ‘American’ which carries connotations both of national pride and an associated set of values.

The illustration strongly suggests that anyone who does not subscribe to its message is fundamentally un-American.

The decision to commission an illustration based on a comic book character shows recognition of the influence that such characters have on perceptions of moral values. Far from being dismissed as trivial, fictional characters have frequently been used to represent positive attitudes towards serious social, political and moral issues. As the publishers of the Superman comics made clear: From the mid 1940's to the mid 1960's, DC characters have been used by a variety of organizations for public service announcements that message positive and progressive social change, including speaking out against racism and discrimination … (Sacks, 2016) Such messages reinforce positive moral attitudes but they tend to do so by perpetuating a distorted and unreal view of the world as inherently just. A problem with this view (the Just World hypothesis) is that it can lead us to judge people and interpret events in terms of rewards and punishments for good and bad behaviour: The sight of an innocent person suffering without possibility of reward or compensation motivated people to devalue the attractiveness of the victim in order to bring about a more appropriate fit between her fate and her character. (Lerner and Simmons, 1966, cited in Burkeman, 2015 ) and

It’s easy to see how a similar psychological process might lead, say, to the belief that victims of sexual assault were “asking for it”: if you can convince yourself of that, you can avoid acknowledging the horror of the situation.

(Burkeman, 2015) These views have implications for illustrators working on fictional narratives who are primarily aiming to communicate the story in an easily understandable way. One of the ways that illustrators simplify their images is to use visual metaphors and devices to convey the theme and emotion of the narrative. This method relies on the pre-existing knowledge of the reader to recognise certain visual devices as having a specific meaning. This method is similar to the Just World narratives of fiction in that it simplifies aspects of life into binary ideas of good and bad, making them easier for the reader to assign meaning to. The problem is that the world we live in is incredibly complex and simple ideas of good and bad often become blurred. In presenting moral lessons using fiction’s Just World view we are promoting a skewed perspective of reality. Figure 2 uses a concealing overlay creating an aperture to highlight the distorting effect of Just World beliefs. The overlaid page represents the limited perspective that completely changes the meaning of the illustration by concealing key information.

From a Just World perspective the homeless person’s situation is seen as a product of their own decisions and actions; once the overlay is removed, the homeless person’s plight is presented as the result of circumstances over which they have no control.

It could be argued that fiction does not need to represent reality accurately; however even when the narratives themselves are far removed from our own environment, the lessons contained in them and the influence they have on individuals and society appear to not only be real but crucial to how society functions.

Another and arguably even more influential way in which fiction changes our perception is through the development of empathy. Various studies have shown that fiction can increase empathy and enhance emotional understanding:

…one study showed that small children (age 4-6) who were exposed to a large number of children’s books and films had a significantly stronger ability to read the mental and emotional states of other people. (Gottschall, 2012) Psychologist Dan Johnson (2012) conducted experiments aiming to discover if there were links between reading fiction and empathy. His subjects were asked to read a story and then the experimenter “accidentally” dropped a handful of pens. He found that the more the subjects were engrossed in the story the more likely they were to help the experimenter pick up the pens. Participants that were highly absorbed in the story were twice as likely to help out. Johnson writes: it appears that ‘curling up with a good book’ may do more than provide relaxation and entertainment. Reading narrative fiction allows one to learn about our social world and as a result fosters empathic growth and prosocial behaviour.

(Johnson, 2012) Similarly, Psychologist Raymond Mar (2004) writes, “Researchers have repeatedly found that reader attitudes shift to become more congruent with the ideas expressed in a [fictional] narrative” while, as Gottschall (2012) notes, “studies have reliably shown that when we watch a TV show that treats gay families nonjudgmentally (say, Modern Family), our own views on homosexuality are likely to move in the same nonjudgmental direction.”

The results of these studies suggest that increased levels of empathy caused by reading and watching fiction have a number of positive effects on the individual. Empathy makes us more likely to help other people and helps us to understand perspectives other than our own. The study mentioned by Jonathan Gottschall demonstrates how empathy can help us to challenge our prejudices, through fiction we can experience situations we have never experienced and do so through the eyes of someone else, this allows us to expand our understanding of the world around us.

Like the Just World hypothesis empathy appears to have a number of positive attributes that are beneficial to us both individually and as a society, but as with the Just World hypothesis there is research to suggest that the effects are not all positive.

Paul Bloom (2014) talks about the negative effects of empathy on determining social policy and also on individuals. Empathy unlike escapism is widely accepted as posi-

tive and Bloom has noticed that talking about empathy negatively makes people uncomfortable. Empathy is closely associated with a number of unquestionably positive qualities such as “morality, compassion, kindness, love, being a good neighbor, doing the right thing, and making the world a better place”. Bloom explains his stance stating that he is not against any of these things but that “if you want to be good and do good, empathy is a poor guide.”

Although empathy has many positives it is biased, we are more likely to feel empathy towards someone we have something in common with than someone we don’t. We also feel more empathy towards people we find attractive. We may feel we are making selfless decisions based on empathy but we may well be making the wrong decision because of own preexisting bias. This bias is magnified when we look at issues that affect social policy: empathy is unable to help us assign value to large numbers of people; we feel more empathy towards one person we know something about than 100 people we know nothing about. This makes empathy a poor guide to making decisions on a large scale.

Empathy is biased; we are more prone to feel empathy for attractive people and for those who look like us or share our ethnic or national background. And empathy is narrow; it connects us to particular individuals, real or imagined, but is insensitive to numerical differences and statistical data.

Without empathy, we are better able to grasp the importance of vaccinating children and responding to climate change. These acts impose costs on real people in the here and now for the sake of abstract future benefits, so tackling them may require overriding empathetic responses that favor the comfort and well-being of individuals today. (Bloom, 2014) The implications of increased empathy go beyond biased decision making for the individual. There have been a number of studies that suggest individuals with higher levels of empathy are also more prone to depression. Women have double the rate of depression of men and also exhibit higher levels of empathy. In Cold-Blooded Kindness (2011, cited in Bloom, 2014) Barbara Oakley notes “It’s surprising how many diseases and syndromes commonly seen in women seem to be related to women’s generally stronger empathy for and focus on others.”

Taking on another person’s pain through empathy is called Empathic Distress and can lead to feelings of anger and guilt. Paul Bloom offers up an alternative to empathy as a means to promote positive social behaviours in the form of compassion.

Compassion motivates altruistic behaviour without the baggage of empathic distress.

Non-empathic compassion is more distanced, and allows a feeling of concern without taking on the emotional state of the other person. This can be of benefit to both of the individuals involved. Paul Bloom uses the example of a patient and doctor rel

ationship: “He gets the most from doctors who don’t feel as he does, who are calm when he is anxious, confident when he is uncertain.” (Bloom, 2014) The links between empathy and fiction are well documented and there are a number of studies evaluating the relationship between the two. Researching compassion’s links to fiction is more problematic as there is a complete lack of studies. Compassion is often grouped together with empathy, the two are talked about as two parts of the same process without distinct enough differences to analyse how practitioners could attempt to promote one over the other through their practice. Practitioners could attempt to educate their audience through the narrative and characters in their work, promoting compassion as a positive and healthy way to connect with and understand other people.

Empathy as a coping mechanism could be hugely beneficial to an individual without any apparent negative effects, the problem is that if empathy informs decision making then our decisions will stem from a biased view, one that causes individuals to value one life over another or even one life over a vast number of lives because of some perceived connection. Empathy is championed by many public figures as a powerful positive influence on human behaviour. In 2014 Barack Obama highlighted its importance saying “it’s the lack of empathy that makes it very easy for us to plunge into wars. It’s the lack of empathy that allows us to ignore the homeless on the streets.” (Archived Obama White House Website).

Given that many of the effects of empathy are positive and we develop empathy naturally and it is only increased through fiction we need to consider how practitioners can address the negative effects. Empathy becomes a problem when is overrides rationality; in this way it is similar to anger. Anger is seen as negative; however there

are circumstances when anger is a rational and valid response. Because empathy is increased through the core process of fiction where the reader is encouraged to identify with characters and in some cases to see the world from their point of view the writer/illustrator is faced with a dilemma. If the writer/illustrator attempts to separate the reader from the characters they risk losing the immersive aspect of their work along with its appeal.

It would appear to be easier for a writer/illustrator to address issues arising from the Just World hypothesis. Empathy is a product of how narratives are communicated whereas Just World beliefs stem from the content of the narrative. Issues related to responsibility and what characters deserve (the essence of the Just World hypothesis) can be communicated simply in terms of content and plot whereas issues related to empathy are more complex and depend not just on what happens in the narrative but also on way in which it is presented. The tendency for the writer/illustrator is to oversimplify and to rely on stereotypical notions of good and bad, heroes and villains to communicate values and a moral stance. In order to create a more realistic view of the complex world in which we live writers/ illustrators need to develop characters and situations in terms of their individuality without the constraints of an oversimplified and binary moral code.

Figures

Figure 1. DC Comics. 1949. [Untitled public service announcement]. [Online].

[Accessed: 21 April 2017] Available from: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/1949-superman-antibullying-psa-circulating-election-article-1.2876001

Figure 2. Wharton,J. 2017 [Unpublished image].

References

Appel, M. 2008. ‘Fictional Narratives Cultivate Just World Beliefs’, Journal of Communication. 58, pp. 62-83. [Online preprint with pages numbered 1-37].

[Accessed: 4 November 2016]. Available from: http://aom.jku.at/files/2008_Appel_Fictional-narratives-cultivate-just-world-beliefs.pdf

Archived Obama White House Website. 2014. ‘Readout of the President’s Audience with His Holiness Pope Francis’, March 27. [Press Release].

[Accessed: 10 December 2016]. Available from: https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2014/03/27/readoutpresident-s-audience-his-holiness-pope-francis

Bloom, P. 2014. ‘Against Empathy’, Boston Review, 10 September. [Online].

[Accessed: 10 December 2016].

Available at http://bostonreview.net/forum/paul-bloom-against-empathy

Collier, G. 2013. ‘Escapism and Contemporary Life’, Psychology Today. 4 October.

[Online]. [Accessed: 3 January 2017].

Available from: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-consciousnessquestion/201310/ escapism-and-contemporary-life

Gaiman, N. 2013. ‘Why our future depends on libraries, reading and daydreaming’, The Guardian, 15 October. [Online]. [Accessed: 4 November 2016].

Available from: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/oct/15/neil-gaiman-futurelibraries-reading-daydreaming

Gottschall, J. 2012. ‘Why fiction is good for you’, Boston Globe, 29 April. [Online].

[Accessed: 1 November 2016].

Available from: https://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2012/04/28/why-fiction-good-foryou-how-fiction-changes-your-world/nubDy1P3viDj2PuwGwb3KO/story.html

Johnson, D.R. 2012. ‘Transportation into a story increases empathy, prosocial behavior, and perceptual bias toward fearful expressions’, Personality and Individual Differences, 52, pp.150–155. [Online]. [Accessed: 3 November 2016].

Available from: https: //pdfs.semanticscholar.org/b9c7/26989a25cd53954b8d92b7e8000e148454a6.pdf

Mar, R.A. 2004. ‘The neuropsychology of narrative: story comprehension, story production and their interrelation’, Neuropsychologia, 42, pp.1414–1434.

[Accessed: 8 January 2017]. Available from: http://www.yorku.ca/mar/mar%202004_neuropsychology%20of%20narrative.pdf

PINKER, S. (2011). The Better Angels of Our Nature: why violence has declined.

London : Allen Lane. Extract in The Guardian, 1 November 2011. [Online].

[Accessed: I November 2016].

Available from: https: //www.theguardian.com/books/2011/nov/01/extract-betterangels-nature-steven-pinker

Waller, B.N. 2014. The Stubborn System of Moral Responsibility. [Online].

Cambridge, MA. MIT Press. [Accessed: 20 January 2017].

Available from: https://books.google.co.uk