Associations between fiction reading, trait empathy and theory of mind ability

Autores
Tabullo, Ángel Javier; Navas Jiménez, Violeta Araceli; García, Claudia Silvana
Año de publicación
2018
Idioma
inglés
Tipo de recurso
artículo
Estado
versión publicada
Descripción
Fil: Tabullo, Ángel Javier. Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias Económicas; Argentina
Fil: Tabullo, Ángel Javier. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina
Fil: Navas Jiménez, Violeta Araceli. Universidad de Mendoza; Argentina
Fil: García, Claudia Silvana. Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina; Argentina
Abstract: Several studies suggest a link between fiction reading and Theory of Mind, a component of cognitive empathy which refers to the ability to understand other people’s mental and affective states. More frequent fiction readers perform better in tasks that require inference of intentions or emotions in others, like the Reading the Mind in the Eyes task. In addition, subjects who read a fiction text obtain better scores than controls reading non-fiction. Since most of this research has been conducted on caucasic subjects, cross-cultural replication of the effect is still needed. The present study is the first to investigate the subject in a Latin American sample (208 adults -137 females-, ranging from 18 to 59 years old (M= 27.66). We replicated the association between lifelong exposure to print fiction and performance in the Reading the Mind in the eyes task, but the effect was only significant in men. The association remained significant after controlling for age, education level and self-reported Trait Empathy scores. The results are congruent with the hypothesis that reading promotes Theory of Mind ability by engaging mentalizing processes in order to represent the thoughts and feelings of fictional characters. The sex difference we observed had not been reported before and requires further replication and analysis.
Fuente
International Journal of Psychology & Psychological Therapy, 18(3), 2018
Materia
EMPATIA
LECTURA
FICCION
TEORIA DE LA MENTE
Nivel de accesibilidad
acceso abierto
Condiciones de uso
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
Repositorio
Repositorio Institucional (UCA)
Institución
Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina
OAI Identificador
oai:ucacris:123456789/8560

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oai_identifier_str oai:ucacris:123456789/8560
network_acronym_str RIUCA
repository_id_str 2585
network_name_str Repositorio Institucional (UCA)
spelling Associations between fiction reading, trait empathy and theory of mind abilityTabullo, Ángel JavierNavas Jiménez, Violeta AraceliGarcía, Claudia SilvanaEMPATIALECTURAFICCIONTEORIA DE LA MENTEFil: Tabullo, Ángel Javier. Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias Económicas; ArgentinaFil: Tabullo, Ángel Javier. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Navas Jiménez, Violeta Araceli. Universidad de Mendoza; ArgentinaFil: García, Claudia Silvana. Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina; ArgentinaAbstract: Several studies suggest a link between fiction reading and Theory of Mind, a component of cognitive empathy which refers to the ability to understand other people’s mental and affective states. More frequent fiction readers perform better in tasks that require inference of intentions or emotions in others, like the Reading the Mind in the Eyes task. In addition, subjects who read a fiction text obtain better scores than controls reading non-fiction. Since most of this research has been conducted on caucasic subjects, cross-cultural replication of the effect is still needed. The present study is the first to investigate the subject in a Latin American sample (208 adults -137 females-, ranging from 18 to 59 years old (M= 27.66). We replicated the association between lifelong exposure to print fiction and performance in the Reading the Mind in the eyes task, but the effect was only significant in men. The association remained significant after controlling for age, education level and self-reported Trait Empathy scores. The results are congruent with the hypothesis that reading promotes Theory of Mind ability by engaging mentalizing processes in order to represent the thoughts and feelings of fictional characters. The sex difference we observed had not been reported before and requires further replication and analysis.Asociación de Análisis del Comportamiento2018info:eu-repo/semantics/articleinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersionhttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501info:ar-repo/semantics/articuloapplication/pdfhttps://repositorio.uca.edu.ar/handle/123456789/8560https://www.ijpsy.com/volumen18/num3/501.html1577-7057Tabullo AJ, Navas-Jiménez VA, & García CS (2018). Associations between Fiction Reading, Trait Empathy and Theory of Mind Ability [en línea]. International Journal of Psychology & Psychological Therapy, 18(3). Disponible en: https://repositorio.uca.edu.ar/handle/123456789/8560International Journal of Psychology & Psychological Therapy, 18(3), 2018reponame:Repositorio Institucional (UCA)instname:Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentinaenginfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccesshttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/2025-07-03T10:56:52Zoai:ucacris:123456789/8560instacron:UCAInstitucionalhttps://repositorio.uca.edu.ar/Universidad privadaNo correspondehttps://repositorio.uca.edu.ar/oaiclaudia_fernandez@uca.edu.arArgentinaNo correspondeNo correspondeNo correspondeopendoar:25852025-07-03 10:56:52.449Repositorio Institucional (UCA) - Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentinafalse
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Associations between fiction reading, trait empathy and theory of mind ability
title Associations between fiction reading, trait empathy and theory of mind ability
spellingShingle Associations between fiction reading, trait empathy and theory of mind ability
Tabullo, Ángel Javier
EMPATIA
LECTURA
FICCION
TEORIA DE LA MENTE
title_short Associations between fiction reading, trait empathy and theory of mind ability
title_full Associations between fiction reading, trait empathy and theory of mind ability
title_fullStr Associations between fiction reading, trait empathy and theory of mind ability
title_full_unstemmed Associations between fiction reading, trait empathy and theory of mind ability
title_sort Associations between fiction reading, trait empathy and theory of mind ability
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Tabullo, Ángel Javier
Navas Jiménez, Violeta Araceli
García, Claudia Silvana
author Tabullo, Ángel Javier
author_facet Tabullo, Ángel Javier
Navas Jiménez, Violeta Araceli
García, Claudia Silvana
author_role author
author2 Navas Jiménez, Violeta Araceli
García, Claudia Silvana
author2_role author
author
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv EMPATIA
LECTURA
FICCION
TEORIA DE LA MENTE
topic EMPATIA
LECTURA
FICCION
TEORIA DE LA MENTE
dc.description.none.fl_txt_mv Fil: Tabullo, Ángel Javier. Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias Económicas; Argentina
Fil: Tabullo, Ángel Javier. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina
Fil: Navas Jiménez, Violeta Araceli. Universidad de Mendoza; Argentina
Fil: García, Claudia Silvana. Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina; Argentina
Abstract: Several studies suggest a link between fiction reading and Theory of Mind, a component of cognitive empathy which refers to the ability to understand other people’s mental and affective states. More frequent fiction readers perform better in tasks that require inference of intentions or emotions in others, like the Reading the Mind in the Eyes task. In addition, subjects who read a fiction text obtain better scores than controls reading non-fiction. Since most of this research has been conducted on caucasic subjects, cross-cultural replication of the effect is still needed. The present study is the first to investigate the subject in a Latin American sample (208 adults -137 females-, ranging from 18 to 59 years old (M= 27.66). We replicated the association between lifelong exposure to print fiction and performance in the Reading the Mind in the eyes task, but the effect was only significant in men. The association remained significant after controlling for age, education level and self-reported Trait Empathy scores. The results are congruent with the hypothesis that reading promotes Theory of Mind ability by engaging mentalizing processes in order to represent the thoughts and feelings of fictional characters. The sex difference we observed had not been reported before and requires further replication and analysis.
description Fil: Tabullo, Ángel Javier. Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias Económicas; Argentina
publishDate 2018
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2018
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501
info:ar-repo/semantics/articulo
format article
status_str publishedVersion
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv https://repositorio.uca.edu.ar/handle/123456789/8560
https://www.ijpsy.com/volumen18/num3/501.html
1577-7057
Tabullo AJ, Navas-Jiménez VA, & García CS (2018). Associations between Fiction Reading, Trait Empathy and Theory of Mind Ability [en línea]. International Journal of Psychology & Psychological Therapy, 18(3). Disponible en: https://repositorio.uca.edu.ar/handle/123456789/8560
url https://repositorio.uca.edu.ar/handle/123456789/8560
https://www.ijpsy.com/volumen18/num3/501.html
identifier_str_mv 1577-7057
Tabullo AJ, Navas-Jiménez VA, & García CS (2018). Associations between Fiction Reading, Trait Empathy and Theory of Mind Ability [en línea]. International Journal of Psychology & Psychological Therapy, 18(3). Disponible en: https://repositorio.uca.edu.ar/handle/123456789/8560
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv eng
language eng
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
rights_invalid_str_mv https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv application/pdf
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv Asociación de Análisis del Comportamiento
publisher.none.fl_str_mv Asociación de Análisis del Comportamiento
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv International Journal of Psychology & Psychological Therapy, 18(3), 2018
reponame:Repositorio Institucional (UCA)
instname:Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina
reponame_str Repositorio Institucional (UCA)
collection Repositorio Institucional (UCA)
instname_str Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina
repository.name.fl_str_mv Repositorio Institucional (UCA) - Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina
repository.mail.fl_str_mv claudia_fernandez@uca.edu.ar
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score 13.13397