The Function of Fiction is the Abstraction and Simulation of Social Experience

By Raymond A. Mar, Keith Oatley. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 2008

1,120 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Subfields: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology, Literature and Literary Theory, Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/c31c71fb2d12acc3b6ee37295171ea57d47f53cd

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In Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

In Literature and Literary Theory

In Social Psychology

Citations in the corpus

Stories and the Promotion of Social Cognition (2018, background): “…representations of real-world situations and individuals, stories could support “the recording, abstraction, and communication of complex social information in a manner that offers [imagined] personal enactments of experience, rendering it more comprehensible” (Mar & Oatley, 2008, p. 173).”
Theory of Mind: a Hidden Factor in Reading Comprehension? (2018, background): “These authors hypothesize that reading fiction may promote ToM because it provides readers with a simulated experience of social interactions (Mar and Oatley 2008).”
Transportation into a story increases empathy, prosocial behavior, and perceptual bias toward fearful expressions (2012, background): “Theorists from various disciplines propose positive functions of reading fiction including educational and moral development (Alexander, Miller, & Hengst, 2001; Vitz, 1990) and empathy development (Keen, 2007; Mar & Oatley, 2008).”
Effects of "literariness" on emotions and on empathy and reflection after reading (2016, background): “Reading a literary text in which metaphors are naturally incorporated may require more attention and engagement and may therefore be more likely to have effects (cf., Mar & Oatley, 2008).”
Effects of Literature on Empathy and Self-Reflection: A Theoretical-Empirical Framework (2015, positive): “Mar and Oatley (2008) suggest that human interaction is the most central aspect to literary reading, since »literary narratives fundamentally deal with relationships among individuals and the navigation of conflicting desires« (ibid., 174).”
Experience sampling during fMRI reveals default network and executive system contributions to mind wandering (2009, background): “Also, a similar parallel recruitment of executive and default regions has also been observed during naturalistic film viewing (63), which is related to immersive simulative mental experience (64).”
Empathy: a motivated account. (2014, neutral): “…le is in te nd ed so le ly fo r th e pe rs on al us e of th e in di vi du al us er an d is no t to be di ss em in at ed br oa dl y. for instance, through reading fiction, can enhance both mentalizing and experience sharing (Kidd & Castano, 2013; Mar & Oatley, 2008; Mar, Tackett, & Moore, 2010).”
How listening to music and engagement with other media provide a sense of belonging: An exploratory study of social surrogacy (2018, background): “Broad overviews (Cohen, 2006; Gardner et al., 2005) as well as empirical reports from different research domains such as literature, TV, or emotion regulation (Derrick et al., 2008; Mar & Oatley, 2008; Saarikallio & Erkkilä, 2007) built the basis of the thematic analysis.”
What You Read Matters: The Role of Fiction Genre in Predicting Interpersonal Sensitivity (2013, background): “It has been suggested that narrative fiction provides a simulation of social relationships and interactions (Mar & Oatley, 2008), which helps to maintain and improve social skills (Mar et al., 2006; 2009; Mar, Tackett, & Moore, 2010).”
Different stories: How levels of familiarity with literary and genre fiction relate to mentalizing. (2017, background): “Although nearly all fiction may provide a basis for simulated social experiences (Koopman & Hakemulder, 2015; Mar & Oatley, 2008), the present findings suggest that literary fiction is most likely to prompt readers to rely extensively on ToM, leading them to more fully recruit ToM-related…”
Exploring the link between reading fiction and empathy: Ruling out individual differences and examining outcomes (2009, background): “Stories thus appear to offer us a deeply-felt simulation of social experience (Oatley, 1999) that may hold real consequences for our actual social world (Mar and Oatley, 2008; Mar, Oatley, and Djikic, 2008).”
You are who you watch: Identification and transportation effects on temporary self-concept (2010, background): “Entertainment media is essentially a series of simulated situations (Mar & Oatley, 2008 ).”
The pleasure of unadulterated sadness: Experiencing sorrow in fiction, nonfiction, and "in person." (2009, background): “Fiction abstracts, simplifies, and compresses real life to elicit strong emotions in the audience ( Mar & Oatley, 2008 ).”
The neurobiology of language beyond single words. (2014, result): “This finding might come as no surprise because the motivations, goals, and desires of fictional characters are likely accessed in a manner similar to that of real-life protagonists (Mar & Oatley 2008).”
Narrative Identity: What Is It? What Does It Do? How Do You Measure It? (2018, methodology): “In the first version of a life story interview, McAdams (1985) repurposed the standard TAT instructions to apply to the narratives respondents might provide of key autobiographical memories, such as life-story high points, low points, and turning points as well as other prompts.”