Two words: Fiction and empathy.
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Let’s talk about empathy. Maybe we should start with a definition. Here’s a short one, courtesy of the Oxford Dictionary: “the ability to understand and share the feelings, experiences, or thoughts of another person.”
Develop empathy, and you’re more likely to develop emotional intelligence.
In business, you’re more likely to understand customer needs. And you’re more likely to become more persuasive, and maybe better at sales.
Now, a new study out of Ohio State says that there’s a surprising way to train yourself to become more empathetic.
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Mary and the puppy
It’s one that a lot of people get a lot of enjoyment out of, too: reading fiction, especially fiction that employs something called “internal focalization,” which is when a story gives the reader access to the characters’ inner thoughts, and especially when those thoughts are about regret.
Writing in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, senior author Angus Fletcher, PhD, and social psychologist Mark Matthews, PhD, conducted three studies that involved 1,563 people.
Specifically, they came up with a story about a child named Mary who watched as her puppy was hit by a car, and swore off having another pet until age 85, when she adopted another dog to heal her grief.