5 What can I learn from a villain?
In this week you have so far looked at hanging out with fictional characters largely from the point of view of the risks such friendships might entail. However, research evidence suggests that in fact there might be plenty of benefits from our villainous friendships, and that we can learn from fictional villains through the act of taking their perspective. It is also possible that this perspective taking might have impacts for us in the real world.
In Zoë’s own research (Walkington, Ashton Wigman and Bowles, 2020), people either read two chapters of a novel that was about a fictional character who had a drink and drug problem, or they read a factual account containing the same information. Following the reading, participants took a questionnaire regarding their empathy levels and were then presented with a short case study about another offender. They were told that that this offender had carried out a robbery in a shopping centre and knocked over an elderly citizen during the escape, all while under the influence of drink and drugs. The participants who read the fictional group, particularly those who were the most transported into the story world, were more likely to select empathic questions to ask the offender and showed higher levels of empathy in general on the questionnaire. Empathic questions were questions like ‘I understand that the situation you find yourself in in this interview must be very difficult for you, and I am happy to give you time to consider your responses so please do not rush’. This research suggests that by reading fictional accounts about offenders, our empathy towards such marginalized groups can be improved. This might have all sorts of benefits within society in terms of, for example, improving relationships with, and empathy towards, ex-offenders in the community.
Similar findings have been obtained by other researchers who have looked at how literature might lead to the reduction of prejudice. Following the release of the seven Harry Potter books by JK Rowling, a plethora of research followed that investigated various aspects of the novels, which are not only understood as fantasy books with magic, romance and adventure at their centre, but also as detective stories (Saunders, 2020). The novels drew particular attention because they are full of social groupings and hierarchies, with all the attendant prejudice you might expect in the real-world also being paralleled in the books. Stigmatised groups within the stories include ‘muggles’ who are non-magical individuals, elves (who are servants or slaves of wizards) and ‘mud-bloods’ or ‘half-bloods’ who are witches and wizards born out of a family with one magical and one non-magical parent. Researchers Vezalli et al. (2015) found that reading these novels improved attitudes to real world stigmatised groups, such as immigrants and refugees, but interestingly this was only the case when the children identified with Harry. Those that identified with Voldemort showed no effect, which led Wimmer et al. (2021) to conclude that identification is more likely to improve moral cognition that impair it, because while identifying with the hero had a positive impact by reducing prejudice, identifying with the villain did not have a negative impact. This research of course considered prejudice rather than empathy or self-concept (which this course has focused on), but gives a further illustration of the plethora of research that has been carried out into studying our relationships with fictional characters.