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theses

Empathy is crucial for understanding human social relationships. Research examining the factors that influence empathy can provide valuable insight into the ways in which empathy can be deepened. Some researchers have hypothesized that fiction exposure is one route to improving empathy and theory of mind. This study assessed linguistic markers linked to empathy in a large group of avid fiction readers who have submitted book reviews on the online social media site Goodreads.com. My goal was to investigate a relation between fiction exposure and increases in empathy. Previous research has demonstrated that the use of third person pronouns (e.g. “he” and “she”) in Facebook posts is negatively correlated with empathy scores on the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (Davis, 1983), (Otterbacher et al. 2017). The use of other linguistic markers, punctuation and writing in the present-tense, in Facebook posts were positively correlated with empathy. In this study, I used the frequency of these three linguistic markers in book reviews to assess empathy. I made use of a longitudinal data set in which people write reviews of numerous books over time. l allowed an assessment of changes in words associated with empathy as a function of books reviewed. This study features a large sample size (e.g. 100,000 book reviewers) and change measured over years. Findings indicate correlations between the number of reviews a person has written and the percentage of each review that reflects words associated with empathy. Participants were more likely to use the punctuation category, which is associated with greater empathy, in their reviews as a function of reading more books. Other word categories like the “he/she” pronoun and present tense verbiage were not found to be used more or less often as fiction exposure progressed.

ETD_10968

M.A.

Includes bibliographical references

doi:10.7282/t3-3v3h-9345

ETD graduate

The author owns the copyright to this work.