According to Health News, about 100 people were asked to watch either a television drama series like (Scandal or Orange is the New Black) or a documentary-style show (Boston Med or Shark Week) before taking a psychological test used by experts to measure emotional intelligence. The test asked the takers to look at photos of different eyes and the researchers then decoded the emotions behind each pair. They repeated the experiment, only changing up the shows (Criminal Minds or Mythbuster or American Experience) for better measure. The authors found a similar result to a widely reported 2013 study that claimed that reading literary fiction is associated with better scores on this empathy-measuring test.
The result, those who'd watched the fictional shows did better on this test than those who'd watched the non-fiction ones. The same thing happened for those who watched any shows before taking the test versus those who watched nothing beforehand. The study authors say that fictional narratives somehow force the viewer to consider a problem from various angles. Since not every character's emotion is directly shown, the audience has to do some creative mental work to fill in those spaces, making a guess at the inner lives and thoughts of the character in the process. In other words, when you watch a really intriguing, emotional show, you get to practice to sympathize with others.
Is it really surprising that people might be in a more empathetic state mood after trying to figure out what is going on in Olivia Pope's thoughts than they would be after watching a Shark Week?
What does that really tell us? Does it really help us feel more?
