AUTHOR=Sopcak Paul , Kuiken Don , Douglas Shawn 

TITLE=Existential reflection and morality

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Communication

VOLUME=Volume 7 - 2022

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/communication/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2022.991774

DOI=10.3389/fcomm.2022.991774

ISSN=2297-900X

ABSTRACT=This paper presents a series of three studies describing how reading literature promotes empathy and moral outcomes. We add three contrasts to this field of empirical study: a) an explanatory and interpretative form of reading engagement (Integrative Comprehension) is contrasted with an expressive and explicative form of aesthetic reading engagement (Expressive Enactment); b) within that contrast, a passively explanatory and interpretive form of cognitive perspective-taking is distinguished from an actively expressive and explicative form of empathy; and c) as potential effects of these contrasting forms of reading engagement, we distinguish local forms of moral outcome (involving changes in attitude toward a specific group or outgroup) from global forms of moral outcome (involving an expansive, self- and other-directed respect for humanity). These contrasts are clarified and contextualized within existential-phenomenological discussions of sense-giving lived experience, agency, and morality. In conclusion, we offer a framework that specifies the potential impact on well-being of a form of literary reading that involves existential reflection, especially as conceived within the emerging field of existential positive psychology.