Article Preview
TopIntroduction
There is increasing evidence that fiction experiences, including reading books, watching movies and going to the theatre, may have real effects on people’s lives (Green & Brock, 2000). We define fiction broadly as ‘something created by the human mind’ (Phillips, 1995), and serves to differentiate between history (i.e., that what has happened) and fiction (i.e., all that may happen). Fiction does not only offer the opportunity to provide entertainment and distraction from daily life, but also has the potential for evoking inspiration, imagination and empathy (Bal & Veltkamp, 2013). For instance, empirical research has shown that fiction reading may enhance empathic skills (Kidd & Castano, 2013) and theory of mind (Mar, 2011). Recently, there has been some first theoretical and empirical work on how fiction reading may influence people in their work behaviors (Bal, Butterman, & Bakker, 2011; Brokerhof, Bal, Jansen, & Solinger, 2018; Hakemulder, Fialho, & Bal, 2016). This is an important avenue for research on fiction, as non-work experiences and activities may have profound effects on how people feel, think and behave at work (Sonnentag, 2003).
However, there is still limited understanding of how fiction may have an effect on people’s work behaviors and how fiction may alter understandings of the workplace itself. This is important as fiction and its proposed effects on empathy have the possibility to change people’s lives, which is needed in the contemporary times, where workplaces are becoming increasingly unsustainable as a result of the current dominant economic system, and therefore postulating the crucial role of new ideas to organize workplaces and society (Bal, 2017; Donaldson & Walsh, 2015). A fundamental issue here pertains to the distinction between fiction and reality. An expectation that fiction could affect the way in which people perceive the workplace and themselves in relation to their work, also implies an assumption that the world of fiction has the potential to be translated into the real world. Yet, at the same time, the current paper builds on the work of Bruner (1986), in which the distinctions between reality and fiction become increasingly blurry. In a socially constructed and post-truth world, it is no longer straightforward to distinguish between what has been made up and constitutes the fictional aspects of imagination, and what is real and ‘factual’. For instance, the impact of climate change on everyday life is constructed to be a combination of both real (e.g., wildfires, droughts, and floods) and fictional or imagined (the end of planet earth) stories, thereby making it increasingly difficult to assess the true nature of things in life and society. It is therefore needed to critically assess what fiction really represents in relation to people’s lives, and what role it plays in relation to the workplace.
The paper pays specifically attention to the role of empathy, as empathy allows people to connect their own feelings with other people and to establish real, meaningful connections with other people (Bal & Veltkamp, 2013; Davis, 1983). In this paper, empathy is defined as the intellectual and cognitive abilities to recognize emotions of other people, and to respond emotionally to others (Davis, 1983; Grandey, 2000). Empathy is important in society and the workplace, as within any society and workplace, it is the relationships between people that matter and form the foundation of social life and morality (De Waal, 2009). Without empathy, people cannot effectively function within society and form emotional bonds with others. The question therefore, is, how empathy can be nourished in workplaces, and in particular whether fiction has the possibility to enhance empathy in the workplace (Brokerhof et al., 2018). The paper focuses in particular on the role of ideology in fiction and empathy, and how fiction may help readers to become aware of and critique dominant ideologies and systems and thereby overcome the limitations of ideological empathy.