study on literary fiction | Shaila Abdullah

Another reference to the Washington and Lee University research study done on Saffron Dreams, this time by the Association of Psychological Science Observer. See an excerpt below:

According to a study led by psychology researcher Dan Johnson, the exploration of fictional characters’ inner lives may even help counter certain racial, ethnic, and cultural biases. Johnson, an assistant professor of psychology at Washington and Lee University, assigned a subset of 68 study participants to read an excerpt from the 2009 novel Saffron Dreams by Shaila Abdullah. The story’s protagonist, a counter-stereotypical Muslim woman, is attacked by a group of male teenagers who spew racial and ethnic slurs at her. The other participants simply read a synopsis of the excerpt, devoid of descriptive prose and dialogue.

Next, the researchers showed the participants a series of pictures of ambiguous-race faces and asked them to rate them as either Arab, Caucasian, mixed but mostly Arab, or mixed but mostly Caucasian.

The participants who read the actual excerpt were more likely than the synopsis readers to categorize people as mixed race, rather than identifying them as either Arab or Caucasian. In essence, racial categories became less salient for them after they read Abdullah’s story.

In a second experiment, Johnson and his colleagues recruited 110 students online and had them read either the excerpt of the novel, a brief synopsis, or a separate piece about the history of the automobile. Afterwards, the participants viewed 12 images of the ambiguous-race faces expressing varying levels of anger. Again, the students were asked to assign each face to one of the same four categories used in the earlier study. Participants who read the synopsis or the history piece tended to categorize the most intensely angry faces as Arab. But those who read Abdullah’s narrative showed no such bias.

This led Johnson and his team to conclude that artfully written, evocative fiction helps people identify with characters from different cultures — and thus disrupts readers’ tendency to stereotype and judge.

SD-cover Most of us grew up hearing that reading broadens a person’s perspective. Now a study proves that reading literary fiction like my 2009 book Saffron Dreams can make someone less racist.

The study titled Changing Race Boundary Perception by Reading Narrative Fiction led by psychologist Dan Johnson along with a research team from Washington and Lee University appeared in Basic and Applied Social Psychology journal. The study shows that reading a snippet of Saffron Dreams produced two welcome results. Readers were more likely to categorize people as mixed-race, rather than forcing them into specific racial categories. They were also less likely to associate angry faces with disliked outsider groups. Read the remarkable findings at Pacific Standard and Bustle.

Excerpt from the study is below:

Johnson and his colleagues describe two experiments that incorporated a 3,000-word extract from Shaila Abdullah’s 2009 novel Saffron Dreams. It revolves around “an educated and strong-willed Muslim woman, Arissa, who is assaulted in a New York City subway station,” the researchers write. The excerpt features “significant inner monologue that accentuates the protagonist’s strength of character while providing exposure to Muslim culture.”

Participants in the first experiment (68 Americans recruited online) read either the aforementioned excerpt, or a 500-word synopsis of the same scene. In the synopsis, “the descriptive language, monologue, and dialogue were removed to reduce the narrative quality,” the researchers note. They then viewed a series of ambiguous-race faces, and rated them on a four-point scale: (1) Arab, (2) mixed, more Arab than Caucasian, (3) mixed, more Caucasian than Arab, or (4) Caucasian. Those who read the rich, detailed narrative “made significantly fewer categorical race judgments” compared to those who simply read the synopsis. They also “reported significantly higher genetic overlap between Arabs and Caucasians,” which suggested their racial boundary lines were less rigid and distinct.

The second experiment featured 110 people similarly recruited online. They read either the aforementioned excerpt from the novel, the brief synopsis thereof, or an unrelated piece, “a brief history of the automobile.” Afterwards, all examined 12 images of the ambiguous Arab-Caucasian faces “with varying levels of anger expression.” They were instructed to classify them on the same four-point scale. Expressions of high-intensity anger led participants who read either the synopsis, or the history of the car, to “disproportionately categorize faces as Arab,” the researchers report. But this bias was absent among those who read Abdullah’s narrative.

“Narrative fiction offers a rich context in which exposure to out-group culture and (a process of emotional) merging can occur,” the researchers conclude. “Supporting this notion, there is growing evidence that reading a story engages many of the same neural networks involved in empathy.” It all suggests there’s something about well-written, sensitive fiction that draws us in and lets us identify with the characters—even if they’re from a foreign culture. This, in turn, short-circuits our tendency to stereotype.

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