Evaluating whether stories can promote social cognition: Introducing the Social Processes and Content Entrained by Narrative (SPaCEN) framework

Stories have long been theorized to influence how we perceive our social world and our peers. Empirical research on this topic has begun to grow, with many studies exploring how stories and social cognition relate, across a range of different approaches. In order to structure past work and guide future investigations, this article presents a research framework that formalizes how, when, andwhy engagement with storiesmight promote social cognition. This Social Processes and Content Entrained by Narrative (SPaCEN) framework posits that stories could bolster social cognition either through (1) frequent engagement of social-cognitive processes or (2) the presentation of explicit content about social relations and the social world. These two accounts are not mutually exclusive, and both rest on different sets of necessary tenets. An example is provided to illustrate the utility of this framework, evaluating the extant work on whether exposure to stories can improve mentalizing. Can stories promote social cognition? Theorists have long posited that stories might present a powerful influence on our lives, with fictional narratives likely to affect howwe think and feel about the real-world (Hakemulder, 2000; Oatley, 1999). The idea dates as far back as the time of Aristotle (350 BCE/1987), who wrote a treatise on drama in which he theorized that narratives can teach us about reality. For Aristotle, narratives were any form of language that both represents the real-world and provides an experience that mimics our actual experiences in the world. Notably, Aristotle was explicit in stating that this could occur regardless of whether the narrative has any basis in true past events (i.e., is fictional or nonfictional). For many subsequent thinkers, stories hold an attractive potential to help us better understand others, encouraging us to empathize and thereby act more morally (Hakemulder, 2000; Nussbaum, 1995). This article presents a research framework for evaluating the empirical evidence that stories might aid social cognition, which refers to the accurate processing and application of valid social information. This framework is based on two possible accounts of how such facilitation might occur: (1) stories may evoke social processes that are then improved through practice or (2) stories may present social content that is then learned and applied. Reflecting these two accounts, this framework is henceforth referred to as the Social Processes and Content Entrained by Narrative (SPaCEN) framework. The Social Process account is based on three central tenets. If social processes are improved via narrative engagement, then the followingmust be true: (1) storiesmust represent the social world, (2) social processes must be engaged by stories, and (3) these social processes must be improved by frequent engagement. Similarly, if social content is learned from narratives, then (1) stories must contain accurate social content, (2) this content must be learned during story comprehension, and (3) this content must be applied in the real-world (see Figure 1). This framework formalizes and specifies the theoretical arguments CONTACT Raymond A. Mar [email protected] Psychology, York University, 4700 Keele St. W., Toronto, ON, Canada Color versions of one or more of the figures in the article can be found online at www.tandfonline.com/hdsp. © 2018 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC DISCOURSE PROCESSES https://doi.org/10.1080/0163853X.2018.1448209