Tales of the Imagination
We constantly use our imagination to understand stories. When we read a book or watch a movie, we use our imagination to comprehend the plot and connect with the characters. Every now and then, when our mind is deeply immersed in watching a favorite television show or while reading an exciting novel, we may forget what is happening around us. Psychologists call this phenomenon “transportation,” a state where you feel transported into a story world, or at least, in the version of the story world that your mind has created.
At first glance, it may seem difficult to study this phenomenon scientifically. Indeed, measuring transportation is not as straightforward as measuring the height and width of a box. However, psychologists have developed a questionnaire to measure the tendency to get lost in stories called the Story World Absorption Scale. In this questionnaire, people are asked to agree or disagree with statements such as “the story world sometimes felt closer to me than the world around me” or “I felt for what happened in the story.”¹ Other techniques, such as heart rate monitoring, can also be used to measure audience absorption. Interestingly, with these measurements, researchers found that peoples’ imagination was more active while listening to audiobooks than when they were watching the movie version of the same story.² Which may be due to the fact that listening to a story requires more active imagination compared to watching a movie.
Your absorption in stories is also closely linked with the concept of “flow.” Flow is the positive feeling you have when you are actively engaged and completely immersed in a task, it was first studied by the creativity researcher Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. You can get lost in various activities such as sports, creating art, or working on something you love. Curiously, reading books is one of the most profound flow experiences.³
But why do people seek immersive experiences and love to get lost in imaginative worlds? One of the most common explanations is for escapism or mood regulation. For example, when we feel down, we may want to read funny and happy stories to make ourselves feel better.⁴ However, this may not be the only reason.
Fiction, more than any other art form, has the power to put yourself in someone else’s shoes. This phenomenon fosters empathy and connection with people that are different from you. In fact, exposure to fiction is associated with having better social skills and with more accurately perceiving what others are thinking and feeling.⁵ In some cases, fiction can even foster compassion more than real-life experiences. One study noticed that children of different ethnicities have better attitudes toward each other when reading a story together, compared to when they collaborate on a task.⁶
How do compassion, imagination, and immersion relate to each other? It all relates back to the brain areas that control these abilities. Much still needs to be discovered but researchers found that some brain areas involved when you are mind-wandering are associated with the capacity to simulate someone else’s thoughts and feelings. In other words, when you daydream, certain areas of your brain are used, and those same areas are utilized to help put yourself in someone else's shoes.⁷ Scientists also noticed that people who are more open to new experiences—a personality trait typically associated with curiosity, fantasy, and transportation—tend to be also more empathetic.⁸ Therefore, immersion and imagination could be the missing pieces to better understanding people’s empathy. As DeYoung puts it: “in order to really be able to empathize with somebody else, you have to imagine what their experience is like.”⁹
Being immersed in a story is not simply an act of escapism, it can shape your imagination, and your ability to empathize with others. The stories you love can reveal a lot about yourself and others, so it is worth giving them closer attention… which stories move you the most?
Further Reading
1. Kuijpers, M. M., Hakemulder, F., Tan, E. S., & Doicaru, M. M. (2014). Exploring absorbing reading experiences: Developing and validating a self-report scale to measure story world absorption. Scientific Study of Literature, 4(1), 89–122. 2. Richardson, D. C., Griffin, N. K., Zaki, L., Stephenson, A., Yan, J., Curry, T., Noble, R., Hogan, J., Skipper, J. I., & Devlin, J. T. (2020). Engagement in video and audio narratives: Contrasting self-report and physiological measures. Scientific Reports, 10(1), 11298. 3. Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly. (1990). Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. Journal of Leisure Research, 24(1), 93–94. 4. Green, M. C., Brock, T. C., Kaufman, G.F. (2004) Understanding Media Enjoyment: The Role of Transportation Into Narrative Worlds. Communication Theory, 14(40), 311–327. 5. Turner, R., & Felisberti, F. M. (2018). Relationships between fiction media, genre, and empathic abilities. Scientific Study of Literature, 8(2), 261–292. 6. Katz, P. A., & Zalk, S. R. (1978). Modification of children's racial attitudes. Developmental Psychology, 14(5), 447–461. 7. DeYoung, C. G., Hirsh, J. B., Shane, M. S., Papademetris, X., Rajeevan, N., & Gray, J. R. (2010). Testing Predictions From Personality Neuroscience: Brain Structure and the Big Five. Psychological Science, 21(6), 820–828. 8. DeYoung, C. G. (2010). Toward a Theory of the Big Five Psychological Inquiry, 21(1), 26–33. 9. Kaufman, S.B. (Host). (2018, April 3). Cybernetics and the Science of Personality with Colin DeYoung (No. 124) [Audio podcast episode]. The Psychology Podcast. Stitcher.
About the Author
Matteo Antona is a Visual-Creative Researcher and VFX Artist based in London. His research focuses on the relationship between the psychological state of transportation in fictional experiences and imagination.