"A queer space rock of color punches out a racist pig"

Revising the Paradox of Fiction and Reshaping Narrative Empathy and Activism Through the Case of Children's TV Show Steven Universe

Abstract

Narrative fiction has long been investigated as a source of empathy, but there is much debate over whether empathy for fictional characters can translate to real-life acts of altruism or decreases in stigma—a problem known as the paradox of fiction. Drawing on current work in psychology and literary studies, this paper reviews theories of narrative empathy and readdresses the paradox of fiction by introducing a four-part theory of narrative empathy as follows: (1) audiences come into situations with a set of beliefs, which they will use as a lens to take the perspective of fictional characters, (2) taking the perspective of a sympathetic character that belongs to a stigmatized group humanizes the character and the social group they belong to, which thus affords the priming of changing stigmatized beliefs, (3) the primed destigmatized beliefs manifest into reality through audience interaction and discussion of the belief, of which facilitates and cements the belief through its emergence as social proof, and (4) the beliefs supported by social proof become avenues for actions in real life by revising our previously held beliefs. Preliminary evidence for this theory is provided through the case of online-facilitated fan discussion of children’s TV show Steven Universe. In the process, this paper also argues that entertainment fiction can be a particularly strong agent of social change, as its perceived surface-level lack of affective and material costs invites audiences to engage with it, unlike perhaps more directly demanding activist campaigns, and thus deserves further investigation by fields studying narrative empathy.

Keywords: Narrative empathy, paradox of fiction, stigma, altruism, online fandom, Steven Universe