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Attending live theatre improves empathy, changes attitudes, and leads to pro-social behavior. An extensive research article on this subject by Steve Rathjea, Leor Hackelb, and Jamil Zakic was published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology (#95) in the spring of 2021. If you want to read the entire research, you can find a link to the PDF on the bottom of this article. Here now just a quick overview to introduce you to the valuable work which has been done by the researchers.
At the Tony Awards in 2018, actor John Leguizamo said in his acceptance speech, “Theatre teaches us how to understand other people — how to feel empathy for those unlike us.”
Theatre has been a part of people’s lives for millennia. However, currently, the future of the art form is uncertain. Theatre companies across the globe have shut down due to the Covid19 pandemic. Many are now gradually re-opening. But not all of them.
On top of these more recent, acute issues, financial considerations have many times been an issue.
Over the years there have been frequent debates in many countries about how much money their governments should spend to fund the arts.
Another recurring question in these public debates was to what extent schools should make the arts a part of their curriculums.
Many advocates of the arts argue – like John Leguizamo – that exposure to the performing arts (and all arts for this matter) can lead to increases in empathy or generosity. However, overall, globally, there is so far little experimental evidence to support these claims.
Thus, Rathjea, Hackelb, and Zakic launched their research project. They were backed by the University of Cambridge, the University of Southern California, and Stanford University.
The three scientists tested this question across three field studies.
They randomly assigned audience members to complete surveys either before or after seeing plays. Then, they measured the effects of the plays on empathy, attitudes, and pro-social behavior.
After, as compared to before seeing the plays, most individuals reported a greater empathy for social groups depicted in the shows.
Often, after seeing the shows, the opinions of the audience members became more tolerant. There seemed to be a clear influence on their socio-political views.
People ended up donating more money to charities which were related to the shows. In fact, they even ended up donating more money to charities entirely unrelated to the shows they had been seeing.
This led the researchers to strongly assume that theatre had a rather general pro-social effect on people.
All findings suggest that theatre is much more than ‘just’ entertainment. Watching it and engaging with it can lead to a clear increase in empathy and compassion.
It does remain unknown whether consuming theatre has a similar effect on empathy as performing it or creating it does.
It may seem that actors conducting research into their role and reading about characters like those they are supposed to portray will be touched far more deeply than those who will later watch their portrayals on stage.
Reading fiction, for example, also has an immense impact on people. Because novels often provide details about a person’s mental life which in everyday life, we will not be able to grasp and be aware of to such an extent.
Reading a novel involves active imaginative processes in the reader.
It is not quite sure, how far these imaginative processes are engaged in spectators of performances they are experiencing merely by seeing and hearing it.
One thing that stood out in Rathjea, Hackelb, and Zakic’s research was that the improvement of empathy and the changes of attitudes directly correlated to how deeply the audience was touched.
We can only hope that more in depth research like this one will be done in the future to provide further undeniable proof that the arts enrich our lives and make us better human beings.
Given the importance of theatre and the arts to the lives of so many, now as well as throughout the history of our species, this topic warrants much further study within the field of psychology.
Thank you so much to Steve Rathjea, Leor Hackelb, and Jamil Zakic for their hard work and amazing insights.
Their research article has been published here, on ScienceDirect.com
(free PDF download of the entire research paper available on the page)
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Liam Klenk was born in Central Europe and has since lived on four continents. Liam has always been engaged in creative pursuits, ranging from photography and graphic design, to writing short stories and poetry, to working in theatre and shows. In 2016, Liam published his first book and memoir, 'Paralian'.
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