Mechanisms by which narrative media facilitates practical wisdom in audience members: Insights from media psychology

ABSTRACT

Philosophers and moral educators have examined the potential for narrative media (e.g., novels or films) to influence the development of practical wisdom (the forms of perception and reasoning necessary for virtuous living). Interest in studying this relationship using social scientific methodology is growing. One social science discipline with relevant insights that have not yet been explored is media psychology, a subdiscipline in communication that empirically studies the effects of narrative media. Drawing on media psychology research, this paper proposes a model of one process by which narratives can help us develop practical wisdom. Developing certain functions of practical wisdom involves increasing our sensitivity to types of morally relevant features (MRFs) that we normally miss (i.e., increasing the accessibility of those features). The proposed model explains how, under the right conditions, narratives can influence the accessibility of a given type of MRF. Implications for operationalizing narrative effects on practical wisdom are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Practical wisdom
• narrative
• media psychology
• moral perception
• moral development

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to Christian B. Miller, Eranda Jayawickreme, and four anonymous reviewers for their feedback on earlier drafts.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Miller also identifies a third position, the fragmentation model, but knows of no one who holds this position (2021, pp. 54, 67).

2. For a review of the limitations and issues with the extant social scientific accounts of practical wisdom, see, Lapsley (2021).

3. It should be noted that although the abstract ideal is for all morally relevant features to stand out to us, the reality is that we are all bound by the constraints of culture and available information (Wright et al., 2020, p. 225). Special thanks to an anonymous reviewer for noting this qualification.

4. The words ‘consider’ and ‘reasoning’ are not intended to imply that conscious attention is a necessary condition of practical wisdom. While practical wisdom may at times involve conscious reasoning, it can also consist of mental processes that take place below the threshold of consciousness.

5. Two differences between Tamborini and colleagues (2021a, 2021b) understanding of moral judgment and practical wisdom’s approach should be noted. First, most media psychologists in this area are working from a social intuitionist framework of moral judgment (Haidt, 2001). A full discussion of the relationship between this approach and the standard model of practical wisdom is beyond the scope of this paper (for such a discussion, see, Kristjánsson, 2022). Second, media psychology views the phenomenon of moral judgment through a descriptive lens (e.g., making no claim about whether a given change in perception is ‘good’ or ‘bad’), while practical wisdom views it through a normative lens (e.g., seeking to make our perception ‘better’). These two differences require consideration in future research using the proposed model.

6. Tamborini et al. (2021a, 2021b) describe differing degrees of comparative salience. Overriding salience occurs when the morally relevant features that support the character’s choices are more salient to us than the competing MRFs, even though the competing MRFs are still moderately salient (i.e., deemphasized, but not ignored). In dominant salience, the competing MRFs are completely ignored, resulting in a more extreme imbalance and more complete support for the character’s choice (all other factors being equal). For the sake of clarity, I refer to both using the term dominant salience.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Catherine A. Marple

Catherine A. Marple is a graduate student in the Department of Communication at Wake Forest University. Using empirical methods, she studies the effects of narrative entertainment media on positive development. Specifically, she is interested in the mechanisms underlying long-term effects of narrative on character growth, and in the features of narrative content that activate those mechanisms. Her work also includes practical and cross-cultural components; she has received grants both to develop a storytelling workshop that fosters compassion in children, and to interview Indian storytellers about plot structure and audience response in South Asian narratives.