Mechanisms by Which Narrative Media Facilitates Practical Wisdom in Audience Members: Insights from Media Psychology

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.