A study by the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology found links between consuming fictional narratives and people’s socio-political beliefs, as well as their actions toward others. The researchers’ goal was to see if watching live plays had any impact on people’s empathy, and they found that it did. 

Their first study revolved around how the play Skeleton Crew would impact people. The play ran at a large regional theatre company in Portland, Oregon, in September of 2018 and was about auto workers in Detroit after the 2008 financial crisis. At the same time as study 1, another, smaller study was being conducted with the Public Theatre of New York. Their play was Sweat, a Pulitzer Prize-winning play also about factory workers, and it was shown in cities throughout the Midwest region. Finally, the researchers conducted a “high-powered, pre-registered replication” of what they had discovered in Study 1 in the context of another play. They found that after seeing a play in study 1, people self-reported that they had more intentions to give to charity so this study was about seeing if they made donations. Over the course of all 3 studies, researchers surveyed 1,622 audience members total, and participants answered surveys to gauge their opinions towards topics such as racial discrimination, income inequality, welfare, corporate regulations, wealth redistribution, affirmative action, empathy, and charitable giving. 

The studies resulted in the research finding evidence that live theatre increased people’s empathy and changed their opinions about socio-economic political issues, along with increasing the amounts that donated to causes which were related and unrelated to the plays.  Steven Rathje, a Psychology PhD graduate from Trinity College Cambridge, had grown up interested in theatre his whole life, being involved in acting and playwriting. So when he began his studies in psychology, he started to wonder about any links between theatre and psychology: “There was surprisingly little psychology research on the effects of live theatre or the arts more broadly, so I approached Jamil Zaki — an expert in the psychology of empathy — about conducting a study on this topic.” With Jamil Zaki, Rathje conducted the studies that led to their findings. Speaking with the Psy Post Rathje said, “We found that after, as opposed to before, seeing the plays, audience members reported feeling more empathy for the groups of people depicted in the plays and changed their attitudes about political issues related to the plays. Additionally, seeing theatre changed people’s behavior. After seeing the plays, people donated more to charity — whether or not the charity was related to the topics in the plays.” The findings of the study conducted by Rathje and Zaki are consistent with previous research which determined that “consuming literary fiction is associated with heightened levels of empathy and can promote collective action on behalf of disadvantaged groups,” according to Eric Dolan, a writer for the Arizona Theatre Company blog. 

In the future, Rathje hopes that more research will be conducted to find out more about whether or not non-live art forms have the same impact, the long-term effects of seeing theatre, whether or not different kinds of plays have different outcomes, and if what makes theatre so special is the fact that social experiences are more intense than solitary ones. He also mentions the importance of scientists and artists working together, saying that  “it would be excellent to have more collaborations between scientists and artists. Especially as arts funding is being threatened and arts in schools are being cut, it’s essential to have research on the impact of the arts and share the outcomes of this research with the arts world and beyond.”