Narratives and Understanding Other People.

Presenting a story of an ill person, in comparison to a description of illness, as well as activating a narrative approach toward this person increased the probability in subjects of helping behaviour—in this case the promise of donations of bone marrow for leukaemia patients or willingness to spend time on soliciting money for other people's medical treatment. A higher general ability in narrative interpretation strengthens the above effects. Results of other studies may suggest the kind of factors responsible for these effects. The data show that narrative modes of social data processing increase the subject's internal coherency of the target person and their ability to visualise the target. It also increases the complexity of the subject's impression, as well as his/her feeling of the adequacy of that impression and the distinction of the target person from the social background. The data further suggest that the narrative mode results in greater attention to the person's motivation and emotions, bette...