Hey, all you kids-in-the-slasher-films: the truths are self-evident. Don’t go down into that basement alone! Never split up when the psycho-killer is after you! And, for the love of God, if you have to trip over a nonexistent tree root, figure out how to jump back up and keep running!
Now, dear crime fiction reader…let’s shine the light on ourselves. Do we learn the lessons that are abundantly obvious in the novels we read?
I just finished Liv Constantine’s Don’t Open Your Eyes, an engrossing domestic suspense novel with a touch of paranormal. The protagonist, Annabelle, has dreams of danger to her family that start to come true. Secrets from Annabelle’s past ultimately pose the greatest danger of all, and she has to reckon with painful family history to protect the ones she loves the most.
It’s a page-turner. Dr. Deadly is your crime fiction therapist, though, so let’s go deeper. In Don’t Open Your Eyes, readers follow along beside Annabelle, watching her gradually do just the opposite, allowing herself to open her eyes to the trouble surrounding her. She allows herself to consider how the loneliness and desperation she felt years ago – for understandable reasons -shaped her life in the present.
By the end, this crime fiction therapist discerned a few emotional truths to be evident. For fear of spoiling the plot, let’s use a general one as an example: it’s important to development judgment of whom it’s safe to trust.
Now, think about your own life. Can you remember a time when you debated whether it was safe to trust a particular person? Looking back now, do you think your judgment was clear? If not, why? Is it easier to spot when a character in a novel is going down the wrong path than when we’re getting lost ourselves?
Generalization has a particular meaning in psychology. It’s learning something in one situation and then applying that knowledge to situations that are similar, but not exactly the same. For example, if I eat a poisonous berry in the forest, I might become wary of eating anything I find out in the wild. That can be protective in a good way. On the other hand, if I grew up with parents who punished me for ever questioning them, I might be silent around my boss in adulthood, which could stunt my career. For better or worse, generalization is that transfer of knowledge between situations.
Except…it doesn’t always happen. Some studies note that behavior doesn’t generalize between situations as often or as easily as you might expect. Gick and Holyoak conducted a landmark 1980 study that has been well-replicated since then. They found that humans don’t automatically apply what they’ve learned from one situation to another unless: (1) the situations are relatable in obvious, surface level ways or (2) an explicit hint is given to connect the situations (“how might this be like that?”)
So…do you ever read a book and feel moved by a character’s experience, like how they overcome their insecurities, or learn to persevere, or handle a hard relationship? Can you think of a time when you transferred that insight to your own life and it helped you grow or change for the better? In other words, has the knowledge you’ve gained from reading fiction generalized?
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