• Question: What makes your research personal to you?

    Asked by Emily Key to Ben, Sam, Kirsty, Maggi, Rose on 14 Jun 2017.
    • Photo: Rose Turner

      Rose Turner answered on 14 Jun 2017:

      I research the effects of engaging with fiction on ‘social cognition’ which is about understanding how other people think and feel. I also look at how fiction makes people more ‘altruistic’ or helpful towards other in the real world (which is related to social cognition, but is more about behaviour than mental processes). My background is in the arts: I trained as an actor and worked as a writer and an actor. Some of the work I have done (and continue to do) involves taking stories and arts projects into care homes, prisons and schools, so I really saw for myself the positive impact that engaging with stories can have on people’s lives. However the government has made lots of reductions to the money they give to arts projects, and some politicians think that the arts shouldn’t be studies in school (or should be studied much less!) I feel that the arts offer a way for people to develop their social skills and to generate happier, kinder communities. My research is attempting to prove that, and it’s something that I really believe in.

    • Photo: Kirsty Miller

      Kirsty Miller answered on 15 Jun 2017:

      Hi Emily! Great question! I think you have to research something that you care about! Everyone has their own interests and things they are passionate about (you can see that even in our different profiles!) so usually you’d find it quite hard to find two people who are interested in exactly the same thing! If you’re interested in something and invested in it, you will also think about it more and probably come up with more ideas! So I think everyone’s research is personal to the extent you have come up with the ideas based on what is important to you, and have interpreted your findings based on your own knowledge and experience.

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