Narrating pain to make you understand : using novel metaphors to increase empathy

Narrative advertising has focused on evoking empathy to promote prosocial and healthy behaviour. One way to increase empathic responses is by using novel metaphors, which stimulate embodied simulation, a key process for empathy. The present study examines the indirect, positive effect of using novel metaphors in pain narratives on the elicited empathy mediated by the richness of the embodied simulation. Two experiments with a total of 462 participants were conducted. Participants were confronted with a patient’s pain testimony (including no metaphor, familiar metaphor or novel metaphor). Results indicated a richer embodied simulation for novel metaphors, compared to familiar metaphors or literal utterances. Likewise a positive, indirect effect was observed of novel metaphors over familiar metaphors on empathy through the richness of embodied simulation. No differences were observed between familiar metaphors and literal utterances. Therefore, novel metaphors have the potential to increase empathy when narrating pain helping us understand ‘the other’