Defenseless against art? Impact of reading fiction on emotion in avoidantly attached individuals

An experiment tested the hypothesis that literature can subvert habitual emotional disengagement of avoidantly attached individuals. After completing the Attachment Style Questionnaire and an Emotion Checklist, 166 participants were randomly assigned to either an Art or a Control condition. Those in the Art condition read the short story The Lady with the Toy Dog by [Chekhov, A. (1899/1990). The lady with a toy dog. In S. Applebaum (Ed.), Five great short stories. Dover Thrift Editions: Springer]. Those in the Control condition read a comparison text that was documentary in format, and had the same content, length, reading difficulty, and interest. Following this, all participants completed the Emotion Checklist again. As hypothesized, an interaction between Attachment Style and Condition was found: Individuals who scored above the median on avoidant attachment experienced significantly greater Emotion Change in the Art condition than in the Control condition.