Reading Animals and Eating Animals: A Micro-Study of the Capacity of Literature to Spark Change

Abstract

To what extent can the experience of reading fiction change hearts and minds about real world issues? And can the effects be long-lasting? It has often been said that novels such as Uncle Tom’s Cabin and The Jungle caused significant changes in many readers’ attitudes — and in many readers’ behavior. But there is surprisingly little hard evidence that this is so. One twenty-first century novel written with the explicit purpose of helping to bring about social change is Animals: A Novel (Vehicule Press edition 2009, Soft Skull/Counterpoint edition 2010); that book aims to engage readers imaginatively over the issue of cruelty in factory farming. For the present study, as many readers of Animals as possible were contacted, and asked to complete a survey concerning the effect the experience of reading the book had on their behavior, and on their attitudes. On the question of whether or not such a book can change attitudes, the results were unequivocal: 65% of those answering this question (and 59% of all respondents) indicated that the experience of reading the book had contributed either “to a considerable degree” (35%) or “at least to some slight degree” (30%) to an increase in their level of concern for the welfare of non-human animals. The reported changes in behavior were smaller, and the degree to which the experience of reading Animals was reported to have contributed to those changes was not always great. But for most respondents there was a change, and for most respondents the experience of reading the novel did contribute to that change.