• Question: If you play a character in 'Alice in Wonderland' do you think it would alter your personality and dream state?

    Asked by Kayla to Rose on 16 Jun 2017.
    • Photo: Rose Turner

      Rose Turner answered on 16 Jun 2017:

      Hi Kayla, thanks for the question!
      There is evidence that when we read about a character or watch a film or play about a character or play on in a video game, that it can alter our attitudes and behaviour (depending on how absorbed we get in the story). For example, when people play a video game in which the character is doing positive helpful things for others – they are more likely to then go and behave in positive helpful ways in the real world. As playing a video game is a bit like playing a character in a play, I think it’s likely there would be similar effects (though there isn’t much research looking at this yet – future career for you, perhaps?;-))
      Personality traits, however, are generally considered to be quite stable, which means that they don’t usually change that much. On the other hand, they do seem to change a little bit, or ‘fluctuate’ with reading, so over a long time with lots of reading, they might change more.
      When we read a good story about a character from a marginalised or stigmatised group, we tend to become more sympathetic towards people from that group in real life, and so that can change our behaviours. So people describing us might say ‘they’re a very kind person’, for example, or ‘they’re much nicer to people than they used to be’.
      Our dreams seem to help us process the day’s information, so if we were playing Alice every day I expect we might start dreaming about white rabbits and mad hatters and murderous queens!