A new study has come out pointing to the idea that a television drama is a better way to move teens to action or alter teens’ behavior than giving them a news story focused on facts. The study gave students a fact-based news story about teen pregnancy and showed an episode of The OC. The news story had no effect on behavior, The OC episode did.
While we may not have needed a study to know that people change their behavior only when they emotionally relate to a story, it’s still good to keep that in mind when talking to our kids about sex, love, drugs, food, school and all the other really important things we want to help our kids understand.
Afte rall, how many of you were texting on your cell phones in the school pick-up line without a bit of guilt even though you’d heard the statistics about accidents?
That is until Oprah told us the heart-wrenching story about the little girl who was killed by a texting driving while riding her bike only a few pedals from her mom.
Oh, the anguish of the family of the child, the child and the driver. It’s the empathy that makes us change our behavior. It’s the desire to avoid that horrible feeling.
For more information about the study check out Science Daily.
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My initial response at learning about this study was very positive. I saw some pretty great possibilities for teaching both my clients and my daughter. I do recognize the power of empathy and ultimately the power of the heart to really drive issues home.
Upon meditating over this and reading the article I began to see something that troubled me, utilizing this same study. My life is guided by being a good person and aligning to the highest always. That is not the case with everyone, and at times the intention of certain dramas or narratives that are expressed via books, movies, magazine short stories, tv programs may not be about the Highest but perhaps the opposite.
This also makes me weary as I think how a story told with a specific agenda, beautifully executed could potentially guide us (or our children) to perhaps participate in something that goes against our core values, simply because it tapped into something universal within us.
And so, may we always choose to create from the Highest intention, and may we as teachers/parents stay sensitive to always get to the Heart of the matter.
Thoughts?
Absolutely Elsie. Case in point, though The OC is the program in the study – it would be blocked in my house.
We should be mindful that media can evoke negative things in our children too. I have lots of stuff/stories blocked for this reason.
Marketers know this too. Which is why commercials upset me a lot. Because they are tugging on our kids emotions to sell stuff that’s not good for them. The marketers know what they are doing, the kids do not.
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