Humour, empathic concern and perspective-taking in children: Cartooning about social inequality

Abstract

This research is motivated by two inter-related arguments. Humour and cartooning in children are useful means to (1) address sensitive socio-political issues and (2) foster empathic concern and perspective-taking. Humorous cartoons and multimodal narratives were created by 10–13-year olds in school workshops about social inequality and social empathy. Students made cartoons related to concrete situations of economic, gender, racial and ethnic inequality. Children showed empathic concern towards the victims depicted, evidenced by representing positive empathy between characters or by denouncing a lack of empathy. This research suggests that composing humorous multimodal narratives can favour immersive experiences, perspective-taking, empathy and pro-sociality.