Personal	relevance	in	story	reading:	A	research	review Anežka	Kuzmičová Department	of	Culture	and	Aesthetics,	Stockholm	University Katalin	Bálint Tilburg	Center	for	Cognition	and	Communication,	Tilburg	University AUTHOR'S PRE-PRINT. TO APPEAR IN POETICS TODAY, special issue on 'Knowledge, Understanding, Well-being: Cognitive Literary Studies' (ed. Nancy Easterlin). 1.	Introduction In	the	past	century,	emotional	responses	to	literary	narratives	were	regarded	as unsystematic,	personal	and	unphilosophical,	and	therefore	largely	excluded	from scholarly	discourse.	With	the	recent	cognitive	turn	in	the	humanities	(Kukkonen &	Caracciolo	2014;	Caracciolo	2016),	however,	scholars	are	increasingly	willing to	consider	the	question	of	actual	readers'	responses	to	literary	texts.	Theories	of emotions in reading have become more sophisticated (Miall 2011; Mar et al. 2011), acknowledging that responding emotionally can help readers better understand and appreciate literature (Robinson 2007). Importantly, these theories also acknowledge the role of individual differences in the personal histories and belief systems of readers as part of their explanations of how emotions	emerge.	This	review	article	focuses	on	an	undertheorized	facilitator	of emergent	emotions	in	response	to	narrative,	namely,	personal	relevance.	Thus,	it deals	with the	general	mechanics	of	narrative	processing,	but	with	a	particular focus on the individual reader, forging connections between humanities and science	perspectives	on	reading. A narrative can be defined as personally relevant if the information presented	carries	special	importance	with	respect	to	the	individual	reader's	self, 2 knowledge, or past experiences. Personal relevance is a key factor at many stages	and levels	of literary	reading. It is	empirically	proven that literary texts, besides evoking fresh and new emotions, also activate existing memory structures,	which	then	feed	into	the	narrative	experience	(Cupchik	et	al.	1998). Studies	show	that	the	presence	or	absence	of	self-related,	personally	salient,	and familiar	issues	in	a	fictional	narrative	influences,	for	instance,	what	people	select to	read	and	how	they	evaluate	a	text	(Fuller	&	Rehberg	Sedo	2012),	what	level	of engagement they	achieve (Sikora	et al.	2011), and	how	much insight they	gain from reading it (Miall & Kuiken 1995; Koopman 2011). Bálint and Tan's forthcoming study analyzed twenty-five in-depth interviews with readers of fiction	and found that self-character	comparison is	an important	component in highly absorbed narrative experiences. Participants frequently referred to similarities, dissimilarities, wished similarities with the protagonist when describing	their	subjective	experiences	of	absorption	in	fiction. Analyses	of	reading	group	discourse	(Peplow	et	al.	2015)	also	attest	to	the salience	of	relating	fictional	stories,	characters,	and	situations	to	one's	past	and present personal life. For instance, when discussing books, reading group members	draw	extensively	on their	direct	experiences	of the time	periods	and places	rendered	in	the	story	(Swann	&	Allington	2009),	bouncing	back	and	forth between "on-book" and "off-book" talk. They even deliberately divide the conversational floor	between	themselves	on	the	basis	of	story-relevant	real-life expertise (Peplow et al. 2015). Readers sometimes report to employ these widespread "mimetic" (Peplow et al. 2015) or "autobiographical" (Collinson 2009) reading strategies with the express objective of deepening their knowledge	of	themselves	and	their	life	circumstances	(Todd	2008). In literary studies as well as literary education research (Fialho et al. 2011), personal relevance	has been	neglected, despite its obvious implications for	reader	experience	and interpretation.	The	concept	may	seem	an	epitome	of 3 the so-called affective fallacy (Wimsatt & Beardsley 1949), an approach to literature	traditionally	derided	for	leading	the	literary	expert's	focus	away	from authoritative meaning production to personal idiosyncrasy. With the current interest in emotions, especially empathy (Keen	2010;	Koopman	&	Hakemulder 2015;	Burke	et	al.	2016),	we	feel	the	moment	is	ripe	for	a	systematic	exploration of	personal	relevance	and	related	concepts.	Indeed,	experiments	prove	empathy to be facilitated by readers' own personality characteristics (Komeda et al. 2013), or personal life experiences (Koopman 2015a; 2015b; 2016), when similar	to	those	rendered	in	a	story. The weight of individual readers' prior experiences may seem commonplace to the advocates of cultural theory, who make the case for underrepresented subjectivities in the discourse of and on culture (Booker 2010). Our agenda is distinct from that of cultural theory. Rather than postulating that the language	used in	particular	works	of literature	necessarily has distinct meanings for the underrepresented and how these meanings are formulated,	we	review	experimental	and	other	empirical	evidence	on	narrative processing	in	order	to	unravel	which	types	of	personal	relevance	are	more	likely to be powerful than others, which types of impact (e.g. aesthetic, therapeutic, persuasive) they generate, and	where their power	might become excessive or outright	detrimental	to	reader	experience.	In	other	words,	this	review	focuses	on the workings of personal relevance as a psychological process. Psychological approaches to literary reading are sometimes met with skepticism in the humanities, because they seem to reduce away subjective differences between individuals	(van	Peer	et	al.	2012).	This	review	attempts	to	show	that	the	issue	of personal relevance is precisely where subjectivist humanities perspectives intersect	with	the	generalist	ethos	of	psychology. The review draws primarily on empirical literary studies, a broadly defined interdisciplinary field applying empirical-experimental	methods of the 4 cognitive	and	social sciences in the	study	of	aesthetic responses to fiction (van Peer	et	al.	2012).	We	also	supplement	the	review	with	insights	from	the	fields	of psychology and communication, which use experimental stimuli in a wider variety	of	media	that	are	not	always	fictional	or	not	ostensibly	presented	as	such. Focusing on the psychological processes of persuasion and belief change, psychology	and	communication	often	have	the	individual	reader's	characteristics and	their	malleability	at	the	very	core	of	inquiry.	In	addition,	literary	theory	will be	cited	as	appropriate. 2.	Concepts	of	and	around	personal	relevance In	this	section,	we	list	the	basic	theoretical	concepts	applied	to	phenomena	and processes linked to	personal relevance.	The section is structured following the nomenclature of psychology and communication, which is more unified and systematic	in	comparison	to	that	of	empirical	literary	studies.	Where	applicable, the	concept	presented	is	first	accompanied	by	a	review	of	the	basic	psychology and communication literature. It is then followed by a review of work in empirical literary studies that explores the phenomenon in question, albeit labeling	it	differently. 2.1	Personal	relevance In psychology and communication, personal relevance is defined as the steady tendency	in	readers	to	ascribe	relative	saliency	to	a	certain	issue	presented	in	a text (Petty	&	Cacioppo	1979).	Terms synonymous	with	personal relevance are issue involvement (Kiesler et al. 1969), ego-involvement (Rhine & Severance 1970) and personal involvement (Apsler & Sears 1968). Readers perceive an issue presented in a narrative as personally relevant when it is intrinsically important, carries an emotionally loaded personal meaning, or has important effects	on	the	reader's	own	life	(Petty	&	Cacioppo	1979).	Experiments	show	that 5 high levels of personal relevance enhance the	processing of text,	which	means that	people	attend	to	personally	relevant	texts	with	more	care	and	attention	(for a	review,	see	Petty	&	Cacioppo	1979).	Personal	relevance	occurs together	with increased levels of involvement with the issue dealt with in the text. This involvement has to be distinguished from readers' general susceptibility for engagement with narratives, also known as transportability (Bilandzic & Busselle	2011).	Personal	relevance	is	closely	related	but	not	necessarily	identical to	prior	knowledge	about	(Green	2004)	or	familiarity	with	an	issue	(Hoffner	and Cohen 2012). Under these latter labels, the amount of prior information or personal contact is mostly measured without considering the personal importance	attached	to	the	topic. Empirical literary studies use varied terms for familiarity and personal relevance as defined above, including the following: recognition of aspects of one's	own	life	(Miall	&	Kuiken	1995),	personal	truth	(Oatley	1999b),	familiarity with situation (Braun & Cupchik 2001), knowing from lived experience (Therman	2008),	or	personal	experience	with	subject	matter	(Koopman	2015a). These	terms	serve	different	purposes.	For	instance,	in	Miall	and	Kuiken's	(1995) Literary Response Questionnaire, which is widely used for the assessment of literary reading styles, the Insight section comprises items closely related to personal relevance, such as: "When I begin to understand a literary text, it's because I've been able to relate it to my own concerns about life." Insight is defined as the recognition of previously unrecognized qualities in the self and surrounding world. Braun and Cupchik (2001) and Therman (2008), on the other	hand,	primarily	link	personal	relevance	and	familiarity	to	mental	imagery. That	is,	they	found	that	familiarity	with	the	story	situation	increases	the	amount and quality of readers'	mental images. In yet other studies, Koopman (2015a; 2015b;	2016)	found	that	personal	experience	with	story	topic	predicts	empathy with	the	protagonist	as	well	as	insight	and	post-reading	reflection. 6 The above literature treats personal relevance as one of many factors contributing to a	more complex outcome, e.g., insight or empathy. It does not answer the question of what it may be like for a reader, in the moment, to experience personal relevance as such. In this sense, personal relevance was more closely explored by Larsen and László (1990) under the term personal resonance. Personal resonance (see also Seilman	& Larsen 1989;	Halász 1991) stands	for	the	experience	proper	that	a	text	relates	to	one's	personal	history	or life circumstances. In these authors' account, personal resonance becomes manifest	as	a	tangle	of	conscious	associations	from	personal	memory,	so-called remindings. While all text elicits some remindings and all readers have some remindings when prompted by an experimenter, the degree of personal resonance is inferred from the quality of each individual reader's reported remindings. The	more the remindings refer to the phenomenal detail of firsthand lived experience rather than, e.g., recounting events or second-hand knowledge	schematically, the	more the text is	understood to	resonate	with the reader. Personal resonance is reportedly higher for literary compared to expository text (Seilman & Larsen 1989), as well as for culturally proximate compared	to	culturally	distant	text	(Larsen	&	László	1990). 2.2	Perceived	similarity Personal	relevance	has	to	be	distinguished	from	perceived	similarity	(also	known as homophily), a concept used in psychology and communication for readers' recognition	that	in	one	way	or	another	they	share	some	features	with	a	character in	a	narrative	(de	Graaf	2017).	Readers	can	feel	similar	to	characters	in	objective, demographic	characteristics	(e.g.	age,	gender,	nationality,	religion,	health	status) or	more subjective features, such as actual life situation, past life experiences, attitudes,	or	opinions	(de	Graaf	2014;	Hoffner	&	Buchanan	2005).	People	tend	to share the perspective and motivation of those mediated others whom they 7 perceive	as	more	similar	to	themselves	(Eyal	&	Rubin	2003;	Hoeken	et	al.	2016). Perceived	similarity	can	be	an	antecedent	but	also	an	outcome	of	reading, meaning that	prior similarity can	have	an	effect	on the reading	experience	but also	that	the	reading	experience	itself	can	shape	one's	perceptions	of	similarity. Similarity in objective characteristics between readers and characters can prompt readers to exhibit	more similar attitudes	or	opinions to the characters after reading (Andsager et al. 2006; Hoffner & Buchanan 2005). In one experiment	(de	Graaf	2014),	participants	read	a	story	of	a	young	woman	fighting cancer.	In	one	version	of	the	story,	the	protagonist	lived	at	home,	whereas	in	the other	version,	she	lived	in	a	student	house.	Readers	who	read	a	version	matching their	own	living	arrangements	felt	more	similar	to	the	character	in	general,	and also more at risk of cancer compared to readers who read the story with a protagonist that had dissimilar living arrangements. This indicates that similarity can enhance the incorporation of a fictional protagonist's characteristics into the self. In a recent study (Cohen et al. 2017), however, effects	of	similarity	on	identification	could	not	be	replicated. Hoffner	and	Buchanan	(2005) found	that	perceived	attitude	similarity is associated	with	wishful	identification,	defined	as	the	wish	to	be	like	a	character. Bálint and Tan's forthcoming interview analysis showed	wishful identification with psychological features of characters to be an important component of absorbed reading experiences. People tend to report higher wishful identification	with	those	characters	who	have	the	same	gender	and	whom	they perceive	as	more	similar	in	attitudes	to	themselves	(Hoffner	&	Buchanan	2005). However,	story	characters	have	been	found	to	elicit	wishful	identification	on	the basis of different features depending on whether they are male or female (Hoffner	1996).	Another	study	(Tsay	&	Krakowiak	2011)	found	that	participants tend	to	morally	disengage	(i.e.	accept	immoral	actions)	to	a	greater	extent	when a	character	is	felt	to	be	more	similar	to	them. 8 As	aesthetic	experiences,	wishful	identification	and	similarity	identification have	been	teased	apart	in	empirical	literary	studies	(Andringa	2004).	The	former term	refers	to	the	reader's	recognition	of	personal	characteristics	that	the	reader desires to possess, occasionally resulting in behavioral imitation (Andringa 2004).	The latter term	refers to the	recognition	of similarity	proper,	mediating outcomes	such	as	consolation,	support,	or	distraction	in	relation	to	the	reader's life situation (Andringa 2004; Charlton et al. 2004; Koopman 2014), and also deepening	their	involvement	in	the	text	(Charlton	et	al.	2004). Another distinction concerning similarity and identification has been suggested by Kuiken et al. (2004). These authors understand perceived similarity,	which	they	term	simile-like	identification,	as	only	one,	possible	but	not sufficient,	stage	on	a	reader's	way	to	self-modification	through	literature.	Similelike identification ("A is like B") is then distinguished from metaphor-like identification	("A	is	B"),	wherein	readers'	selves	are	felt	to	instantaneously	merge with the text	not	only	at the level	of	human	characters,	but	at a	more	abstract level of affective themes and inanimate forces. Readers come to recognize a character as a member of a class to which they also belong, thus realizing something	new	about	life,	a	possibly	lingering	effect. Empirical literary studies have shown that readers not only relate to positive features of characters but also to negative ones (Andringa 2004), presumably	with	specific	outcomes	for	varied	aspects	of	the	reading	experience such	as	empathy,	participatory	responses	and	transportation	(Gerrig	&	Mumper 2017), or aesthetically productive mixed emotions (Hoorn & Konijn 2003). Exploring	the	potentially	edifying	power	of	literature,	Miall	and	Kuiken's	(1995) Literary Response Questionnaire also features items specifically targeting the recognition	of	one's	own	shortcomings	in	story	characters,	as	well	as	feelings	of wanting	to	change	one's	life	on	the	basis	of	a	read. 9 2.3	Self-referencing Personal	relevance,	perceived	similarity,	and	wishful	identification	are	subjective experiences in a reader's consciousness, fuelled by the underlying cognitive process of self-referencing (Burnkrant & Unnava 1995). To understand the importance of self-referencing, we need to briefly clarify the psychological concept	of	self-schema.	Self-schema	is	defined	as	a	mental	representation	of	our own self, stored and constantly updated in our mind (Conway 2005). It is a highly organized and complex mental structure containing memory traces of factual knowledge about the self (e.g. gender, age, nationality) and autobiographical events (e.g. important time points in life, significant places, associated emotions, etc.) gathered over the course of life (Conway 2005). Krishnamurthy and Sujan (1999) distinguish between anticipatory (futureoriented)	and	retrospective	(past-oriented)	self-referencing.	When	exposed	to	a narrative text, readers – either consciously or wholly subconsciously – often engage	in	self-referencing,	i.e.,	search	for	similarities	and	dissimilarities	between the content of self-schema and story-schema (Escalas 2007). Through this process,	story	content	is	connected	to	the	reader's	own	past	experiences,	which can then become manifest to consciousness in above-mentioned remindings (Seilman	&	Larsen	1989). Self-referencing	is	closely	associated	with	other	key	processes	of	reading. Psychological studies suggest that self-referencing during reading improves readers'	attention	and	recall	of the	text	(Bower	&	Gilligan	1979;	Klein	&	Loftus 1988). Rogers, Kuiper, and Kirker (1977) asked participants to pay attention either	to	the	structural,	phonemic,	semantic,	or	self-relevant	aspects	of	adjectives and	found	that	words	rated	for	self-relevance	were	recalled	best.	Other	findings in psychology and communication showed that activated self-referencing increases	the	persuasive impact	of	a	message	(Burnkrant	&	Unnava	1989),	and readers' identification with characters (Chen et al. 2016). These findings are 10 most probably	due to the fact that	when readers actively relate their own self and life story to the narrative, they allocate	more attention to the details and elaborate	more	on	the	topic	(Cacioppo	et	al.	1982;	Burnkrant	&	Unnava	1995). As a subconscious mechanism, self-referencing per se has not been explored	in	empirical	literary	studies,	where	the	reader's	subjective	experience, such	as	conscious	remindings,	is	the	main	focus	of	inquiry.	Finally,	it	is	important to	mention	here	that	too	much	self-referencing	can	overtax	the	reader's	attention and divert it away from features of the text, especially in cases of autobiographical	retrievals	(Sujan	et	al.	1993).	We	return	to	this	scenario	further down	in	our	review. 3.	Individual	differences	and	situational	factors The likelihood	of	being	affected	by	personal relevance	and related	phenomena varies	greatly	due	to	differences	in	individual	readers'	psychological	traits,	their cultural	and	situational	dispositions,	and	characteristics	of	the	text	being	read.	In most cases, the variation probably cannot be ascribed to one single factor but rather	emerges	as	a	result	of interaction. In	this	section,	we	review	the	readerrelated	factors	most	frequently	proposed	in	the	research	literature. 3.1	Reading	habits Like many other aspects of reader response, personal relevance seems to be more or less prominent depending on one's reading habits, reading style, and general attitude to literature (Miall & Kuiken 1995). Different reader profiles have been proposed, with different degrees of empirical corroboration, to associate	most	closely	with	self-implicating	reading	styles.	In	literary	theory,	the classical twentieth century approach was to deride self-referencing as an epitome of the affective fallacy (Wimsatt & Beardsley 1949), reserved for the inexperienced, less "competent" reader (Culler 1980). A different theoretical 11 proposal	was	made	by	Caracciolo	and	van	Duuren	(2015).	These	authors	concur that,	of	all	readers,	those	who	frequently	read	innovative	literary	narratives	may be especially prone to self-referencing during reading. Caracciolo and van Duuren's	argument is	based	on the idea that, in	comparison to	more formulaic text,	innovative	literature	poses	higher	demands	on	cognitive-affective	flexibility and	increases	awareness	of	one's	own	self	as	narratively	structured. Within	empirical	literary	studies,	Caracciolo	and	van	Duuren's	hypothesis is	indirectly	supported	by	Cupchik	et	al.	(1998),	who	found	narrative	passages	of higher stylistic complexity to elicit a higher degree of first-person emotional memories, compared to	more stylistically straightforward passages. But direct empirical	evidence	confirms	neither	the	assumption	that	self-referential	reading is	typical	of	less	experienced	readers,	nor	the	hypothesis	that	it	is	a	hallmark	of niche expertise. For instance, a representative large-scale survey of German readers	conducted	by	Charlton	et	al.	(2004)	revealed	that	the	most	"committed style of reception," in terms of self-referencing and the cultivation of personal meanings,	was	typical	of	the	sociocultural	"group	that	consumes	high	cultural	as well as trivial offerings" (Charlton et al. 2004: 206) rather than of the sociocultural groups that favor either very demanding or very undemanding reads. Based on complex interactive effects found in a reader response experiment, a similar observation has been made by Koopman (2015b), as follows:	In	order	to	achieve	the	state	of	being	"shaken	up"	by	reading,	"it	may	be helpful if	people	are	already	empathic	persons,	find	something	that	connects	to their	personal	experience	in	the	work,	and,	perhaps,	have	not	read	too	much	yet, since that seems to spoil the	surprising	effects	of literature" (Koopman	2015b: 439;	our	italics).	We	may	conclude	that	self-referencing	is	not	specific	to	a	type	of audience with particular expertise or taste in reading. Rather, it is to some degree inherent to story reading. However, the overall aesthetic impact associated with personal relevance may be relatively higher in non-expert 12 readers. 3.2	Gender	and	age A	common	notion	regarding	gender	differences	is	that	female	readers	are	more prone	than	males	to	empathizing	(Charlton	et	al.	2004;	Mar	et	al.	2011;	Koopman 2016), which is a type of response to real and fictional others reportedly mediated	by	similarity	and/or	personal	relevance	(e.g.	Preston	&	de	Waal	2002; Decety et al. 2010; Igartua and Barrios 2012; Komeda et al. 2013; McKeever 2015;	Koopman	2015a;	2015b;	2016).	Oatley (1999a;	1999b) reports a reader response experiment in	which young adult female readers scored significantly higher	than	their	male	counterparts	on	the	quantity	of	self-relevant	memories	as well	as	emotions	elicited	by	stories,	across	both	protagonist	gender	conditions. The	author	sees	a	connection	between	this	finding	and	the	fact	that	more	women than	men read fiction that concerns relationships (Oatley 1999a). Charlton et al.'s (2004) findings likewise suggest that, compared to	males, females tend to identify	more frequently	with story characters and situations, seeking "critical self-confrontation." Based on a study of readers' autobiographies, Andringa (2004) also reports gender differences in reading styles from childhood to adulthood, with female readers reporting more self-referencing and identification.	However,	gender	differences	are	far	from	universally	validated	in experimental	research	(see	e.g.	Bortolussi	et	al.	2010). Andringa (2004) found that adult respondents recalled identification experiences	more	frequently	in	connection	with	children's	books	and	with	their earlier life stages than with their current life stage and reading	materials. An analysis of the earlier reading episodes suggested a gradual evolution from wishful identification in early childhood (see also Hynds 1989) to similarity identification in the following years. This effect occurred in male and female respondents	alike.	A	plausible interpretation	concerning	age	may	be found	in	a 13 study by Halász (1991), who explains a surprising lack of story-elicited selfrelevant remindings (as opposed to remindings of mediated knowledge) in a teenage sample by the fact that teenagers simply have relatively limited firsthand life	experience to	draw	on	when	reading	adult literature. In	sum, there is evidence that gender and age modulate the saliency of personal relevance in reading. 3.3	Specific	life	situations In addition, reading motivated by or focused on personal relevance has been connected	with	difficult life	situations,	such	as	personal	crises,	periods	of	grief, or illness. Experiencing such situations at the time of reading (Charlton et al. 2004;	Koopman	2014)	or	having	done	so	in	the	past	(Goldstein	2009;	Sikora	et al.	2010;	Koopman	2015a;	Koopman	2015b)	reportedly	increases	the	probability of picking up relevance cues from fiction, especially if the story deals with serious	existential	themes. A survey of cultural consumption patterns during periods of distress, conducted by Koopman (2014), revealed that those who generally turn to literary reading for coping with difficult life situations tend to be older than those	who either turn to	music or engage	with neither of the two	media. This finding	was	independent	of	any	possibly	confounding	effect	of	age	as	a	factor	in overall life experience, as Koopman exclusively analyzed responses from individuals	who had had distressful life episodes.	While Charlton et al. (2004) identify literary reading for self-confrontation	as a	distinctly female strategy, a finding likewise linked to difficult life situations in particular, in Koopman's (2014)	study,	gender	differences	were	only	marginally	significant.	Not	only the imminent experience	of a	distressful situation	but also the sheer	memory	of it can affect how readers process literature with respect to personal relevance (Goldstein	2009;	Sikora	et	al.	2010;	Koopman	2015a;	2015b).	These	effects	are 14 further	reviewed	below. 4.	Relevance	domains	and	emotional	valence The	previous	section	reviewed	the	effects	of	dispositions	for	personal	relevance on	the	part	of	the	individual	reader.	Let	us	now	proceed	to	the	elusive	nexus	of reader and text. Which types of cues in the content of a text can potentially prompt personal relevance? Across centuries and even across artistic media, adaptations have been used extensively to bring temporally or geographically distant	narratives "closer" to the recipient	under the assumption that affective impact will increase. Early modern religious paintings depict Jesus' apostles consuming	roasts	or	eel	at	the	Last	Supper	and	Romeo	and	Juliet	frequently	wear bomber jackets on stage. Generally speaking, these adaptations attempt to exploit	what	Keen	(2010), in	a literary theoretical treatise	on	empathy	and	the novel,	has	termed	bounded	empathy.	They	suggest	an	easily	recognizable	link	to one's	time,	place,	or	other	identity	marker.	There	is	of	course	no	guarantee	to	the success of such relatively superficial manipulations. In our focus research disciplines, readers have been subject to experimental designs measuring the effect	of	various	potential	links. 4.1	Personality	trait,	demographic,	and	locative	relevance Personality traits are difficult to match between reader and story character. Komeda	et	al.	(2013)	made	one	such	attempt	in	an	experimental	study	that	had participants read artificially designed	micro narratives rendering protagonists who	were	highly	extraverted,	highly	neurotic,	or	neither,	while	also	measuring participants'	personalities	along	these	dimensions.	Personality	matches	between participants	and	protagonists	predicted	self-reported	empathy,	over	and	above measures of general empathy dispositions. Analogous reader-character match effects	were found in the	domain	of gender role orientation as	well (not to	be 15 confused	with	biological	gender;	Jose	1989).	Because	of	the	complexity	entailed in	modeling	personality traits in	natural-length stories and comparing them to those	of live	readers,	however,	most	of the	research literature	reports	on	more easily operationalized, demographic characteristics such as biological gender, sexual	orientation,	sociocultural	background,	and	so	forth. Results	obtained	on	the	basis	of	literary	stimuli	are	mixed.	For	instance,	a cross-national	experiment	by	Bortolussi	et	al.	(2010)	manipulated	the	biological gender of literary characters but found no effect of reader-character gender match on readers' evaluative ratings with regard to character appreciation, clarity	of	style,	literariness,	and	interest	in	the	story	(see	also	Cohen	et	al.	2017). Green	(2004),	on	the	other	hand,	presented	participants	with	a	story	set in	the context	of	a	U.S.	college	fraternity	reunion,	which	was	told	from	the	perspective of a	homosexual alumnus.	They found that readers	with fraternity	background and/or familiar with the social stigma of being homosexual were more transported into the narrative than others. This suggests that	more subjective and malleable identity markers perhaps allow greater potential for personal relevance	than	more	objective	demographic	characteristics. As	outlined in	a theoretical	proposal	by	Kuzmičová (2016), the	effect	of literature	can	also	be	enhanced	when	a	story is	set in	a locale	or	other	general context	identical	or	similar	to	the	one	in	which	one	happens	to	be	reading.	This	is personal	relevance	based	on	more	or	less	short-term	locative	contingencies,	that is, on the	opposite	end	of the spectrum from	stable	personality trait	matching. Vaughn et al. found indeed that when a story was read in a story-congruent season of the year, readers' transportation scores were significantly higher compared	to	a	control	group	who	read	the	same	story	in	an	incongruent	season. Prentice et al. (1997) also found that students read	an implausible story	more critically	if	it	was	set	at	their	university	campus	compared	to	when	it	was	set	at another campus, but attempts at replicating this finding were inconclusive 16 (Wheeler	et	al.	1999). It	should	be	noted	that	for	all	domains,	personal	relevance	is	also	a	matter of	degree	in	the	sense	that	a	given	condition	can	be	relevant	to	the	reader	either directly, via first-hand experience, or indirectly, via second-hand experience. While it may not suffice to have second-hand experience of neurotic or extraverted persons to be more profoundly affected by corresponding story characters,	Green's	(2004)	finding,	for	instance,	applied	to	readers	who	reported just having homosexual friends or family members. Distinctive about subject matters for which second-hand familiarity is powerful enough may be their perceived	intensity	and	emotional	valence.	In	itself,	belonging	to	one	or	the	other personality	profile	or	biological	gender	is	ideally	only	sometimes,	but	not	always, a source of intense experience. Meanwhile, a homosexual orientation may be harder to abstract away from everyday experience given pervasive social prejudice.	Moreover,	attending	a	college fraternity	reunion	as	gay is the	sort	of circumscribed event in which sexual orientation may become especially experientially salient. In sum, for personal relevance to make significant difference, it	should	probably tap into	matters important to the	reader	and	the story alike. Bortolussi et al. (2010), for instance, note that gender similarity effects	may	have	been	absent in	their	study	because	the female	protagonists in the	stimulus	stories	were	not	portrayed	as	facing	inequality	issues.	Thus	gender did	not	stand	out	as	a salient theme.	Also,	as	Gerrig	and	Mumper (2017)	point out,	any	effect	of	similarity	will	necessarily	further	vary	as	the	salience	of	a	given matter	changes	over	the	course	of	a	longer	story. 4.2	Emotional	valence	and	personal	relevance It is no coincidence, then, that empirical studies exploring personal relevance from	a	more	specifically	aesthetic	viewpoint	mainly	resort	to	stimuli	where	the potential	source	of	relevance	is	less	easily	captured	in	mere	trait	or	demographic 17 categories. Rather, these studies look into personal relevance relative to powerful "affective" (Sikora et al. 2011) or "existential" (Miall	&	Kuiken	1999) themes.	Such	themes	are	predicted	to	become	salient in	a	reader's	mind	due	to specific fictional	situations	and	concomitant	emotions	and	sensory images.	The more familiar the reader is with a real-life situation, the more rounded and imagery-rich their vicarious experience through self-referencing (Braun & Cupchik	2001),	and	the	more	salient	a	given	theme	(see	Sikora	et	al.	2011	for	a more	nuanced	account	of	these	dynamics). A	peculiar	feature	of	the	situations	and	themes	thus	observed	is	that	their emotional valence is largely negative. Negative emotions, or perhaps more accurately,	mixed	emotions	arising	from	the	portrayal	of	intense	experiences,	are considered the main source of aesthetic effect across art forms. This has led researchers	to	articulate,	e.g.,	the	Distancing-Embracing	model	of	the	enjoyment of negative emotions (Menninghaus et al. 2017), the	PEFiC	model of character appreciation	based	on	a	distancing-involvement	tradeoff	(Hoorn	&	Konijn	2003), or the idea that fiction-elicited sadness, albeit enhanced	by relevant first-hand experience,	is	pleasingly	"unadulterated	with	anxiety"	(Goldstein	2009).	All	these proposals	account for the	attraction	of	negative feelings	and	experiences in	art beyond tragedy by identifying mechanisms of emotional distancing occurring simultaneously	with	empathy	and	other	story-elicited	affect. Various experimental paradigms have been used to study personal relevance with respect to complex negative experiences. Sikora, Kuiken, and Miall	(2010;	2011), for instance,	collected	qualitative	data	based	on	Coleridge's The	Rime	of	the	Ancient	Mariner	while	also	soliciting	background	information	on the	participants.	They	found	that	first-hand	experience	of	personal	loss,	given	a certain lapse of time after the traumatic event, deepened participants' selfimplication regarding mortality themes in the text. In mixed quantitativequalitative designs, Koopman (2015a; 2015b; 2016) exposed readers to 18 narratives	on	extreme	experiences	such	as	depression,	child loss,	or	grief	more generally,	and	found	emergent	effects	of	personal	relevance	insofar	that	personal experience of depression led to increased donating to a related charity (Koopman	2015a), and that personal experiences of either depression or grief led to more direct reflective thought (Koopman 2015b; Koopman 2016) and empathy	(Koopman	2016). The workings of subtler forms of relevant negative experience were captured in a study of readers' remindings conducted by Larsen and László (1990;	László	&	Larsen	1991).	These	authors	had	respondents	in	Denmark	and Hungary,	which	were	divided	by	the	Iron	Curtain	at	the	time	of	the	experiment, read a	Hungarian short story	portraying an incident of arbitrary	power abuse. Subjects	were	asked	to	encode	the	occurrence	and	content	of	remindings	elicited by the story as	well as to rate it on a variety of items. Although there	was no overt indicator of setting nor locally flavored narrative style, the two groups' responses	differed.	Compared	to	the	Danish	subjects, the	Hungarians	perceived the	story	as	possibly	taking	place	closer	to	themselves	in	time	and	space	(Larsen & László 1990). As for remindings, the Hungarian participants' "cultural proximity" resulted in "the generation of a larger proportion of personally experienced,	contextually	rich,	and	vividly	remembered	events"	(László	&	Larsen 1991:	23).	Furthermore,	readers'	appreciation	of the	text	was inversely	related to the valence of these events, i.e., particularly enhanced by remindings of negative	personal	experiences. In the latter experiment, not all remindings were negative, despite the negative theme that sparked them. Therman (2008) ran a remindings study using a more neutral story that also allowed for nostalgic or other positive emotions and memories to arise. Perfecting previous coding systems for the analysis of readers' remindings, she devised a taxonomy wherein lived experience,	when	subject	to	reminding,	is	coded	as	either	repeated	or	single,	and 19 either ordinary or special. In Therman's data, remindings of repeated and/or ordinary	experiences	appear to	be	more commonly	associated	with	other than negative	emotions.	They	outnumber	by	far	other	experience	categories,	but	they are not sufficient for arousing the reader's interest in the text, nor a deep, conscious	feeling	of	personal	relevance.	Again,	it	is	by	way	of	connecting	single, special, emotionally charged experiences to the central theme (mental illness within	family)	that	first-hand	experience	is	found	to	be	functional	for	Therman's outcome	variable,	that	is,	the	understanding	of	higher-order	meanings	conveyed by	the	story. To date, closer treatment of positively valenced personal relevance can only be found in studies with lower resemblance to naturalistic reading scenarios. Sperduti et al. (2016), for instance, report a study where subjects rated	the	intensity	of	their	experience	while	being	exposed	to	video	clips	labeled as either true	or fictional.	The	authors found that	participants	only rated their experience	as	more	intensive	in	the	truth	(as	opposed	to	fiction)	condition	when the	clips	depicted	contents	corresponding	to	their	previous	personal	experience, and only if the emotional valence of the contents	was positive (as opposed to negative).	This finding is	proposed to	be indicative	of a	particular	emotion	upregulation mechanism (see also Menninghaus et al. 2017), activated in the observed	encounters	with	negative	contents in fiction. In	a	study	conducted	by Tsunemi and Kusumi (2011) participants were given a task before reading a short	story:	One	group	had	to	to	generate	perceptually	rich	personal	memories, thus	activating	self-schema,	whereas	the	other	group	had	to	play	a	word	game,	a task	unrelated to the	self.	When	the	researchers	compared	how	much	time	the participants	needed to read the story, they found that reading times increased for	those	who	had	generated	perceptual	memories.	This	effect	was	attributed	to greater	situation	model	elaboration,	i.e.,	more	cognitive	resources	being	used	for keeping	track	of	perceptual	information	in	the	text.	However,	it	was	only	present 20 when	the	content	of	the	personal	memories	happened	to	resemble	the	content	of the	story.	Valence	was	not	measured,	but the	perceptual	memories	cited in the report	were	largely	positive. Finally, it should be noted that the potential effects of valence are acknowledged in theoretical accounts of perceived similarity (Hoorn & Konijn 2003;	Andringa	2004),	inasmuch	as	recognition	of	one's	own	shortcomings	in	a fictional character is likely to have different effects compared to identification with a character's positive qualities. This section reviewed the documented functionality vs. non-functionality of personal relevance across two interconnected domains: the domain of more "basic" variables such as psychological	traits,	gender	demographics,	or	physical	location,	and	the	domain of	more	specific,	complex,	and	intense	(negative)	experiences.	The	next	and	final section	briefly	explicates	that	personal	relevance	or	perceived	similarity	can	also become	excessive	in	reading	and	how	such	excesses	are	manifested. 5.	Effects	of	too	much	personal	relevance The	subject	matter	of	a	text	may	sometimes	be	experienced	too	personally,	with the consequence that the reader's response becomes more self-centered than text-centered. This phenomenon has been identified in psychology and communication (Sujan et al. 1993) and empirical literary studies (Therman 2008;	Sikora	et	al.	2011)	alike.	Sujan	et	al.	(1993),	for	instance,	found	that	when autobiographical	memories	are	activated,	people	experience	higher intensity	of affect	but	pay	less	attention	to	the	features	of	the	text	presented.	Similarly,	Mick (1992) found a curvilinear ("inverted J") relationship between	message recall and	self-related	meanings,	indicating	that	self-referencing	facilitates	memory	up to	a	certain	point,	beyond	which	it	becomes	detrimental	to	memory.	Participants in Bálint and Tan's forthcoming study also described feelings of too much similarity	to	the	protagonist,	with	a	distancing	effect.	However,	this	dynamic	was 21 reported	to	be	enjoyable	and	inherent	to	the	narrative	experience. As suggested above, the likelihood of overly personal reading can be a matter	of	individual	disposition	and	reading	style.	Some	readers	are	more	prone than others to projecting their life and self-schema onto text (Hynds 1989; Charlton et al. 2004; Todd 2008). In empirical literary studies, a notion of optimal	distance	between	literary	subject	matter	and	the	reader's	current	life	has been	proposed	(Oatley	1999a;	Sikora	et	al.	2010;	Sikora	et	al.	2011).	The	difficult task is determining	when someone reading for aesthetic and leisure purposes has strayed too far, i.e., when personal relevance and the reader's selfreferencing	have	indeed	overridden	the	text. Focusing	on	variability	in	readers'	remindings,	Therman	(2008)	identifies a	category	of	so-called	irrelevant	remindings.	A	clear-cut	example	of	an	irrelevant reminding	provided	by	Therman	is	a	reader	being	reminded	by	a	literary	story	of a	particular	chore	that	needs	to	be	done	at	home.	While	roughly	complying	with the definition of anticipatory self-referencing (Krishnamurthy & Sujan 1999), this kind of reminding presumably has little conscious implication for the reader's selfor story-schema in a longer term.	Distractive remindings, on the other	hand,	is	a	term	used	by	Therman	(2008)	for	text-elicited	associations	to	a phenomenon that the reader cares strongly about (e.g. religion), which nevertheless	lack	plausible	support	in	the	story. Sikora	et	al.	(2011)	propose	two	other	terms	for	excessive	or	borderline self-referencing based on a cluster analysis of verbal protocols recorded in response	to	narrative	poetry.	Autobiographical	assimilation	responses	consist	of simile-like	juxtapositions	between	a	reader's	life	events	and	events	rendered	in the narrative, without recourse to further abstraction. The authors consider autobiographical assimilation aesthetically inadequate due to the reader's intensive self-reflection replacing any attention to the text's language and sensory imagery.	Another response category,	autobiographical diversion, refers 22 to a tendency in the reader to recall physical environments resembling those rendered in the stimulus text. Autobiographical diversion is accompanied by elaborate sensory imagery that is based	on the reader's remembered	past and wholly	decoupled	from	the	text. Therman's	(2008)	and	Sikora	et	al.'s	(2011)	concepts	all	capture	varieties of one and the same excess phenomenon. The text comes to serve as a springboard for unrelated or inadequately related self-referencing, however pleasing it may be to the reader. Another possible manifestation of excessive personal	relevance	is	the	reader's	systematic	non-engagement	with	or	avoidance of	certain	textual	features	or	the	text	altogether.	Sikora	et	al.	(2010)	report	that, in the same study in which readers were exposed to The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, the experience of severe personal loss had no positive effect on selfmodification	through	reading	the	poem,	if	the	loss	occurred	less	than	two	years prior. In other words, readers for whom the text was excessively personally relevant	because	their	memories	of	personal loss	were	too	fresh	systematically avoided	picking	up	certain	aesthetic	cues	in	the	text. In a similar vein, Oatley (1999a) observes that readers' personal memories have maximum self-modification potential when they show neither too	much	nor	too	little	emotional	distance	from	the	remembered	event,	a	factor distinct from but certainly contingent on the passing of time. However, Koopman's (2014) survey	of reading	behavior in	distressing life	periods found no inverse association between loss recency and reading to cope, and a linear effect of loss gravity on reading to cope (see also Charlton et al. 2004). This suggests that there	may be additional factors co-determining	whether reading about	human	plights in fiction	will	provide	solace	during	personal	crises, leave no	particular	mark	at	all,	or	perhaps	aggravate	the	reader's	condition. 9.	Conclusion 23 Personal relevance is a form of narrative experience involving increased selfreferencing, oriented towards the recognition and appreciation of salient selfrelated	information	in	the	narrative.	This	article	brings	two	seemingly	opposing (van	Peer	et	al.	2012)	approaches	to	reading,	the	general-psychological	and	the subjectively relativist, together in a review	of the empirically	proven	effects of personal	relevance	and	related	phenomena	in	response	to	stories. A great variety of literature can elicit self-referencing. The findings together indicate that readers engage	with literature through the lens of their self-schema independently of the type of literature. Through the cognitive process	of	self-referencing,	readers	involuntarily	compare	story	content	as	well as	character	features	to	the	information	stored	in	the	representation	of	their	own selves. An activated self-schema in turn can lead to a variety of subjective experiences, such as personal relevance, perceived similarity, or wishful identification, or in extreme cases, detachment from the narrative. These qualities	of	reading	can	help	explain	why	readers	experience	different levels	of empathy (Koopman 2015a; Koopman 2015b), insight (Miall & Kuiken 1995; Koopman 2014), self-reflection (Charlton et al. 2004), text-reflection (Halász 1991; Koopman 2016), overall appreciation (Larsen & László 1990) and engagement (Bálint & Tan Forthcoming). As for situational factors, personal crises (Charlton et al. 2004; Koopman 2014) or the self-schema instability associated with particular life stages (Andringa 2004), seem to increase the experiential	potential	of	self-referencing. Importantly, there is direct evidence against the traditional preconception (Wimsatt & Beardsley 1949) that self-referencing is a mark of lesser aesthetic training in the individual (Charlton et al. 2004) or literary complexity	in	the	text	(Cupchik	et	al.	1998).	Furthermore,	the	findings	reviewed here suggest that large-scale similarities between reader and character, e.g., gender	or	sexual	orientation,	may	not	per	se	be	enough for	relevance	effects to 24 arise, and that emotional valence may have a role to play in the process alongside thematic saliency.	For	example, a same-sex	adaptation	of Romeo	and Juliet is likely to affect viewers familiar	with the stigma of homosexuality to a greater	extent than	same-sex	adaptations	of	plays	where the	protagonists' love relationship	does	not	interfere	with	social	norm	(thematic	saliency)	or	where	its repercussions	are	less	tragic	(emotional	valence). Personal	relevance	can	enhance	engagement	with	complex	narratives	and facilitate	reading.	In	light	of	the	decline	of	volitional	reading	among	young	adults and the alleged crisis of literature as an academic discipline, the recent rediscovery	of literature's	beneficial effect	on, e.g., empathy (Djikic et al.	2013; Kidd	&	Castano	2013)	is	met	with	great	attention.	It	is	also	being	translated	into intervention programs (EmpathyLab 2016). However, it is unlikely that any particular literary story will exert the same affective and potentially edifying power indiscriminately on all readers. As noted by Caracciolo (2014), all narrative experiences tap into one's experiential background, that is, one's unique repertoire of past experiences – emotional, social, sensory, or other. If there is a strong discrepancy between the story and the reader's experiential background,	little	emotional	or	other	impact	can	arise. At a time when society in a large part of the world is becoming increasingly diverse, it can be helpful for literature educators, reading promoters,	and	care	providers	relying	on literature, to	note	extant	evidence	on the role of personal relevance. Experiencing personal relevance could help students	relate	to	seemingly	distant	cultures	and	acknowledge	universal	human experiences. Research desiderata that	would facilitate new literary pedagogies and	that	we	envision	as	important	steps	toward	more	complex	understanding	of reader response include an in-depth exploratory study and a psychometric instrument	measuring the experience of personal relevance in literary reading along	the	dimensions	identified	in	this	review. 25 References Andringa,	Els 2004	"The	Interface	between	Fiction	and	Life:	Patterns	of	Identification	in Reading	Autobiographies,"	Poetics	Today	25(2):	205–240. 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