Venturing from our physical homes plays a huge part in creating a culture of open-mindedness.
Mark Twain (1869) once wrote, “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime” (p. 243).
Even when travel meant taking a horse and carriage across the country or a ship across the ocean, Twain understood the importance of getting away and is now known as one of the most open-minded and empathetic individuals of his time.
Twain’s quote holds weight today. In fact, researchers have found traveling increases a person’s ability to trust others. After numerous longitudinal studies, Cao (2013) and others concede that the number of places visited correlates with how much trust people reciprocate. However, making a single lateral move does not have the same effect. In other words, breadth of travel experience is more crucial than time away from home. Visiting places unfamiliar and unlike a person’s home country appears to be a key factor. Cultural experiences replace the sense of “otherness” with understanding. Travel experiences help us realize that our similarities far outshine our differences and that we all, in our own individual ways, are seeking safety and happiness.
With this in mind, a coursework requirement for students who aim to hold a position of power should be to travel and do humanitarian work. Obligating future leaders to engage with an array of people would encourage them to think outside the business model and make decisions with more empathy.
Many choose to only travel within their home cultures, and it’s not always due to a lack of money or time. Travel is daunting. Getting past the fear of physically removing yourself from home is only half the battle. The next step is altering your conceptual home. If another language is spoken, will you be able to communicate? Find your way around? Discern basic customs?
It’s understandable to have these worries. From my travel experiences, I can tell you that one way or another, you’ll figure out how to navigate through all obstacles and learn so much about yourself in the process. The first time you travel from your home culture, you will question yourself constantly. The second time, less so. You learn to trust your instincts and lean on the kindness of strangers.
Unfortunately, there are many people who, although they have the courage to wander, lack the funds to travel. One suggestion is for the government to amp up travel grant opportunities so that not only students could apply. The grant would include travel fees, boarding, and basic needs in exchange for charity work, such as building homes in areas affected by natural disasters. Basically, it would be like the Peace Corps without the two-year commitment. The SYTA Youth Foundation does this for people under the age of eighteen, but perhaps the new grants could be extended to whole families.
When you can’t leave your physical home, you can still escape your conceptual home via books.
Einstein once said, “If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales” (Margulis, 1958).
He often spoke of the power of imagination and literacy in the progress of humanity. Instead of only observing what is, consider what could be.
Reading transports you in a way that watching a movie frankly can’t achieve. When you’re reading, you’re literally inside the protagonist’s head, understanding the character’s thoughts and actions on a whole different level. Therefore, researchers agree that regular readers tend to be more empathetic. Fiction provides a sheltered platform to practice empathetic skills. According to Bal and Veltkamp (2013), “…fiction provides a safe arena in which a reader can experience emotions without the need for self-protection” (p. 2). We can allow ourselves to empathize strongly with fictional characters because doing so won’t affect our actual lives and therefore, we feel safe fully engaging in compassionate behaviors. True empathy removes the judgment lens to see people in a more authentic light, which is much easier to do within the pages of a book. In fact, MRI studies affirm that when we read stories, the participant area of the brain, rather than the observer areas, light up (Gottschall, 2014). We aren’t part of the audience. We’re part of the action. We experience love, loss, and transformation with the characters.
Fiction is truth with a pretty bow. Within the pages of a book lies the safest place to wander from your conceptual home and see through someone else’s eyes.
As I often tell my students, my daughter, and anyone else who will listen: practice makes perfect. The more you practice empathy skills, the more you will hone in on them.
