Abstract
I hypothesized that feelings state after reading was formed through the causal relationship between the personality characteristics of the reader and the cognitive appraisal in narratives comprehension in the novelswhose understanding of a protagonist. I measured the personality and empathy of 111 subjects, and next I measured the cognitive appraisal on the same subjects, and feelings state after the same subjects read 4 short novels, after which I analyzed the hypothetical model by a covariance structure model analysis. Results were that, in 2 short novels in which understanding of a protagonist was materialized, the hypothetical model was adopted, empathy and sympathy were strengthened as the reader who was high in extroversion and agreeableness, and a tendency which causes causal relationship between a negative feelings state after reading was shown. On the other hand, the hypothetical model was not adopted in 2 short novels in which understanding of a protagonist was not materialized.
These results indicate the possibility that the causal relationship was established between the personality characteristics of the reader and the cognitive appraisal in narratives comprehension in the novelswhose understanding of a protagonist and the feelings state after the reading was formed through the causal relationship.
