ABSTRACT
A good story pulls you into its imaginary world. We sit on the edges of our seats as Gatsby and Daisy’s affair unfolds, writhe in embarrassment throughout Bridget Jones’ dating mishaps, and yell “no!!!” when Jack sacrifices himself to the icy water surrounding the sinking Titanic . But what happens when the book is closed or the film credits run? Does what happens in the story world “stay in the story world”, or can stories inf luence our attitudes, our knowledge about the world, and our own personal memories? In particular, our focus in this chapter will be on how stories can be a source of information about the world. That is, many stories reference well-known people and events, often in familiar places and time periods, providing a chance to learn new facts. But by definition fiction is not necessarily accurate, and our question involves understanding what happens when stories contradict reality. For example, The Great Gatsby locates Biloxi in Tennessee rather than in Mississippi, The Da Vinci Code places Mary Magdalene next to Jesus in the painting The Last Supper , Braveheart suggests that Edward III was the child of William Wallace and (then nine-year-old) Princess Isabella of France, Jurassic Park overestimates the intelligence of dinosaurs, and so on. Does the reader (viewer) come away from these stories believing these errors and relying on them in other contexts?
