The Mar Lab researches a diverse range of topics, that often cluster around the following central questions:

1. How is one's experience with narrative fiction (e.g., novels, movies, plays) similar to a cognitive and emotional simulation of social experience?

2. What are the cognitive, social, and emotional outcomes of exposure to narrative fiction, both in the short-term and over one's lifetime?

3. How does the brain process narrative fiction, and how might this be similar to related processes such as autobiographical memory, self-projection, social cognition/empathy, and imagination?

You can find out more about our research by reading our papers. A good place to start might be the Mar & Oatley (2008) article entitled The Function of Fiction.