Hogan also explains that the temporal and emotional amount which a person devotes to understanding a character’s situation in literature allows literature to be considered “ecological[ly] valid in the study of emotion”. This can be understood in the sense that literature unites a large community by provoking universal emotions. It also allows readers to access cultural aspects that they are not exposed to thus provoking new emotional experiences. Authors choose literary device according to what psychological emotion he or she is attempting to describe, thus certain literary devices are more emotionally effective than others.

How does literature unite members of a society?