Most children love stories. Stories are entertaining and fun. 【小题1】 Findings from a new study indicate that stories in movies can also be meaningful for children.

Stories can fuel social intelligence. While watching, children make sense of the feelings, motives, and behaviors of characters in the film, using their social intelligence skills. 【小题2】 Their novel insights include awareness about the motives and feelings of others, but also awareness of their own feelings.

Stories are an opportunity to experience moral beauty. 【小题3】 Children mention that they appreciate seeing acts of compassion (同情), kindness, love, and bravery in some films. Moreover, just like adults, children can have tears upon experiencing moral beauty. The findings of the study indicate that feelings of moral beauty start to emerge around the age of eight years old.

【小题4】 While watching a movie, children are encouraged to follow in the footsteps of the main characters and gain the same insights as them. During the movie Inside Out, children follow Joy on her adventure and find sadness is important and that collaboration (协作) between all emotions is needed to live a full and happy life. They learn something what Joy learns. So if this is true of all stories with the hero’s journey framework, that means children can learn many important life lessons from many different movies.

Stories can inspire children to never give up. Children admire the main characters’ perseverance (毅力) as well. Children even express that main characters inspire them to never give up in their own life. The more insights children gain while watching, the more meaningful the story becomes for them. Talking about the film or watching it again supports them in gaining more insights. 【小题5】