Science Shows Something Surprising About People Who Still Read Fiction
By Gabe Bergado
They tend to be more
empathetic toward
others.
It's not news that reading has
countless benefits:
Poetry stimulates parts of the
brain linked to memory
and sparks self-reflection; kids
who read the Harry
Potter books tend to be
better people. But what
about
people who only read
newspapers? Or people who
scan
Twitter all day? Are those
readers' brains different
from literary junkies who
peruse the pages of 19th
century fictional classics?
Short answer: Yes — reading
enhances connectivity
in the brain. But readers of
fiction? They're a special breed.
The study: A 2013 Emory
University study looked
at the brains of fiction readers.
Researchers
compared the brains of people
after they read to
the brains of people who didn't
read. The brains of
the readers — they read
Robert Harris' Pompeii over
a nine-day period at night —
showed more activity
in certain areas than those
who didn't read.
Specifically, researchers found
heightened connectivity
in the left temporal cortex,
part of the brain typically
associated with understanding
language. The
researchers also found
increased connectivity in
the central sulcus of the brain,
the primary sensory
region, which helps the brain
visualize movement.
When you visualize yourself
scoring a touchdown
while playing football, you can
actually somewhat
feel yourself in the action. A similar
process happens
when you envision yourself as
a character in a
book: You can take on the emotions
they are feeling.
It may sound hooey hooey,
but it's true: Fiction
readers make great friends
as they tend to be more
aware of others' emotions.
This is further apparent in a
2013 study that
investigated emotional
transportation, which
is how sensitive people are
to others' feelings.
Researchers calculated
emotional transportation
by having participants express
how a story they
read affected them emotionally
on a five-point
scale — for example, how th
e main character's
success made them feel,
and how sorry they felt
for the characters.
In the study, empathy was
only apparent in the
groups of people who read
fiction and who were
emotionally transported.
Meanwhile, those who
were not transported
demonstrated a decrease
in empathy.
Need more proof? Psychologists
David Comer
Kidd and Emanuele Castano
at the New School
for Social Research focused
on the effect of
literary fiction, rather than
popular fiction, on readers.
For the experiment,
participants either read a
piece of literary fiction or
popular fiction, followed
by identifying facial emotions
solely through the
eyes. Those who read literary
fiction scored
consistently higher, by
about 10%.
"We believe that one critical
difference between
lit and pop fiction is the extent
to which the
characters are complex,
ambiguous, difficult
to get to know, etc.
(in other words, human)
versus stereotyped, simple,"
Castano wrote to Mic.
Literary fiction enhanced
participants' empathy
because they had to work
harder at fleshing
out the characters. The
process of trying to
understand what those
characters are feelings
and the motives behind
them is the same in our
relationships with other
people.
As the Guardian reports, Kidd
argues that applying
the skills we use when reading
critically to the real
world makes sense because
"the same psychological
processes are used to navigate
fiction and real
relationships. Fiction is not
just a simulator of a
social experience, it is a
social experience."
The world around is as rea
l as it gets. Might as
well indulge in some fiction.
Science says it'll
make you better at interacting
with people.
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