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Despite all the other easy distractions available to us today, there’s no doubt that many people still love reading. Books can teach us plenty about the world, of course, as well as improving ...
Jun 7, 2018 · Fantasies The Real-Life Benefits of Reading Fiction Research reveals how compelling stories can make us better people. Posted June 7, 2018 | Reviewed by Abigail Fagan
- Empathy: Imagining Creates Understanding
- Disengagement: Reading Is Most Effective For Stress
- Sleep: Regular Readers Sleep Better
- Improved Relationships: Books Are A ‘Reality Simulator’
- Memory: Readers Have Less Mental Decline in Later Life
- Inclusivity: Stories Open Your Mind
- Vocabulary: Fiction Readers Build More Language
- Creativity: Fictions Allows For Uncertainty
- Pleasure: Reading Makes You Happier
- Over to You!
To put yourself in the shoes of others and grow your capacity for empathy, you can hardly do better than reading fiction. Multiple studies have shown that imagining storieshelps activate the regions of your brain responsible for better understanding others and seeing the world from a new perspective. When the psychologist Raymond Mar analyzed 86 fM...
Your brain can’t operate at maximum capacity 24/7—far from it. We all need periods of disengagement to rest our cognitive capabilitiesand get back to peak functionality. Tony Schwartz talks about this as one of the most overlooked elements of our lives: Even the fastest racing car can’t win the race with at least one or two great pit stops. The sam...
In fact, the kind of relaxed disengagement that reading creates can become the perfect environment for helping you sleep. Creating a sleep ritual is a great way to build up a consistent sleep pattern. One of the key things is to have the last activity completely disengage you from the tasks of the rest of your day. Buffer’s CEO, Joel, has a ritual ...
Life is complicated. Oftentimes, interpersonal relationships and challenges don’t have the simple resolutions we might like. How can we become more accepting of this reality? By using fiction to explore ideas of change, complex emotions and the unknown. Keith Oatley, an emeritus professor of cognitive psychology at the University of Toronto, propos...
We know that hearing a storyis a great way to remember information for the long-term. Now there’s also evidence that readers experience slower memory declined later in lifecompared to non-readers. In particular, later-in-life readers have a 32 percent lower rate of mental decline compared to their peers. In addition to slower memory decline, those ...
Can reading Harry Pottermake us more inclusive, tolerant and open-minded? One study says yes. (A butterbeer toast for everyone!) The study, published in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology,tested whether the novels of Harry Potter could be used as a tool for improving attitudes toward stigmatized groups. After 3 experiments in which students r...
We all want the kind of vocabulary that can help us express ourselves and connect with others. Fiction can help you get there. A 2013 Emory University compared the brains of people after they read fiction (specifically, Robert Harris’ Pompeii over nine nights) to the brains of people who didn’t read. The brains of the readersshowed more activity in...
In the movies, we often long for a happy ending. Have you noticed that fiction can be much more ambiguous? That’s exactly what makes it the perfect environment for creativity. A study published inCreativity Research Journal asked students to read either a short fictional story or a non-fiction essay and then measured their emotional need for certai...
All the above factors are great. But the very biggest reason I try to read every single day? I love it. It makes me happy, and I’m not alone—a survey of 1,500 adult readers in the UK found that 76% of them said reading improves their life and helps to make them feel good. Other findings of the survey are that those who read books regularly are on a...
Can you tell a difference in yourself when you take some time out to read fiction? What are some of your favorite books or genres for reading? I’d love to hear all your thoughts and recommendations in the comments!
Feb 13, 2023 · The translation of these studies suggests that reading fiction can help people become more observant, compassionate, and emotionally responsive. For instance, they will have an easier time ...
Aug 28, 2020 · The Link Between Fiction and Empathy. In 2006, Oatley and his colleagues published a study that drew a strong connection between reading fiction and better performance on widely used empathy and social acumen tests. They tested participants on their ability to recognize author names, which helped them gauge how much fiction they read.
Jan 27, 2022 · Exiting our self-narratives and simulating others’ mental states is behind the mechanism of fiction’s transformational powers. Reading fiction can help increase cognitive empathy and teach us ...
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Jul 22, 2016 · "That enables us to better understand people, better cooperate with them." In 2006, Oatley helped conduct a study that linked reading fiction to better performance on empathy and social acumen tests.
