Reading is more than a hobby; it's a complex mental exercise that strengthens various cognitive abilities. Business leaders like Warren Buffett and Elon Musk have praised the benefits of reading for gaining knowledge, but the focus has mostly been on non-fiction books.
However, a new study suggests that reading fiction may have unique advantages, especially for verbal skills, empathy, and perspective-taking.
The mental workout of reading literary fiction
While fiction has always been valued, research is now showing its role in cognitive development. Lena Wimmer, a researcher at Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg, aimed to gather evidence to understand the real-world cognitive effects of reading fiction.
Wimmer's team conducted two meta-analyses. The first analyzed the immediate cognitive effects of reading fiction with over 11,000 participants. In over 70 studies, a small but statistically significant improvement in cognitive skills was observed compared to other activities such as watching fiction or doing nothing in particular. Positive effects were particularly seen in the ability to understand others' mental states or 'theory of mind'. empathy and theory of mind (the ability to attribute mental states to oneself and others, or to put oneself in someone else's shoes).
The second meta-analysis reviewed the connection between long-term fiction reading and cognitive abilities across 114 studies and 30,503 individuals. It revealed a consistent positive relationship between extensive fiction reading and improved cognitive function, particularly in verbal and general cognitive skills like problem-solving, reasoning, and abstraction.
The benefits of storytelling
These findings suggest that reading narrative fiction might have unique effects on the brain, offering benefits that are not as evident with other forms of media consumption. The impact also seems to vary based on how frequently and how long fiction is engaged with.
The authors noted in their study that the meta-analyses provide strong evidence for a small positive link between reading fiction and cognitive benefits.
Future studies could further explore the impact of reading fiction on cognition and how individual cognitive differences may interact with reading habits over time.
The findings were reported in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.
