Reading Literary Fiction Improves Empathy

[hermetic]

This discussion thread is pinned.

Researchers at The New School in New York City have found evidence that literary fiction improves a reader’s capacity to understand what others are thinking and feeling.
...researchers found, to their surprise, a significant difference between the literary- and genre-fiction readers.

When study participants read non-fiction or nothing, their results were unimpressive. When they read excerpts of genre fiction, such as Danielle Steel’s The Sins of the Mother, their test results were dually insignificant. However, when they read literary fiction, such as The Round House by Louise Erdrich, their test results improved markedly—and, by implication, so did their capacity for empathy. The study was published October 4, 2013 in Science.

The results are consistent with what literary criticism has to say about the two genres—and indeed, this may be the first empirical evidence linking literary and psychological theories of fiction.

Full article here: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/novel-finding-reading-literary-fiction-improves-empathy/

[Irish_Dem]

1. If you cannot read, will picture books do the job? Asking for a friend.

[hermetic]

2. Sure,

as long as they're literary, not just basic generic pictures. If you know what I mean.

[Irish_Dem]

3. Rats, my friend only likes certain kind of pictures. If you know what I mean. nt

[Demsrule86]

9. I know you are kidding...but you can rent audio books at libraries. Here in Ohio, you can have a

library card at any library in the state. I have a bunch of cards I use for Libby or Kindle.

[Irish_Dem]

10. Yes I know, the library is a good source of Kindle books.

I need to get back to my Kindle this winter.

[lounge_jam]

4. A great form of human locution

I'm not surprised by this finding/suggestion. Good literature is very likely to make one a well-rounded person. It's not a guarantee, though. But it's still better than any other means.

[Aquaria]

6. I'm wary of this article.

1) There was no link to the actual studies done. The writer didn't even list the title or authors of the meta-study she's referencing. That's sloppy journalism. I don't trust sloppy third-hand accounts of what a study says. I always go to the study itself to see what it says. The article does provide the issue where the study can be found. I'll go to the university library when I have time and look it up, but I could find the article itself from my home computer if I had the title.

2) I outright laughed at the assertion that the benefit of literary fiction is its psychological insights into characters, which the writer asserts that genre or popular fiction doesn't have. Anyone who's read sci-fi authors like Neal Stephenson, Terry Pratchett or Philip K Dick, or mystery authors like, Michael Connelly, Ian Rankin or even John Sandford, would be shocked to learn that they aren't reading books with psychological insights into the characters, be it heroes or villains. Good grief, Philip K Dick has readers thinking, and hard, about who among humans today would pass the storyline's empathy test (not to mention questioning what existence and being means at all) in "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" That takes some serious psychological insight. So maybe it's something else that inspires more empathy in "literary" fiction readers than psychological insights alone. The themes addressed, and how they're addressed, in literary fiction versus genre fiction would be a damned good place to start looking if you ask me.

3) Another problem with the article: The writer keeps jumbling "genre" fiction with "popular" fiction, and there is a difference. Many titles in the popular fiction category are non-genre works, and not all genre fiction is "popular" fiction. Some clarity of terms is in order.

So I'm not buying the argument made in the article. It could be that the writer didn't analyze the original paper about the subject properly. That happens far too often with journalists writing about findings in articles from Science or Nature. Or it could be that the study writers were off-kilter in their assessments.

The only way to know is to read the original paper(s).

Moved to respond to the proper post.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

7. Something else to note is that "literary" fiction is simply another genre.

Like mystery, or science fiction, or romance.

I tend to feel contempt for those who say haughtily, "I ONLY read literary fiction" (like my sister) and who miss out on a lot of good stuff.

I also have a friend who only reads mysteries, and I likewise don't get that. Mysteries are great. Literary fiction is great. Westerns are wonderful. And so on. Please, please read a variety. No you don't have to read everything, but read more than one genre.

Actually, my sister reads more genre fiction than she realizes. But she never reads science fiction (the fool!) not even the stories that I write and publish. Alas, it's her loss.

[hermetic]

8. Any genre

can be classified as literary, as far as I'm concerned. I've often wondered who exactly makes the determination to describe books as literary. To me that just means they are really well-written.

The reason I put this article where people will see it is because of the subject of empathy. It seems to have become an item of interest to more people these past few years due the complete lack of empathy evident in so many now. (You know who I'm talking about.) Wouldn't it be great if we could turn this barrelling train wreck around just by getting everyone to read really good books? Just a thought....

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

12. My sister is very proud of her

"I only read literary fiction" self- identity. Which means she misses a lot, in my opinion.

I read almost everything. I hesitate to start naming the kinds I read, as I will probably leave out some. Here's the thing. I read a huge variety of topics. About half of what I read is non-fiction, in every possible category you might imagine. As for the fiction, I am best telling you the kinds I don't read. Westerns. Hmmm. I think that's it. If a particular book seems interesting, I'll read it.