Search Here

In a new study, researchers shed light on the cognitive benefits of reading fiction.

Contrary to conventional beliefs that fiction primarily serves as a form of entertainment, the study suggests that engagement with narrative fiction may significantly enhance cognitive abilities such as verbal skills, empathy and understanding others' perspectives.

Led by Lena Wimmer, a postdoctoral researcher at the Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg, the study published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General aimed to provide an objective assessment of the cognitive impacts of fiction reading.

Through two comprehensive meta-analyses, the researchers analyzed data from a multitude of studies to explore the relationship between fiction consumption and cognitive skills.

The first meta-analysis focused on experimental studies, revealing that reading fiction had a small yet statistically significant positive effect on cognitive skills, particularly in areas related to empathy and theory of mind. This effect was more pronounced when compared with activities like watching fiction or engaging in non-narrative reading.

The second meta-analysis examined the correlation between lifetime exposure to print fiction and cognitive abilities. Results showed a consistent positive relationship between the amount of fiction read over a lifetime and enhanced cognitive skills, especially in verbal and general cognitive abilities.

"This research project suggests that people who read a lot of fiction have better cognitive skills than people who read little or no fiction," Wimmer told PsyPost.

"These benefits are small in size across various cognitive skills, but of medium size for verbal and general cognitive abilities, for example, intelligence. Importantly, there is a stronger association between reading fiction and cognitive skills than between reading nonfiction and those skills."

However, the study also highlighted the complexity of linking cognitive enhancement directly to reading fiction, as discrepancies between experimental and observational studies were observed.

"The aggregate effect obtained in the first meta-analysis may reflect a transient priming response and the overall effect yielded in the second meta-analysis may reflect differences in fiction-reading preferences between people high in verbal and/or general cognitive abilities," the researchers stated in their study.

"Finally, third-variables, such as education level, could underlie the association between lifelong fiction reading and cognition. Lifetime exposure to written fiction might then not be the cause of the cognitive benefits observed."

Wimmer suggested that future longitudinal studies could provide further insights into the causal relationships between fiction reading and cognitive development.

"It would be good to have longitudinal studies that investigate changes of both reading fiction and cognition over time," Wimmer said. "However, it is difficult to raise funds for this kind of research."