Scientific evidence that reading certain kinds of books is beneficial

[Benko]

Just as the food we take in effects our bodies, what we choose to read (and watch) effects our minds.

1.  Your Brain on Fiction:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/18/opini ... .html?_r=0

"two studies, published in 2006 and 2009, that individuals who frequently read fiction seem to be better able to understand other people, empathize with them and see the world from their perspective."

This article also points out that:

'The brain, it seems, does not make much of a distinction between reading about an experience and encountering it in real life;"

2. A more recent study published in the journal Science found that after reading literary fiction, as opposed to popular fiction or serious nonfiction, people performed better on tests measuring empathy, social perception and emotional intelligence — skills that come in especially handy when you are trying to read someone’s body language or gauge what they might be thinking. These were the reading selections used in one or more of the experiments in the study:
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/0 ... d-chekhov/

LITERARY FICTION:

“The Runner,”? by Don DeLillo

“Blind Date,”? by Lydia Davis

“Chameleon,”? by Anton Chekhov

“The Round House,”? by Louise Erdrich

“The Tiger’s Wife,”? by Téa Obreht

“Salvage the Bones,”? by Jesmyn Ward

“Corrie,”? by Alice Munro

“Leak,”? by Sam Ruddick

“Nothing Living Lives Alone,”? by Wendell Berry

“Uncle Rock,”? by Dagoberto Gilb

“The Vandercook,”? by Alice Mattinson

POPULAR FICTION:

“Gone Girl,”? by Gillian Flynn

“The Sins of the Mother,”? by Danielle Steel

“Cross Roads,”? by W. Paul Young

“Space Jockey,”? by Robert Heinlein

“Too Many Have Lived,”? by Dashiell Hammett

“Lalla,”? by Rosamunde Pilcher

“Jane,”? by Mary Jane Rinehart

NONFICTION:

“How the Potato Changed the World,”? by Charles C. Mann

“Bamboo Steps Up,”? by Cathie Gandel

“The Story of the Most Common Bird in the World,”? by Rob Dunn

[ns2]

"two studies, published in 2006 and 2009, that individuals who frequently read fiction seem to be better able to understand other people, empathize with them and see the world from their perspective."

A classic case of why you should never listen to pure unadulterated horseshit like this.

1.) What objective criteria about "better able to understand other people", "empathize with them" and "see the world from their perspective" was used in this study?

2.) Is it perhaps possible that those people who were judged to be "better able to understand other people" and "empathize with them" based on the criteria in item #1 were more prone to read fiction? WTF does this prove?

[Jan Van]

I guess you never read literary fiction.

[dualstow]

Interesting study.
I like to keep a balanced diet.

[ns2]

I guess you never read literary fiction.

I read some Shakespeare in high school literature class if that counts (actually I just read the Cliff notes).

I also got into reading the early Tom Clancy novels so maybe that's where the small amount of empathy I have for others comes from.

[Pointedstick]

I highly suspect that ns2 is correct and the correlation goes in the other direction. Similarly, I would imagine that the rate of gun ownership among those who read literary fiction is probably under 5%.

Relevant personal experience backing up these claims: father is a literary fiction writer, grew up around literary fiction writers and literature students

[Benko]

I highly suspect that ns2 is correct and the correlation goes in the other direction.

"subjects who were asked to read just a few minutes of literary fiction, such as works by Don DeLillo or Alice Munro, performed better on subsequent tests measuring empathy, social perception, and emotional intelligence than subjects who were given nonfiction from Smithsonian Magazine or popular fiction like Danielle Steel or Gillian Flynn"

Unless I am misunderstanding you two, your criticism is not valid since you were assuming this was simply a correlative study, which is not correct.

But really this study only confirms what I would argue is obvious.  If you read books by authors with a good feel for human nature (I am finishing War and Peace and Tolstoy is a master of this) they will portray people acting like real people and you will see how/why they behave as they do and you can't help but have a better feel/understanding/empathy for people.  Well, at least if you are at all open to learning new things/sensitive to people.