For many, there is nothing like immersing yourself in a good fiction novel: we feed our imaginations and we avoid the tasks or worries of the day to day. Now, new research from the Department of Applied Psychology and Human Development at the University of Toronto (Candá) goes a little further, concluding that reading fiction novels also develops our empathy.
According to the researchers, fiction literature can influence a person’s social skills, specifically in relation to their empathic response from letters to the real world.
An early study using functional magnetic resonance imaging to assess brain response to imaginative phrases such as “a dark blue carpet” or “an orange-striped pencil” revealed that only three sentences were sufficient to produce a larger activation of the hippocampus , the brain region associated with learning and memory.
The second study aimed to delve into the influence of fictional literature on individuals . The experts asked a group of adults to look at 36 images of other people and select one of the 4 phrases that they believed best fit what each of them was thinking or feeling.
Compared to participants who read other types of literature, those who read fiction scored significantly higher , indicating a much higher level of empathy.
“ The most important characteristic of the human being is that our lives are social . What is distinctive about human beings is that we make social contacts with other people: with friends, with lovers, with children … that are not pre-programmed by instinct and fiction can increase and help us understand our social experience, ”explains Keith Oatley, leader of the work.
The study has been published in the journal Trends in Cognitive Sciences.
