Novel Readers have higher emotional Intelligence

Many people are asking themselves if reading has any other benefits than being entertaining. We all love reading because it carries us away to other places and times where we can experience things that we would not otherwise experience. But do you think that you distinguish yourself from the people who don`t read regularly? If the answer is yes you might be right! In recent years science has produced a lot of ecidence, that there are measurable benefits beside the entertainment provided by reading novels. Read on if you want to find out what they have found out. Many of the high earning people in the world are readers. But they usually recommend non-fiction books. If they want their employees to develop better social skills and a higher emotional intelligence they should suggest other books.

In 2020 the Harvard Business Review published an article that suggests that reading fiction novels might lead to better empathy, theory of mind and critical thinking.

https://hbr.org/2020/03/the-case-for-reading-fiction

Theory of mind is a term that is thrown around very often. In a scientific context it means the ability to think about other people`s minds. So someone who ranks high in that scores develops ideas of how the mind of another person works, what they think and why they think that.

For a long time it was assumed that non-fiction increases the social acuity and a sharper ability to comprehend the motives of others. It works because reading fiction allows us to experience and live through different situations. They provide us with alternatives of the world.

A very interesting phenomenon is that novels improve the mind`s ability to keep an open mind, which is an important skill in making decisions. These findings are backed up by a publication of Maja Djikic of the University of Toronto called: “Opening the Closed Mind: The Effect of Exposure to Literature on the Need for Closure” - https://www.researchgate.net/publication/247163935_Opening_the_Closed_Mind_The_Effect_of_Exposure_to_Literature_on_the_Need_for_Closure.

The authors of the study point out that humans who desire a quick conclusion in decision-making have a strong aversion to ambiguity and confusion. They rely on early information cues. What does that mean? It means that they struggle heavily to change their minds once they have taken a decision even if new information is available. This might be the reason why it is sometimes so difficult to discuss with people once they have taken a decision. New facts just don`t enter their minds.

As they also produce fewer alternative scenarios on their own, they usually seem to be very confident in the decisions they make. On the other hand people who weigh all the information often struggle to come to a definitive conclusion. This is the reason intelligent people often seem undecisive while the others are overly confident in what they do. People with rather closed minds tend to accept smaller snippets of information better than anything else. If you are an avid reader you might be more comfortable with competing viewpoints. Maryanne Wulf, cognitive scientist, summarized it with: “The quality of our reading stands as an index to the quality of our thoughts.”

There is an interesting meta-study done by David Dodell-Feder et.al which proved that reading novels a a positive impact on our brain.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29481102/

It was the aim of the study to research many published and unpublished papers to see if there is a common trend, that can be destilled. The name of the publication is:

“Fiction has a small positive impact on social cognition: A meta-analysis”

They investigated 14 studies that compared the effect of fiction-reading to non-fiction reading and no reading at all. It was found that effect is robust and cannot be attributed to publication bias. The finding regarding possible causes for the observed effects are similar to the once mentioned at the beginning of the post. Fiction opens a window to the inner workings and mechanisms of someone else`s mind. Readers actually build up very nuanced mental pictures of the story characters they get to know in the novels. This seems logical as otherwise we would not understand the motivation of the characters to act in a certain way. If that would be the case the book would be boring.

By constructing mental images of the inner workings of others no matter if they are fictional or real the reader improves his ability to perceive, interpret and respond to social information. But the questions remains, what was first?

Do readers have more social acuity and that`s the reason they indulge in novels, books and stories or is it the other way round and the reading improved their skills. The theory of the scientists is that reading is the reason. By simulating story characters, and this includes their social, mental and emotional experiences they are doing mental gymnastics that benefits them in the real world.

These finding are supported by neuroimaging. It shows that there is an overlap of certain circuits of the brain while reading a fictional story and by performing "theory of mind".

Another benefit of a good read is that they provide very concrete content about human psychology as a across distant regions of the world that we don`t have immediate access to.

Prior I have pointed out that the effect is small. But that should not fool anyone of thinking that the practical impact should be neglected. And we should not forget that consuming fiction might have a larger effect with more immersive and longitudinal practice in reading. Another factor should be considered as well. Books might have a different effect on different people. So there is an individual factor and some people might benefit from it more than others.

That is a lot of information that need to be digested. But the most important part is that we should never stop indulge in this pleasurable activity as it is very healthy and improves us in many ways. What do you think about it? Do you see benefits? Do you see differences between readers and non-readers? What is the next book you would like to buy?