Journal
JOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN PERSONALITY
Volume 40, Issue 5, Pages 694-712Publisher
ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1016/j.jrp.2005.08.002
Keywords
story; narrative; fiction; non-fiction; reading; social abilities; empathy; theory-of-mind; social cognition; simulation
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While frequent readers are often stereotyped as socially awkward, this may only be true of non-fiction readers and not readers of fiction. Comprehending characters in a narrative fiction appears to parallel the comprehension of peers in the actual world, while the comprehension of expository non-fiction shares no such parallels. Frequent fiction readers may thus bolster or maintain their social abilities unlike frequent readers of non-fiction. Lifetime exposure to fiction and non-fiction texts was examined along with performance on empathy/social-acumen measures. In general, fiction print-exposure positively predicted measures of social ability, while non-fiction print-exposure was a negative predictor. The tendency to become absorbed in a story also predicted empathy scores. Participant age, experience with English, and intelligence (g) were statistically controlled. (c) 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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