That Good-Books-Are-Good-For-You Study
A recent Huffington Post article summarizing a study published in Science suggests that reading literary fiction improves our ability to 'read minds' and so better navigate our inter-personal worlds.
The authors of the study "designed five related experiments. In each...subjects...read 10-15 pages of either literary or popular writing" (Chekhov or Danielle Steel) Then, "when participants finished their excerpts, they took tests designed to measure" mind reading. "in one test...(readers) looked at a face for 2 seconds and decided whether the person appeared happy, angry, afraid, or sad." In another, "they saw only a small slice of a face and picked from four complex emotions such as "contemplative" and "skeptical"."
"Those who read "literary" works scored significantly higher...than those who read popular selections."
But what are the tests measuring? The absorbing of goodness, a mental realignment or the awakening of mindfulness?
One of the study's authors is quoted as believing the results "show that fiction's power doesn't hinge on exposing readers to foreign viewpoints or offering a persuasive, empathetic message. "For us, it's not about the content. It was about the process."" In other words, the ability to fathom or figure out an ambiguously sketched description or relationship.
But couldn't the study be proving something else? That our minds are temporarily realigned by stories imbued with wonder and power. And that this heightened mental state makes it easier to do well on just about anything, including tests that gauge our ability to 'mind-read'. If this is the case, literary fiction's effect is generated by both process and content.
I'm reminded of a poorly designed piece of 'modern art' that reaches for the ambiguity sauce and comes away with a recipe devoid of the savory.
Which is why this study, and others that might be imagined, are at the mercy of well-chosen, powerful content.
As for whether literary fiction has a temporary or lasting effect on our minds, like everything else in life, the effect is probably most intense initially, wanes over time, but can be compounded.
