If You Read a Lot of Fiction, Scientists Have Very Good News About Your Brain

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It’s a big day for bookworms: scientists studying how reading fiction affects the brain say the news is very good.

Why Researchers Decided to Investigate Fiction Reading

In an interview with PsyPost, Lena Wimmer, a postdoctoral researcher at Germany’s Maximilian University, explained that she and her colleagues wanted to lay the groundwork for quantitative studies on fiction’s effect on thinking. To their delight, they found that reading fiction is better for cognitive skills than some critics suggest.

“Over the last decades, scholars from several disciplines have claimed far-reaching benefits — but also potential disadvantages — of reading fiction for cognition in the real world,” she told the website. “I wanted to get an objective, quantitative overview of the relevant empirical evidence in order to decide whether any of these assumptions is supported by empirical studies.”

How the Meta-Analyses Were Conducted

To determine how reading fiction affects the brain, Wimmer and her co-researchers conducted two meta-analyses. The first, published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, examined studies measuring cognitive function in people who read various types of fiction. The second analyzed data from longitudinal studies linking lifelong fiction readership with cognitive outcomes, ranging from abstract thinking and reasoning skills to the ability to empathize with others.

Key Findings from the First Meta-Analysis

In the first meta-analysis, which included data from 70 studies and more than 11,000 participants, the researchers found that reading fiction had a small but “statistically significant” positive effect on subjects’ cognition. In particular, people who read more fiction showed better ability to empathize with others and understand their perspectives, PsyPost explains.

The analysis also revealed that reading fiction was more beneficial compared to doing nothing or watching fiction on screen than it was when compared with reading nonfiction.

Results of the Second Meta-Analysis

The second meta-analysis, which included 114 studies and more than 30,000 participants, found an even stronger positive correlation between reading fiction and cognitive abilities — especially verbal skills, reasoning, abstract thinking, and problem-solving. As in the first analysis, researchers observed a general trend toward improved emotional cognitive abilities such as empathizing, although this correlation was less pronounced.

Overall Conclusions

Overall, Wimmer said, both meta-analyses demonstrated similar trends: “That people who read a lot of fiction have better cognitive skills than people who read little or no fiction.”

“These benefits are small in size across various cognitive skills, but of medium size for verbal and general cognitive abilities,” she told PsyPost. “Importantly, there is a stronger association between reading fiction and cognitive skills than between reading nonfiction and those skills.”

While not definitive proof, the research provides a solid framework for further study into how different reading habits influence our brains. For now, the fiction section appears to hold the advantage.

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