Whether you’re the reader who rips through a new book each week or the one still slogging through that bestseller your friend recommended months ago, psychologists (and their research) say your time is well spent.
And if it’s been a
while since your last date with a good book, the experts have a few
reasons that might convince you to give it another go.
“One of the
benefits to reading fiction is simply that it provides enjoyment and
pleasure,” Melanie Green, PhD, associate professor in the
department of communication at University at Buffalo, tells NBC News
BETTER. “It can provide an escape from boredom or stress.”
Plus, reading has
been shown to help us better understand and interact with other
people, keep our brains sharp, expand our world views and grow as
individuals, Green says. “Stories allow us to feel connected with
others and part of something bigger than ourselves.”
Green researches the
idea of “transportation” — or what makes it possible to get
“lost in a book.” She says it’s more likely to happen if you’re
reading a high-quality text, but “quality” in this case is
subjective and something that gets determined by you. For some it’s
a quick-moving plot that’s critical, while for others engaging
characters or a poetic writing style is most important if you want to
get lost in the storyline. And some people are just more interested
in one type of story (romance, for instance) versus another
(thriller), she adds.
Reading makes us
think and feel in new and different ways, explains Keith Oatley, PhD,
professor emeritus in the department of applied psychology and human
development at University of Toronto. “You give up some of your own
habits and thoughts, and you take on your own idea of being a
different person in circumstances that you might otherwise never had
been in.”
Back in 2009, Oatley
and his colleagues found that after reading one of two different
versions of the same story — one an original piece of fiction and
the other a retelling of the same story written in a non-fiction
style — participants who read fiction changed in their personality
traits more than those who read the non-fiction version of the story,
and reported feeling higher levels of emotions.
Objectively, Oatley
and his colleagues haven’t measured whether these changes might be
labeled as “good” or “positive,” but he says to think about
it in terms of personal growth akin to how we want kids to grow and
develop in their own ways (not because society is telling them to be
one person or another).
“It is very
important in the social world to understand others, to understand
ourselves, and not just get stuck,” he says.
Reading can give us
a sense of belongingness that we all instinctively want as human
beings, according to Green.
Researchers at the
University at Buffalo showed in an experiment that reading actually
satisfies that need for human connection because it can mimic what we
feel during real social interactions. A group of 140 undergraduate
students were asked to read either “Twilight” or “Harry Potter
and the Sorcerer’s Stone” for a half-hour. Afterward the students
reported (psychologically-speaking) becoming part of the characters’
worlds during that time and having some of the same feelings of
satisfaction and happiness that we get from real-world social
interactions.
“Social connection
is a strong, human need,” the study’s author Shira Gabriel, PhD,
associate professor of psychology at UB, said in a press release
shortly after the research was published. “Anytime we feel
connected to others, we feel good in general and feel good about our
lives.”
It bolsters all
sorts of social skills
Reading fiction also
helps us better understand, connect with and interact with others in
the real world (after we put that book down).
“We get to enter
the minds of these other people. And in doing that we understand
other people better,” Oatley says. Research from he and his
colleagues showed that people who reported reading the most fiction
scored higher on both empathy tests and social ability tests.
Research shows that
people who reported reading the most fiction scored higher on both
empathy tests and social ability tests.
If you can identify
with a character in some way, you actually get to lead a different
life (temporarily and, of course, in a limited way), says Oatley.
Multiple studies have replicated these findings, Oatley says. And
data suggests the same area of the brain actually gets fired up when
people read and comprehend fictional stories, as gets activated when
we’re in the process of understanding other people.
Think of learning
how to fly an airplane by using a flight simulator in addition to
flying an actual plane. You get to encounter a lot of different
scenarios where you’re completely safe, but you can learn a lot
about what to do in an emergency, unusual weather conditions, and
more. “Fiction is the mind’s flight simulator,” Oatley says.
And importantly, the
research shows it’s reading fiction that improves empathy and not
the other way around, Oatley adds. (It isn’t that people who are
empathetic happen to prefer to read more.)
Reading is good for
our brains and may even help us live longer
We’ve all heard
from countless grade-school teachers that reading improves our
vocabulary. But neuroscience research shows it’s good for other
cognitive skills, too, by stimulating the neural networks in the
brain that improve our social cognition and conceptual processing of
abstract content. And evidence suggests that may have measurable
benefits in terms of health.
“Reading, by
engaging the brain, may keep the brain active enough to prevent
cognitive decline that is associated with a variety of diseases
associated with earlier mortality,” explains Avni Bavishi, an MD
candidate at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern
University.
A 2013 study found
that people who reported reading and doing other similarly
cognitively stimulating activities throughout their lives had less
cognitive decline compared with people who didn’t read or engage in
other such stimulating activities as much. And a subsequent study by
Bavishi and colleagues showed that people who report reading more
actually live longer on average compared with individuals who didn’t
report reading.
And finally, if you
need a break from the daily grind or everyday stressors, reading can
take your mind away from what’s worrying you — in a good way —
by letting you temporarily escape, Green says.
Studies show that
several types of media, from books to TV shows to music, can
definitely help with mood management.
Of course, ignoring
a problem in the real world isn’t the answer, but spending too much
time thinking about things that are out of your control (like current
events, a pending job offer or family squabbles) isn’t good either,
Green says. So the next time you’re feeling anxious or stressed,
use it as an excuse to dust off the novel on your bedside table.