You’ve got your nose in a book. Someone like Gaston (Beauty & the Beast) looks on with suspicion. He thinks you are odd, peculiar, strange, and socially awkward because you look at books without pictures. Boy, does he get it wrong!

Gaston cheats at cards, bites his wrestling opponents, and kidnaps the father of the woman he likes. He is so full of himself and out of touch with the people around him, he does not understand what he’s doing is wrong. If anyone is socially awkward, it’s him.

No wonder Belle rejects his advances! She’s not impressed by his brute and brawn and especially not by his cruelty to others. Instead, she thrives on hope and possibility. That’s why when she meets the Beast, she is able to look past his gruff exterior to the person inside. It’s all because she reads.

People People

It’s time to stop assuming readers are introverted, nerdy types. Readers come in all shapes and sizes. Some sit quietly in the corner, while others are in-your-face loud. Some readers are intellectually minded but most of them read for the fun of it. You don’t need a PhD to enjoy a good book.

There’s a genre for every taste too — comedy, fantasy, historical fiction, horror, memoir, mystery, poetry, romance, sci-fi, suspense, thriller, true crime, western, young adult, and so much more. Graphic novels are growing ever popular. Light or heavy, fiction or non-fiction, the choice is yours.

Readers of all types escape into the written word for pages at a time, but in the end they are the real “people” people. They are the anti-Gaston. Why? Because reading builds empathy. The science says so.

Readers Are Nicer

You can thank Rose Turner for her research. A former postgraduate student at Kingston University, now a Psychology lecturer at University of the Arts London, she studies the impact of fiction on emotional intelligence.

You can enjoy fiction in a number of formats whether it’s reading a novel, going to the movies, watching television, or seeing live plays. Turner’s research found that reading fiction, regardless of the genre, was associated with higher levels of empathy and prosocial behavior, like altruism. People who predominantly watched TV were less friendly. Simply put, readers are nicer!

It turns out it is not the fiction that matters as much as how you take it in. When you read, you literally take more time to get to know the characters. Their journey is not spelled out for you in an hour or two. You hear their inner thoughts, all the juicy stuff that gets left out of the movies, TV shows, and plays. Instead, you have to process that information and sit with it. With each page, you experience the world through their eyes. It’s a growing experience, a more fulfilling one, and one you can carry into the real world.

Doesn’t that make you want to pick up a book right this minute? You might be nicer for it.

 

Turner, Rose. (2017). Bookworm, Film-buff or Thespian? Investigating the Relationship Between Fictional Worlds and Real-World Social Abilities. Conference: Kingston University Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Postgraduate Research Conference, Kingston, UK.

Turner, Rose & Felisberti, Fatima. (2019). Relationships Between Fiction Media, Genre, and Empathic Abilities. Scientific Study of Literature. doi:10.1075/ssol.19003.tur

Turner, Rose & Vallée-Tourangeau, Frédéric. (2020). Fiction Effects on Social Cognition: Varying Narrative Engagement with Cognitive Load. Scientific Study of Literature. doi:10.1075/ssol.19008.tur