But why? What does reading material have to do with emotion? Don't insult me by saying that people who mostly read nonfiction are therefore more likely to be robotic automatons who can't experience love. If anything it's the other way around.Does reading more nonfiction improve your ability to reason? Does reading romance novels make you more inclined to fall in love?
Why on earth would it? (Is falling in love even real?) The premise of this study strikes me as on the face of it so ridiculous that I may actually read the fucking paper itself.
I don't follow your line of thought. Why would reading nonfiction make someone more able to experience love?Don't insult me by saying that people who mostly read nonfiction are therefore more likely to be robotic automatons who can't experience love. If anything it's the other way around.
The authors do seem to be implying that people who regularly read literary fiction, as a group, are more likely to have a better understanding of where other people are coming from (theory of mind ) than people who do not. That is certainly the impression that I’ve received from the synopsis. The reason, as suggested by the authors, is that literary fiction "defamiliarises" its readers: "Just as in real life, the worlds of literary fiction are replete with complicated individuals whose inner lives are rarely easily discerned but warrant exploration."
I think it has to do with brain patterns and subtle conformation bias. We think in ways that reflect the world around us. When all you do is read about love (I'm using this as an example, I'm not even sure it exists) you're going to notice romantic things more often. it's not that it affects emotion per se, it's that spending effort on noticing something is going to make you better at noticing it.