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Reading Literary Fiction Is Associated With a More Complex Worldview.

Nicholas R ButtrickErin C WestgateShigehiro Oishi
Published in: Personality & social psychology bulletin (2022)
What are the effects of reading fiction? We propose that literary fiction alters views of the world through its presentation of difference -different minds, different contexts, and different situations-grounding a belief that the social world is complex. Across four studies, two nationally representative and one preregistered (total n = 5,176), we find that the reading of literary fiction in early life is associated with a more complex worldview in Americans: increased attributional complexity, increased psychological richness, decreased belief that contemporary inequalities are legitimate, and decreased belief that people are essentially only one way. By contrast, early-life reading of narrative fiction that presents more standardized plots and characters, such as romance novels, predict holding a less complex worldview.
Keyphrases
  • early life
  • working memory
  • healthcare
  • mental health
  • magnetic resonance imaging
  • case control