This can help us find \u201cbetter insight into our own experiences, insight into the experiences of others who are very different from us,\u201d said Raymond Mar, a professor of psychology at York University in Toronto, who recently wrote a review on the benefits of reading narrative fiction. \u201cIt just tends to evoke a form of reflection and contemplation, which can only be good for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Why reading is actually social<\/p>\n
Social health is important for overall health. And it turns out that reading, though often thought of as a solitary activity, can boost our social abilities.<\/p>\n
To understand why, it helps to look at how reading shapes us as we grow.<\/p>\n
Between ages 4 and 6, children develop a theory of mind \u2013 the ability to understand that others have different beliefs, perspectives and feelings. Studies find that children exposed to more storybooks are further along this developmental milestone than those exposed to fewer ones, Mar said.<\/p>\n
A 2025 meta-analysis of 21 studies found that children who read more storybooks had more empathy. And there is evidence that empathy and reading go both ways. Better reading comprehension was a predictor of empathy later in life, while empathy also was a predictor of better reading ability, according to a 2024 study of more than 900 children. And adolescents who read more for fun became more social adults, a 2023 study found.<\/p>\n
Reading fiction \u201cpresents to us a complex cognitive and emotional simulation of the social world,\u201d which is useful in the real world, Mar said.<\/p>\n
The power of storytelling<\/p>\n
These benefits may be due, in part, to the power of storytelling.<\/p>\n
Neuroimaging studies find that brain networks involved in understanding stories overlap with brain networks needed for theory of mind. This suggests that \u201cwhile engaging with stories, we\u2019re also pulling online the same kinds of brain networks that we use to understand other people,\u201d said Mar, who wrote a review about these studies.<\/p>\n
Other forms of storytelling, such as television and movies, may provide similar benefits, but \u201cone of the things that you do when you read is you have to construct the world\u201d in your head, Buttrick said. \u201cThe world is not given to you. You have to do the work of imagining.\u201d<\/p>\n
This extra work may amplify the benefits of engaging in a story.<\/p>\n
Spending time with our favourite story characters may also help us feel connected. \u201cEven if our friends aren\u2019t around and can\u2019t get together, we can always open up a book,\u201d Mar said.<\/p>\n
Reading can be a social activity, too, one that reinforces the joys and benefits of reading. Book clubs, shared reading organisations and social media communities like BookTok can connect us with other readers and add yet another layer to building our social cognitive abilities.<\/p>\n
Talking to others about the books you read means you\u2019re not only imagining the characters in a story, but also gaining an understanding of how other people respond to those characters, Buttrick said.<\/p>\n
Exposure to difference<\/p>\n
Beyond helping our social cognition, reading fiction can expand our world and our understanding of its complexities. Good authors are master observers of the human condition and can expose us to experiences outside our comfort zone.<\/p>\n
\u201cReading is an encounter with difference, with a different kind of mind, a different place, a different approach to the world,\u201d Buttrick said. \u201cAnd so a lot of the places where I think reading is most interesting are in places where it smashes this up with difference as strongly as it can.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a 2022 study of more than 5000 people published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Buttrick and his colleagues found that those who grew up reading more literary fiction were more likely to become adults with more complex worldviews \u2013 with more nuance, more psychological richness and intellectual humility.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think if we want to live in a world in which everyone\u2019s treated as something like an individual, knowing that the world is complex, especially socially complex, is probably really good,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
But there are inherent difficulties with studying the effects of reading because \u201creading is a part of a person\u2019s life,\u201d Buttrick said. \u201cAnd when people have more time, more space to read, more inclination to read, they\u2019re not doing that at random.\u201d<\/p>\n
Benefits probably take time to accrue, and socioeconomic status is a strong predictor of reading behaviour and ability, though a 2025 study of more than 14,000 students found that leisure reading had the largest benefits for children whose parents had less education.<\/p>\n
\u201cSuccessful art resonates with a great number of people because it captures something about being human that appeals to us and maybe that we don\u2019t fully understand,\u201d Mar said.<\/p>\n
Reading fiction can expand our world and our understanding of its complexities. Photo \/ 123rf<\/p>\n
How to read more<\/p>\n
Start slow<\/p>\n
Mar recommends getting off your phone before going to bed and spending that time reading instead. \u201cMaybe you have to build up to an hour,\u201d he said. \u201cBut you can start with 15 minutes and then work to 30 minutes, then 45 in an hour before you go to sleep. It\u2019s probably a good thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cultivate a habit<\/p>\n
Consistency is key. \u201cI don\u2019t think that any one book will change a person\u2019s life,\u201d Buttrick said. \u201cI think it\u2019s the accretion of lots of books, you know, reading again and again and again, that really has an effect on how people think about the world more broadly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dive into the vast diversity of reading<\/p>\n
Different forms of reading \u2013 short stories, graphic novels and fan fiction, for example \u2013 also count. Given his busy work schedule and reading of academic journals, Mar prefers to read short stories. \u201cIt\u2019s hard for me to commit to a book,\u201d said Mar, who has most recently read the works of Irish writer Claire Keegan.<\/p>\n
(Buttrick is currently reading Spencer Ackerman\u2019s Reign of Terror and gearing up to read William Vollmann\u2019s 3000-plus-page novel, A Table for Fortune. And I\u2019ve been reading through my collection of Terry Pratchett, who is a hilarious satirical writer, including Small Gods, which tackles religion, and The Truth, which is about journalism.)<\/p>\n
Audiobooks can be beneficial, too<\/p>\n
Buttrick said audiobooks still count as reading. In fact, the format may make certain books easier to grasp. Listening to James Joyce\u2019s Ulysses not only makes it easier to understand and funnier, but also makes \u201cyou realise how much of it is just a song,\u201d Buttrick said.<\/p>\n
Remember that reading should be enjoyable<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think of reading as a monastic experience that you have to do alone at night in order to grow as a person,\u201d Buttrick said. Lean into what you enjoy.<\/p>\n
Make it social<\/p>\n
Book clubs are excellent and flourishing. It\u2019s nice to have an accountability partner and others with whom to share perspectives, Buttrick said.<\/p>\n
Read unselfconsciously. Reading is for enjoyment<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of times people seem embarrassed about the things that they\u2019ve been reading,\u201d Mar said. But \u201cthere\u2019s nothing to be embarrassed about whatever you\u2019re reading\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This can help us find \u201cbetter insight into our own experiences, insight into the experiences of others who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":579128,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[27309,192,21972,489,1596,3013,13251,156,1173,2082,6101,6871,111,139,69,2682,1111,16708,1072,98829,6432,37733,102,1959],"class_list":["post-579127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-added","tag-are","tag-benefit","tag-books","tag-brain","tag-but","tag-connect","tag-entertainment","tag-fiction","tag-for","tag-good","tag-has","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-others","tag-reading","tag-skills","tag-social","tag-strengthen","tag-surprising","tag-understand","tag-with","tag-your"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=579127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/579128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=579127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=579127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=579127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}