Here’s some good news if you’re single, or even if you want to improve communication in your marriage.
A new study from the New School For Social Research in New York says that reading literary fiction can help you interpret people’s emotions.
In other words, you can finally figure out what your girlfriend or boyfriend or husband or spouse or, you get the idea, is thinking!
Here’s how the study’s author, David Kidd, explains it according to Men’s Health Magazine:
Novels often contain unreliable characters or narrators, forcing the reader to fill in the gaps himself. That guessing, in turn, strengthens your ability to understand others’ feelings in real life as well.
He goes on to say that the longer you read, the more insight you have.
I’d love to see a little more from the study to see what type of evidence they have.
Part of the reason I love reading fiction is because I feel like I learn so much about human nature. Most of us are driven by and pursue the same things. Sometimes, reading a novel might bring a little more self-awareness, I believe.
With fiction, you learn about emotions and feelings—the stuff you deal with every day. That’s opposed to nonfiction–which is, for the most part, facts and theories. I’m painting with a broad brush there, but I believe that’s generally true.
So, bottom line: Read more fiction. Get more dates!
