![]() ![]() The researchers reasoned that this writing would probably be of a lower quality, and perhaps include more one-dimensional characters who act in a predictable way. On the other hand, the genre fiction was taken from an anthology, so it didn’t have the same endorsement from critics. The idea was that really “good” writing, the kind shortlisted for prizes, tends to present a world of more realistic characters into whose heads the reader can clamber – like a training ground for honing your understanding of other people. Then they were tested to see if their theory of mind had improved. Others were asked to read a nonfiction book or nothing at all. ![]() To find out, they asked study participants to read excerpts of either award-winning, so-called “literary fiction” – such as Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations – or popular “genre fiction”, such as crime thrillers and romance novels. It’s not the same as empathy, but the two skills are thought to be closely linked. Together with a colleague from The New School for Social Research in New York, Kidd decided to investigate whether reading can improve our so-called theory of mind – broadly the ability to understand that other people have thoughts and desires, and that these might be different from one’s own. “And as a lifelong reader, it occurred to me that fiction is a place where we regularly get a lot of support in engaging with the unique experiences of other people,” he says. According to a 2016 study by the human resources consulting firm Development Dimensions International, leaders who master empathy tend to outperform others by 40%.īack in 2013, social psychologist David Kidd was thinking about which activities might lead to greater empathy. Though the business world has traditionally side-lined emotional intelligence in favour of factors like confidence and the ability to make important decisions, in recent years it has been more widely regarded as an important skill. So here’s your guide to the proven upsides of reading books – and how to join the exclusive club of people who do it for at least an hour every single day. That’s not to mention the obvious benefits of all the information trapped in their pages. Former US President Barack Obama has said that reading taught him who he is and what he believes in.Įven if you don’t have such grand ambitions, reading books might well give your career a boost the habit has been shown to reduce stress, boost brain functioning and even improve empathy. From the fictional “Earth” software developed in the novel Snow Crash that foreshadowed Google Earth to a short story about sentient telephones that might’ve led to the creation of the internet, reading has planted seeds in the heads of countless innovators. Now it is set to float around our solar system for the next 10 million years or so. Set in a crumbling galactic empire some 50,000 years in the future, the science fiction saga ignited Musk’s interest in space travel when he was a teenager. There, immortalised in etched glass, was a copy of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series of books. A mannequin dressed in a spacesuit occupied the driver’s seat.īut the real surprise was in the glovebox. Instead of equipment or astronauts, the Space X entrepreneur famously loaded it with his car – a cherry-red Tesla Roadster. In February 2018, when Elon Musk’s Falcon Heavy rocket left Earth in a hurricane of smoke, it was carrying an unlikely payload. ![]()
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