Did you know? Reading fiction improves empathy by strengthening the part of the brain that understands others' perspectives. #booksky #fiction #author - ThreadSky

kevin-gallant.bsky.social • 53 days ago

Did you know?

Reading fiction improves empathy by strengthening the part of the brain that understands others' perspectives.

#booksky #fiction #author

Comments

notamaggot.bsky.social•53 days ago

Reading anything improves your cognitive abilities, it would give morons the ability to realize trump is a fucking idiot

thescribeproject.bsky.social•53 days ago

I’d believe it. Although I must say. Tolkien failed to cover the Orc of it all in his books.

madhatterrhapsody.bsky.social•53 days ago

That is interesting and makes sense.

I think overall - reading, writing, and drawing all make you more perceptive and "in tuned" on a day to day basis when you're actively dedicating significant time to either or combinations of those three activities.

teddi129.bsky.social•52 days ago

There’s the rub. 47 didn’t learn to read, let alone discern if a book is fiction or not. Hence the USA is currently steeped in the perspective of 47-I believe the genre is horror with a slash of WTF.

jaimehylton.bsky.social•50 days ago

💙

jimbee.bsky.social•46 days ago

I mostly read non-fiction.
Re fiction:
Did you know?

They make it all up!

oleftra.bsky.social•51 days ago

Wouldn’t reading true stories do the same

benfassbender.bsky.social•53 days ago

Makes so much sense since every member of the Trump family toting crayolas only reads coloring books. Yikes.

piperjc.bsky.social•45 days ago

Yep, I've lived thousands of lives thru books but only one IRL.

shufti.bsky.social•52 days ago

I hadn't thought of it like that, but it makes perfect sense.

jillhturner.bsky.social•52 days ago

It certainly does. So writers and their readers can co-construct new 'perspective taking wiring' in brains that can go on to co-construct more inclusive and kinder Communities in our interconnected World 🌎 And also Audible books have The Power too....

yvonnelenk.bsky.social•51 days ago

Every novel is a mirror. Some readers find themselves. Others learn to see someone else.

crystalsw.bsky.social•48 days ago

Amen to that! If anyone doubts that, you all can look at USA as a cautionary tale, or direct proof of what you say, as our current prez, drumpf, is well-known to NEVER read! Anything!!! Fiction or nonfiction!

puurotyyppi.bsky.social•53 days ago

I do, i read. Same goes for real life news. It improves empathy and the ability to understand other perspectives

shufti.bsky.social•52 days ago

I agree that it ** can ** improve empathy and understanding of other perspectives, but think there is a pretty large portion of people who select whatever matches their own inclinations and ignore evidence to the contrary. Stuck, in other words.
1/2

shufti.bsky.social•52 days ago

In more words, very interesting perspective here: "Motivated ignorance involves a form of ignorance that is driven not by the costs of acquiring knowledge but by an active aversion to possessing it."
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11229-020-02549-8

lisasmuffins.bsky.social•53 days ago

I guess Elon Musk has never read fiction

jmarshallfreeman.bsky.social•53 days ago

That’s why people who tell me it’s a waste of time to read anything but non-fiction low-key frighten me.

shufti.bsky.social•52 days ago

Me too - and worse, some even deride those who are curious, and want to learn.

freebo.bsky.social•49 days ago

I always thought it was a bad sign that kids used the word brainiac as an insult.

shufti.bsky.social•49 days ago

It's happened forever, I think. I remember it in my class at school many years ago. It's perhaps the unease arising from difference, and the pressure to conform. Perhaps just nastiness unchecked. Learnt, maybe. Some have to 'cover up' their difference or stand out, risking being made a scapegoat.

jmarshallfreeman.bsky.social•49 days ago

The responses turned into “those who want to learn” vs “those who don’t,” but the point is about the importance of reading fiction.

shufti.bsky.social•49 days ago

Good call, one of my many faults is tangential thinking - and getting very much off-point. Apologies!

thedoctorisoff.bsky.social•43 days ago

Regardless of its veracity of empathy, reading fiction does realign neural activity: "accessing knowledge about characters resembles accessing knowledge about the self." I'd like empathy to be an effect, but I'll happily settle for self-knowledge.

thedoctorisoff.bsky.social•43 days ago

--Broom et. al. "Becoming the King in the North: identification with fictional characters is associated with greater self-other neural overlap," Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci

jorge-s.bsky.social•53 days ago

Just wait 'til @stephenking.bsky.social finds out! He'll have to rewrite … everything.

mace-games.bsky.social•53 days ago

It will soon be outlawed in certain countries then!
Farenheit 451, the consistent temperature of 45/47s apoplexy

angelakmarx.bsky.social•53 days ago

I did not know that. Perhaps it's why I'm very empathetic.

I've been a voracious reader of novels since around age 8 in the late 1960s, starting with A Wrinkle in Time (L'Engle) and Have Spacesuit will Travel (Heinlein).

mcjamesz.bsky.social•53 days ago

I'm not convinced it does.

I'm regularly surprised people read & love books, but miss the messages.

Eg Dickens fans dismissive based on class, Harry Potter fans bullying based on difference, Wilfred Owen fans being hawks.

I think for some people stories are just a series of things that happen.

gmacdonell.bsky.social•53 days ago

Ok. I will do it.

mdanielsmith.bsky.social•41 days ago

Writing fiction improves sanity by giving the voices in your head something to do..

barry1.bsky.social•48 days ago

More empathy needed in Musk-Trump-Vance era of billionaires first.

natayasworlds.bsky.social•53 days ago

That's why I have empathy overload I guess

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