How Reading Fiction Can Improve Your Social Skills

Perhaps it’s due to the way movies and television programs portray bookworms, but people who like to read are often portrayed as socially awkward. Interestingly enough, a new study shows that reading fiction can actually improve your social skills [PDF] . Here’s why.

Susan Cain, and expert on introversion, elaborates:

This could of course be correlation rather than causation — maybe the kind of person who likes fiction is more empathic to start with — but the researchers think not. They believe that there’s something about exposure to fiction — the direct immersion in another person’s mind and body — that stimulates our empathic muscles.

So while it’s entirely possible for fiction lovers to be shy and appear to lack some social skills, it’s also possible that they’ve developed a great ability to empathise with others that isn’t entirely apparent. If you’re a bit shy and love to read fiction, the good news is that you might be more socially adept than you realise.

How Reading Improves Your Social Life [Psychology Today]