What is it about?
This study showed that fiction reading habits were associated with “desirable” skills and attitudes in social cognition (perception and inference about others) among adults in the United Kingdom (UK), but not among Japanese adults. The correlates of fiction reading habits in the UK included better performance on two different mentalizing tasks (inferring complex mental states from eyes and recognizing basic emotions from facial expressions) and more cautious attitudes toward stereotypes.
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Why is it important?
Previous studies on this topic have limitations, such as heavy reliance on a specific mentalizing task requiring rich vocabulary and a disproportionate focus on Western populations. This study clarifies that the associations of fiction reading habits with positive social cognitive outcomes extend to performance on a mentalizing task that requires minimal vocabulary (basic emotion recognition), but suggests that they may not be generalizable to Eastern populations.
Perspectives
The discrepant findings between the UK and Japan highlight the importance of cross-cultural research on the links between fiction reading and social cognition. It remains to be determined whether the apparent Western-Eastern differences are due to methodological factors (e.g., the use of different experimental materials) or have real cultural origins (e.g., cultural differences in the content of written fiction).
Atsunobu Suzuki
Department of Psychology, The University of Tokyo
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Cross-cultural investigation into the associations of fiction reading habits with mentalizing skills and stereotyping among adults in the United Kingdom and Japan., Psychology of Aesthetics Creativity and the Arts, September 2024, American Psychological Association (APA),
DOI: 10.1037/aca0000719.
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