Read your way to being a nicer person

摘要

Read any good books lately? If so, friends and family might be feeling a spin-off benefit. It seems reading literary fiction temporarily enhances your ability to empathise with others. The ability to detect and understand others' emotions, and to infer their beliefs and intentions is known as theory of mind. David Comer Kidd and Emanuele Castano at the New School for Social Research in New York tested whether exposure to literary fiction - stories with more complex characters - boosts this.