A trusted friend recommends reading fiction, watching a movie, or attending a play as a low-cost, riskless, way to sample another life.
A different wise person has an amazingly diverse pallet of acceptable fiction. She loves engaging with characters from scoundrels to heroes and courageous suffering saints, from unschooled to world-class scholars from spies to traitors, from past to future, from every continent and across the galaxy. Different languages, cultures, and religions are within her repertoire. She understands human motivation as well as anyone else I know – largely because of her hours of watching and reading thousands of pages, absorbing countless stories.
My two friends both vigorously make the case that savoring more fiction will help you develop a fuller life. I thought it was an idea worth investigating. Perhaps it’s an idea to try on. Here’s what I’ve found so far.
Research Agrees with My Friends
If you think reading fiction is just entertainment, think again. Several research studies show you can get more from reading fiction than just entertainment.
As my friend suggests, reading fiction can help you experience other worlds and times. A historical novel can carry you to Paris in the time when Gustave Eiffel was alive and building his tower. A science fiction novel can help you examine a world that doesn’t exist but might in the future.
Research suggests reading fiction can help you improve in many ways. A 2013 study by Keith Oakley and colleagues at the University of Toronto concludes that it helps enhance your ability to keep an open mind. Another study found that reading a novel increased connectivity inside the brain which leads to better brain function. Other research suggests reading fiction improves creativity and imagination.
The Big Payoff, According to Research
When I read the research indicating reading fiction will help you improve your emotional intelligence, I thought this could be an idea worth trying out. I devoted an entire chapter in Building Legacy Wealth to emotional intelligence. Here’s an excerpt from that chapter.
“The best investors have and cultivate emotional intelligence. Patient, tactful people close great deals even with principals who act like jerks. Other people go away from jerks feeling self-justified but without a deal. You don’t want to miss superior opportunities just because the other person is difficult. Wise buyers can capture the good property and ignore sellers’ folly or greed.”
The Catch
The catch is that not just any fiction will do. You must read fiction with fully-formed characters. You’re seeking what one research paper called “a deep and immersive simulative experience of social interactions.”
It seems to me that means reading literary fiction. The common mysteries, romances, westerns, and thrillers won’t do.
My only Rhodes scholar friend hosts a book club, whose members are intentionally diverse in both race and religion. We read primarily 100-year-old classics. Our discussions are rich as various members draw out diverse themes. The former President of USC, Steve Sample, author of The Contrarian’s Guide to Leadership, advocates for “supertexts,” volumes that have been in continuous print for at least 400 years. Simple argues that supertexts have strong truth to have remained in print through changing cultures’ intellectual trends.”
What about you?
What do you think about reading fiction for personal development?
Are there any novels or writers you’d recommend?
-o0o-
Terry Moore, CCIM, is the author of Building Legacy Wealth: How to Build Wealth and Live a Life Worth Imitating. Read his “Welcome to My Blog.”