Reading fiction stories increases ‘empathy’ in people

 Scientists have claimed that reading fiction stories can make one more empathetic.


Raymond Mar, a psychologist at York University in Canada, discussed how exposure to narrative fiction may improve our ability to understand what other people are thinking or feeling in his session at the American Psychological Association’s 122nd Annual Convention.


Mar explained that understanding stories was similar to the way people understand the real world, and when they read stories, personal experiences are invoked.