This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Picking up a book for half an hour may feel like simple downtime, but reading for pleasure appears to do more than just entertain us. Research suggests it can support aspects of cognition and well-being, while also helping us understand and connect with other people.
Reading for pleasure, also called "leisure reading" or "recreational reading," means reading simply because we enjoy it rather than to achieve a particular practical goal. Survey data suggest there may be benefits even among people who spend relatively little time reading. In one survey of more than 4,000 adults, 64% of regular readers reported strong empathy, compared with 61% of people who read rarely and 48% of nonreaders.
The same report found that people who read for just 30 minutes a week were more likely to report understanding other people's feelings. Another U.K. survey found that 41% of respondents said reading made them feel more connected to other people. Reading involves a range of cognitive processes.
A meta-analysis combining results from 40 brain-imaging studies found a common pattern of brain activity during reading in both children and adults, involving regions important for attention, recognizing written words and processing language. It also found differences between children and adults, reflecting changes in the brain systems involved in reading as we develop. But reading reaches beyond recognizing words on a page.
It also engages our imagination. Research using brain imaging has found that reading fiction activates parts of the default mode network, a collection of interconnected brain regions involved in processes including imagining scenes and thinking about other people's mental states. The effect appears particularly interesting when fiction is rich in social content, requiring us to consider what characters might think, feel or do.
In this study, people who read fiction more frequently also performed better on tests of social cognition, our ability to understand other people's thoughts and behavior. Reading passages with greater social content also produced greater activity in parts of the brain network involved in thinking about other people. But the social work of stories did not begin with novels.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
