- So I like to think that
I read a lot of books, but actually the majority
of what I read is fiction rather than kinda useful
productivity books. So I always have a fantasy
series going on Audible, these days the "Wheel of Time" series, and I've also got some sort of paranormal romance
type genre book on Kindle that I read before bed, these days "A Court of Thorn and Roses." But as a self-professed
productivity grease monkey, I've often wondered, is reading
fiction a waste of time, or is it actually good for you? I feel bad about watching
TV or playing video games because it feels like a waste of time, but I would easily stay up until four o'clock in the morning reading about some werewolf and
how he's fallen in love with this girl with psychic powers. - Stranger things happen every day. - Clearly that's not productive either, but for some reason
reading feels more legit than watching TV. So in this episode of "Journal Club," the series where we look
at scientific papers to find some important insights, we're analyzing whether
reading fiction is good for you and therefore whether I'm allowed to continue reading this sort of trash or if I should donate my
multiple signed copies of "Twilight" to a children's library. American author Ann
Patchett famously said, "Reading fiction gives us the ability to feel empathy for
people we've never met, living lives we couldn't possibly
experience for ourselves, because the book puts us
inside the character's skin." Now, I'm gonna be honest. So I'm a doctor, in case you didn't know, but to get into med school
I had to convince a bunch of people that somehow empathy was one of my strongest character traits. But between you and me, I've always kinda struggled
to relate to people when it comes to the realm
of negative emotions. I'm a pretty happy and
privileged guy in general, and so if someone else is
feeling stressed or angry or sad, I often find it hard to
really kind of appreciate where they're coming from. The good news is that
apparently reading fiction helps with social cognition and empathy. So we've got this meta-analysis from 2018 that looked at 14 different
studies all around this link between empathy and fiction,
and they found that, "Compared to nonfiction
reading or no reading, fiction reading leads to a small, statistically significant improvement in social-cognitive performance," which is exactly what I need in my life. There's even some evidence that reading fiction helps
reduce our prejudice and bias, which is particularly important
in these sorts of times. This study from 2014,
for example, said that, "Reading narrative fiction appears to ameliorate biased categorical
and emotional perception of mixed-race individuals." And in fact, my own
first real understanding of racism as a thing came from
reading Malorie Blackman's incredible "Noughts & Crosses" series when I was like 11 years old. Okay, so we've established that I should continue reading fiction to help boost my empathy, but
there's even some evidence that reading fiction helps
boost our cognitive brainpower or performance from a very young age. This study, for example, conducted by the the
website testyourvocab.com, found that reading builds our vocabulary, which is pretty obvious, but they also discovered
that those who read fiction in particular had a much more
varied and deeper vocabulary than those who read nonfiction books. So reading fiction expands our vernacular more than reading nonfiction does. But we've also got some studies that show using functional MRI scanning that different parts of our brain light up when we're reading
different sorts of fiction. We've got this study
from 2013, for example, that shows that when we read fiction, we get the lighting up of
our left temporal cortex, which is the bit of the brain
that deals with language. That's not hugely surprising, but this study from Spain
showed that if you read words like lavender, perfume, and coffee, that reading those words
lights up the smell regions of the brain, which is kinda cool. And we've got this study
from France that shows that if you read about
different motor activities, it lights up different
parts of the motor cortex. So "Ali threw the cat"
(cat meows) would light up a different
part of the brain than "Ali kicked the cat"
(cat meows) because they're two
kinda different actions, and that's kinda cool as well. So does that show that reading
fiction is good for us? Well, no, not directly, but it
does show that when we read, we're also lighting up
different parts of our brain other than just the bits of the
brain that process language. Okay, so we've established that reading fiction is good for empathy, and it's good for language development, but did you know reading
fiction is also good for health in general? This study from the University
of Sussex in the U.K., for example, showed that
reading fiction is better for reducing stress levels
than going for a walk, listening to music, or
playing video games. They said in the paper that, "Reading for as little as
six minutes is sufficient to reduce stress levels by
60%, slowing heart beat, easing muscle tension and
altering the state of mind," whatever that means. And in the same study, they
also showed that reading before bed helps improve
the quality of sleep, so that's another plus point for reading. So that was in the short term, but there is some evidence that reading over the long term helps reduce our cognitive decline as we age and might potentially even
slow down the development of disorders like dementia
and Alzheimer's disease. This study from 2011,
for example, says that, "Being engaged in more
reading and hobby activities and spending more time each
week reading is associated with a lower subsequent
risk of incident dementia." Now, again, this is just a
correlation, not a causation, but it's kinda cool. And in fact we've even got an NHS page that answers the question of whether lifelong reading
could protect against dementia. It says on the page that although these studies "cannot
provide conclusive proof that greater cognitive
activity directly prevents development of mild cognitive impairments or diagnoses of dementia," it does accept that regular
reading could be helpful, and it recommends to
pick up a library card or, in my case, a Kindle
and Audible subscription. Not sponsored. Link in
the video description. So what does all this mean
for my own reading habits? Well, I don't know. To be honest, I read for enjoyment anyway, and when I'm reading fiction, I'm not actively trying to be productive. But I do like it when the
stuff that I do for fun also has some of benefit
over the long run. So who knows? Maybe I'll pick up a PlayStation and start playing some video games and do a video about that, about whether video
games are good for you. I'm sure they are in some way. And I think really the key is
that just having a balance. Obviously if the only thing I did in my life was read fiction, I'd never get anything else done, but I think reading fiction and listening to fantasy audiobooks on Audible does help me wind down. It helps me relax, which means I can be a
productivity grease monkey for the rest of my life. If you liked this video, click here to check out
the "Book Club" series. That's a little playlist of videos where I talk about insights
from popular nonfiction books. And if you wanna read fiction, then I'd really recommend you
check out some fantasy books, and here is a video with my three favorite
fantasy series of all time that you should definitely check out. Thanks for watching, and
see you in the next video. Bye bye.
