What You Read Matters: The Role of Fiction Genre in Predicting Interpersonal Sensitivity

Previous studies have found a positive relationship between exposure to fiction and interpersonal sensitivity. However, it is unclear whether exposure to different genres of fiction may be differentially related to these outcomes for readers. The current study investigated the role of four fiction genres (i.e., Domestic Fiction, Romance, Science-Fiction/Fantasy, and Suspense/Thriller) in the relationship between fiction and interpersonal sensitivity, controlling for other individual differences. Participants completed a survey that included a lifetime print-exposure measure along with an interpersonal sensitivity task. Some, but not all, fiction genres were related to higher scores on our measure of interpersonal sensitivity. Furthermore, after controlling for personality, gender, age, English fluency, and exposure to nonfiction, only the Romance and Suspense/Thriller genres remained significant predictors of interpersonal sensitivity. The findings of this study demonstrate that in discussing the influence of fiction print-exposure on readers it is important to consider the genre of the literature being consumed.

[1]  Melanie C. Green,et al.  This Story Is Not for Everyone: Transportability and Narrative Persuasion , 2010 .

[2]  Anat Rachel Shimoni,et al.  Gender, genre, and writing style in formal written texts , 2003 .

[3]  Richard J. Gerrig,et al.  What readers bring to the processing of fictional texts , 1997 .

[4]  O. John,et al.  Paradigm shift to the integrative Big Five trait taxonomy: History, measurement, and conceptual issues. , 2008 .

[5]  Chris Moore,et al.  Exposure to media and theory-of-mind development in preschoolers , 2010 .

[6]  Keith Oatley,et al.  Exploring the link between reading fiction and empathy: Ruling out individual differences and examining outcomes , 2009 .

[7]  Shira Gabriel,et al.  Becoming a Vampire Without Being Bitten , 2011, Psychological science.

[8]  D. Gardner.  Vocabulary input through extensive reading: A comparison of words found in children's narrative and expository reading materials , 2004 .

[9]  S. Baron-Cohen,et al.  The "Reading the Mind in the Eyes" Test revised version: a study with normal adults, and adults with Asperger syndrome or high-functioning autism. , 2001, Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines.

[10]  Keith Oatley,et al.  The Function of Fiction is the Abstraction and Simulation of Social Experience , 2008, Perspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

[11]  Keith E. Stanovich,et al.  Multiple indicators of children's reading habits and attitudes: Construct validity and cognitive correlates. , 1992 .

[12]  Markus Appel.  A Story About a Stupid Person Can Make You Act Stupid (or Smart): Behavioral Assimilation (and Contrast) as Narrative Impact , 2011 .

[13]  Peter Dixon,et al.  The scientific study of literature: What can, has, and should be done , 2011 .

[14]  Asli Ozyurek,et al.  Evaluation during the understanding of narratives , 1997 .

[15]  Jordan B. Peterson,et al.  Bookworms versus nerds: Exposure to fiction versus non-fiction, divergent associations with social ability, and the simulation of fictional social worlds , 2006 .

[16]  L. A. Pervin.  Handbook of Personality: Theory and Research , 1992 .

[17]  E. Flynn,et al.  Gender and Reading. , 1983 .

[18]  Anna Janssen,et al.  Readers’ Perceptions of Author Gender and Literary Genre , 2005 .

[19]  Sarah Steiner.  Gender, Genre, and Writing Style in Formal Written Texts , 2014 .

[20]  R. Fildes.  Conditioning Diagnostics: Collinearity and Weak Data in Regression , 1993 .

[21]  K. Schneider.  The lure of excess , 2002 .

[22]  Lisa Zunshine,et al.  Why We Read Fiction: Theory of Mind and the Novel , 2006 .

[23]  Keith Oatley,et al.  Why Fiction May be Twice as True as Fact: Fiction as Cognitive and Emotional Simulation , 1999 .

[24]  Richard J. Gerrig,et al.  Readers' Trait-Based Models of Characters in Narrative Comprehension☆ , 2001 .

[25]  Sonia Zyngier,et al.  Directions in Empirical Literary Studies: In honor of Willie van Peer , 2008 .

[26]  K. Zabrucky,et al.  INFLUENCE OF TEXT GENRE ON ADULTS' MONITORING OF UNDERSTANDING AND RECALL , 1999 .

[27]  S. Larsen,et al.  Personal remindings while reading literature , 1988 .

[28]  M. Stokmans,et al.  Genre Categorization and its Effect on Preference for Fiction Books , 2000 .

[29]  P. Dixon,et al.  Readers' Knowledge of Popular Genre , 2009 .

[30]  David A. Belsley,et al.  Conditioning Diagnostics: Collinearity and Weak Data in Regression , 1991 .

[31]  Richard J. Gerrig,et al.  Experiencing Narrative Worlds: On the Psychological Activities of Reading , 1993 .

[32]  Rolf A. Zwaan.  Effect of genre expectations on text comprehension. , 1994 .

[33]  Melanie C. Green,et al.  Narrative impact : social and cognitive foundations , 2003 .

[34]  Hilary Horn Ratner,et al.  Effects of Passage Type on Comprehension Monitoring and Recall in Good and Poor Readers , 1992 .

[35]  Leonard Reinecke,et al.  Media psychology , 2004, Z. für Medienpsychologie.

[36]  K. Stanovich,et al.  Exposure to print and orthographic processing. , 1989 .

[37]  Suzanne E. Mol,et al.  To read or not to read: a meta-analysis of print exposure from infancy to early adulthood. , 2011, Psychological bulletin.

[38]  Keith E. Stanovich,et al.  Reading in the Real World and Its Correlates. , 1993 .

[39]  Keith Oatley,et al.  Emotion and narrative fiction: Interactive influences before, during, and after reading , 2011, Cognition & emotion.

[40]  J. Tolmie.  Medievalism and the Fantasy Heroine , 2006 .