In addition to being enjoyable, reading intellectually stimulating fiction books, including topics on history, scientific dissemination, nature, and the world around us, can stimulate the brain's neural circuits and keep it active. A man from La Mancha spends so much time reading chivalry novels that, disturbed, he sets out into the world to emulate his heroes. A married woman dreams so intensely of living a romance novel that she ends up deceived, humiliated, desperate, leaving her doctor husband widowed and her daughter orphaned. Or a young man of sensitive and passionate character, an avid reader of poetry, tragedies, and Rousseau, whose exalted vision of love and death leads him to suicide. These three examples - Alonso Quijano, Emma Bovary, and Werther - star in great works of universal literature that use the negative effects of reading, exaggerated to the extreme, as the starting point of their plot. But as old as the idea of the harmful effects of reading on the lives and brains of some readers is the opposite idea: that in novels, there are life lessons that make us better, showing us other lives in a much more effective way than essays, history books, or self-help manuals, for example.
But now it is not just an intuition, but a reality supported by the latest scientific studies. They claim that fiction - devouring novels and stories as we do in the summer - not only provides aesthetic pleasure and entertainment but also tangible benefits to our brain. For example, it develops attention span, critical thinking, helps seek comfort, and can even make us happier by developing empathy.
It would be futile to choose just one or two out of the thousands of studies of all kinds that defend the benefits of reading in general. "Many of these benefits arise from a general effect that involves a connection between the visual part of reading, the phonological part of reading pronunciation, conceptual networks, and all that work of sustained attention," says Argentine neuroscientist Mariano Sigman, author of books like "The Power of Words" or "Artificial. The new intelligence and the outline of the human" (both in Debate). According to the essayist, each of these factors produces very substantial changes in the brain: "It is difficult to separate the contribution of each aspect of reading. This activity involves a lot of things, from the mechanics of reading to the specific simulation exercise of fiction."
At this point, in the decisive role of fiction, is where doubts are most evident. "In these matters, the popular conviction is often greater than what the scientific literature shows," Sigman asserts. "I myself am a great advocate of reading fiction and try to get my children to read as much as possible. I believe it is good, that it makes life better, but it would be an illusion to think that it is a kind of element that develops social cognition per se, or that guarantees good functioning of empathy or imagination. There are many people who read fiction very regularly and do not function well in any of these areas, and there are also people who never touch a novel and perform quite well."
"Reading fiction makes life better, but it would be an illusion to think that it guarantees good functioning of empathy or imagination," Mariano Sigman
However, the expert does bring up a specific study, the only one he claims to know, that has conducted a very rigorous comparison between fiction reading and general reading. "It shows an effect that is not huge, but it does exist, in areas related to the performance of social cognition tasks," he says before qualifying some negative effects of reading: "Although we see it as a very noble exercise in contrast, for example, with the use of social networks, it is a profoundly solitary exercise, in which one isolates oneself and does not practice social bonding. One exercises it in the intimacy of the mental space, and it is important to take that into account."
From one neuroscientist to another, Sigman is contradicted by his colleague Barbara J. Sahakian, professor of clinical neuropsychology in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Cambridge: "My work over several decades has shown that shared reading, practicing it with other people, aloud or individually, or even commenting on readings afterward, reduces loneliness in children and young people, estimated by the World Health Organization (WHO) to affect between 5 and 15%."
Additionally, the former president and founder of the International Neuroethics Society adds that a study conducted by her team and published in the journal Psychological Medicine demonstrated the benefits of reading in the early stages of life. "In a large sample of over 10,000 children and young people, we found that those who read for pleasure in adolescence had better brain structure, cognition, academic performance, longer sleep duration, and better mental health, including fewer symptoms of attention deficit, stress, and depression. They also spent less time in front of screens and had better social interactions," summarizes the researcher.
And she goes further to explain that neuroimaging studies can help identify the brain regions and networks involved in the benefits obtained from reading. "In a functional magnetic resonance imaging study, Princeton University neuropsychologist Diana Tamir and her colleagues demonstrated that reading fiction with social content activates the brain's default network," she says. "This phenomenon is associated with better social cognition, such as empathy or understanding others, mood control, motivational drive, and creative thinking."
"In addition to being enjoyable, reading intellectually stimulating fiction books stimulates the brain's neural circuits and keeps it active, especially in old age," Barbara J. Sahakian
As Sahakian emphasizes, the benefits should not be limited to children and young people but something that can be practiced and obtained throughout life. "In addition to being enjoyable, reading intellectually stimulating fiction books, including topics on history, scientific dissemination, nature, and the world around us, can stimulate the brain's neural circuits and keep it active," she insists. A few years ago, the neuroscientist co-published an article in the British Medical Journal titled "Use it or Lose it," addressing the idea that if we do not use our brains and keep them active throughout life, they will deteriorate and lose functionality. "Continuing to learn new things throughout life is beneficial for reducing the risk of cognitive decline with age. Longitudinal studies have shown that engaging in cognitively stimulating activities, such as reading, reduces the risk of dementia in older adults."
But beyond talking about ages, reading, especially fiction, is also a matter of gender. The popular impression holds that novels and stories are more for women, while men focus on non-fiction, essays, and manuals aimed at improving life, business, personal relationships, or understanding the world. That is, productive readings and not just stories to pass the time. But what do the data say? Although the Barometer of Reading Habits in Spain does not provide exact figures broken down by literary genres and genders, certain conclusions can be drawn. Of the total readers in our country, which in 2024 reached a record percentage of 65.5%, 72% are women and 59% are men. This gap is similar to that of the European Union, as a Eurostat survey stated that in 2023 the women/men discrepancy was 60.5% versus 44.5%.
Regarding fiction reading, 73% of women claim to read romantic or contemporary novels, something that only 32% of men do, who lean more towards non-fiction genres such as history, biography, economics, technology, politics, or science. This duality allows us to dissociate, in a broad sense, the purposes of reading: for men, a subsequent benefit seems more important, while for women, the pure pleasure of doing it.
But which came first, the chicken or the egg? In other words, do women read more fiction because they are more empathetic? Or, conversely, does reading more novels make them more empathetic? "A study by psychologist and neuroscientist David M. Greenberg and his colleagues showed that women, on average, are more empathetic than men, better at imagining or understanding another person's thoughts or feelings," highlights Sahakian. "This ability can provide women with an advantage, in addition to greater enjoyment, when reading fiction, as they can better understand the motivations, thoughts, and behavior of the characters."
Of the total readers in our country, which in 2024 reached a record percentage of 65.5%, 72% are women and 59% are men
Now let's analyze the other side: why do men seek utilitarianism in reading and denigrate fiction compared to more practical genres? "There is no neurological reason for this gender bias, but when women lean towards something, such as reading fiction, cultures tend to denigrate that activity as valuable or edifying," says American Christine Seifert, a doctor in English with a specialization in rhetoric and professional writing and a professor of Strategic Communication at the University of Westminster.
"Consequently, we can easily fall into the trap of dismissing fiction as a waste of time and then emphasizing other activities more associated with power, such as business books. It could also be true that if fiction helps develop empathy, cultures might consider it a less important outcome than a non-fiction book that aims, for example, to improve investment skills or asset management," she asserts. "Although empathy is quite important in business, it remains generally the competence of people working with emotions, who are almost always women. Companies talk a lot about the importance of empathy, but it remains a job that is generally not well-paid or not significantly recognized."
Reader Workforce Training
Seifert knows what she is talking about. In her article The Case for Reading Fiction, published in the Harvard Business Review, she criticizes that while great business leaders often advocate for reading - mentioning Warren Buffet, Elon Musk, or Bill Gates; all men, by the way - they also overwhelmingly focus on non-fiction. "It is a reflection that fiction has been seen as a distraction without productive results," she states. "However, research suggests that this is not true, but of course, we often resort to mental shortcuts! If we observe how people talk about reading fiction, they often underestimate it by suggesting that it is done simply for entertainment, while non-fiction, especially with a strong business focus, is considered productive."
As a result, we tend to overvalue business manuals and the type of content they convey at the expense of works that are more capable of conveying much more nuanced and complex ideas, as is often the case with fiction. Although perhaps this cliché is starting to change. Can you imagine if suddenly Amancio Ortega, Ana Botín, or Juan Roig promote the reading of great novels among their employees? Well, it is already happening in the US. "Now is the time to invest in promoting structured fiction reading in companies, as the results are precisely what can differentiate companies from the competition," Seifert states. "Training humans to do better what only humans can do (as opposed to AI) is a great financial investment. You probably can never train an AI to be empathetic, curious, and creative, but humans have incredible potential to develop these skills," insists the professor.
It also serves for another key skill like dealing with ambiguity. This is because, she explains, while good literature presents characters with competing and often equally valid viewpoints, business books, by their very nature, reduce problems to binary: this is right and that is not.
While there are no specific academic data on how the incorporation of guided bibliographic study in workforce development programs impacts employees, Seifert argues that "research on reading shows that if we want better thinkers in the business world, we must train better readers. If the AI revolution teaches us anything, I hope it is that empathy is one of the most important human skills we have (and may ever have). Any company that does not invest in people, especially if it focuses too much on AI at the expense of them, could lose a lot in the coming years."
The Value of Effort
Precisely our interaction with artificial intelligence and chatbots instead of books is the latest great debate when it comes to reading. Do we tend to seek benefits in the technological world that other traditional forms, such as reading in this case, can offer? For Mariano Sigman, who has extensively explored the topic in his work, the key difference lies in a crucial factor: effort. "As happened with Socrates when he rejected writing, and happens with every new technology, numerous studies have shown that people who use AI, compared to people who engage in reading searches, have a sort of atrophy of some functions. But this is not about technology, but about the effort applied, about sustained concentration over time and the ability not to get distracted, something that reading demands much more."
Something that possibly comes from the surprise and unpredictability capacity of fiction. "There is something important about reading, which is precisely being able to coexist with the narrative tension of what the author has chosen, which often has nothing to do with what one would want," concedes the neuroscientist. "This discrepancy, this belief that the character is something else, not understanding why the character does something, generates an exercise in perspective, a theory of mind exercise, and a variety of cognitive training that are quite useful. If a book adapted exactly to what one expects at every moment, all of this disappears. This is precisely what happens with artificial intelligence, which tends to be condescending and say what one wants to hear. And this lack of friction, of roughness, avoids a fundamental exercise."
Finally, without stating that reading fiction is the only means to educate oneself, he does acknowledge that he is very much in favor of practicing it. "Although I do not believe it can be scientifically proven to be necessary, that there are no other paths that can generate the development of virtuous and critical minds, I want my children to read novels because fiction is our fuel," he states. "In essence, humans are beings of fiction, we live in it. We are constantly composing ideas, imagining things, expressing desires, or narrating about ourselves. That is, we are inhabiting fiction much more than we think."