Great news: There’s a book for decoding your girlfriend’s moods! Reading literary fiction can help you unravel people’s emotions, finds a new study from the New School for Social Research in New York.
Novels often contain unreliable characters or narrators, forcing the reader to fill in the gaps himself, says study author David Comer Kidd. That guessing, in turn, strengthens your ability to understand others’ feelings in real life as well, Kidd says.
Even more: The longer you read, the longer the insight could last. Need a book suggestion? In the study, researchers used mostly contemporary novels on the National Book Award list. Kidd recommends The Roundhouse by Louise Erdrich or anything by Lydia Davis—books you’ll get lost in without realizing what benefits they’re bestowing.
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