How Reading the Classics Can Make You Smarter

<![CDATA[Reading books makes you smarter. That’s a fact and we don’t need scientific research to tell us that. However, very little research has been devoted to explaining the exact process through which it happens. Theory of Mind might be able to answer that. Before getting deeper into the matter, we need to define what “smart” means. There are the three different types of intelligence that are widely recognized by today’s psychology. First of all, there is crystallized intelligence, which can be roughly described as all the knowledge that enters your brain. When we adopt a new action, such as swimming, or riding a bicycle, or a new piece of information such as the name of someone we just met, or a new word, all that new knowledge is accumulated and it forms the foundation of our abilities which guide us through the world. By reading more, your crystallized intelligence increases, making you smarter. But, not all smart people are necessarily well read or educated. People can be clever and sharp, without being what we characterize as “book smart”. This type of intelligence is known as fluid intelligence, which is our ability to solve problems, understand and see the connections and pattern between things. But, when fluid intelligence is paired with reading, it will increase, and it works the other way around as well, because better fluid intelligence improves reading comprehension. More recently, scientists have identified a third type of intelligence: emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence is defined as our ability to comprehend and respond accordingly to our own emotions and the emotions of people we come in contact with. But where does reading fit into all of that? How does it affect our emotional intelligence? The answer to these questions might lie in Theory of Mind. Theory of Mind is our ability to understand mental states of others, which is an essential skill that allows us to navigate the complex social interactions and relationships. David Comer Kidd and Emanuele Castano, both psychologists at the New School for Social Research in New York, have conducted research and proved that reading literary fiction enhances one’s capacity for understanding other people’s emotions. They have set up a series of five experiments in total, with 1000 participants being given reading materials, ranging from bestsellers like Danielle Steel novels, to more complex literary texts, such as Anton Chekov’s works. By using Theory of Mind techniques to quantify how well the participant could comprehend emotions in others, Kidd and Castano came to a conclusion that those participants which read literary fiction scored higher that those who read popular fiction. The reason for this lies in the fact that literary fiction makes the reader participate actively, by filling in the gaps in order to understand the characters and their interactions, as opposed to popular fiction, where the reader is being entertained, assuming a passive role. The same principle translates well into real-world situations, since the same psychological processes take place both in fiction and real relationships. The five experiments conducted by Kidd and Castano consisted of four different Theory of Mind tests: reading the mind in the eyes (RMET), the diagnostic analysis of non-verbal accuracy test (DANV), the positive affect negative affect scale (PANAS) and the Yoni test. Although they proved that reading improves social intelligence to certain extent, they agreed that weren’t able to determine which books could be classified as being literary, which is something that should be left to your best judgment. Reviewed Book: Dicken’s a Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens PIBN:1000028308 [gap height="20"]  ]]>