Does reading a single passage of literary fiction really improve theory of mind? An attempt at replication

Bibliographic Data

ID6203645
AuthorsMaria Eugenia Panero (0000-0002-2648-2541, Boston College), Deena Skolnick Weisberg (0000-0002-4000-4941, University of Pennsylvania), J Black (0000-0002-9710-3297, University of Oklahoma), Thalia R Goldstein (0000-0002-3892-0852, Pace University), Jennifer L Barnes (0000-0002-2029-059X), Jennifer Barnes (0000-0002-6792-4852, University of Oklahoma), Hiram Brownell (0000-0002-7633-2613, Boston College), Ellen Winner (0000-0003-0494-6621, Boston College)
Year2016
Volume111
Issue5
Pagese46-e54
Publication date2016-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Personality and Social Psychology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-3514 • E-ISSN: 1939-1315
PublisherAmerican Psychological Association (APA) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1037/pspa0000064
PMID27642659
OpenAlexW2522149191
LanguageEN
Citations received48
References cited24

< .001, d = 0.21. All versions of this article have been corrected.] Fiction simulates the social world and invites us into the minds of characters. This has led various researchers to suggest that reading fiction improves our understanding of others' cognitive and emotional states. Kidd and Castano (2013) received a great deal of attention by providing support for this claim. Their article reported that reading segments of literary fiction (but not popular fiction or nonfiction) immediately and significantly improved performance on the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET), an advanced theory-of-mind test. Here we report a replication attempt by 3 independent research groups, with 792 participants randomly assigned to 1 of 4 conditions (literary fiction, popular fiction, nonfiction, and no reading). In contrast to Kidd and Castano (2013), we found no significant advantage in RMET scores for literary fiction compared to any of the other conditions. However, as in Kidd and Castano and previous research, the Author Recognition Test, a measure of lifetime exposure to fiction, consistently predicted RMET scores across conditions. We conclude that the most plausible link between reading fiction and theory of mind is either that individuals with strong theory of mind are drawn to fiction and/or that a lifetime of reading gradually strengthens theory of mind, but other variables, such as verbal ability, may also be at play. (PsycINFO Database Record

Behavioral Health and Interventions · Media Influence and Health · Misinformation and Its Impacts · Psychology · Social Psychology