| Title |
Reading Literary Fiction Improves Theory of Mind
|
|---|---|
| Published in |
Science, October 2013
|
| DOI | 10.1126/science.1239918 |
| Pubmed ID | |
| Authors |
David Comer Kidd, Emanuele Castano |
| Abstract |
Understanding others' mental states is a crucial skill that enables the complex social relationships that characterize human societies. Yet little research has investigated what fosters this skill, which is known as Theory of Mind (ToM), in adults. We present five experiments showing that reading literary fiction led to better performance on tests of affective ToM (experiments 1 to 5) and cognitive ToM (experiments 4 and 5) compared with reading nonfiction (experiments 1), popular fiction (experiments 2 to 5), or nothing at all (experiments 2 and 5). Specifically, these results show that reading literary fiction temporarily enhances ToM. More broadly, they suggest that ToM may be influenced by engagement with works of art. |
Twitter Demographics
The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 951 tweeters who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| United States | 131 | 14% |
| Japan | 124 | 13% |
| United Kingdom | 59 | 6% |
| Spain | 17 | 2% |
| Canada | 17 | 2% |
| Netherlands | 12 | 1% |
| Australia | 10 | 1% |
| Brazil | 7 | <1% |
| Korea, Republic of | 6 | <1% |
| Other | 79 | 8% |
| Unknown | 489 | 51% |
Demographic breakdown
| Type | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Members of the public | 798 | 84% |
| Scientists | 99 | 10% |
| Science communicators (journalists, bloggers, editors) | 28 | 3% |
| Practitioners (doctors, other healthcare professionals) | 26 | 3% |
Mendeley readers
The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 1,726 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| United States | 22 | 1% |
| United Kingdom | 12 | <1% |
| Spain | 5 | <1% |
| Netherlands | 4 | <1% |
| Japan | 4 | <1% |
| Germany | 4 | <1% |
| Taiwan | 4 | <1% |
| Australia | 3 | <1% |
| Canada | 3 | <1% |
| Other | 21 | 1% |
| Unknown | 1644 | 95% |
Demographic breakdown
| Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Student > Bachelor | 290 | 17% |
| Student > Ph. D. Student | 247 | 14% |
| Researcher | 190 | 11% |
| Student > Master | 174 | 10% |
| Student > Doctoral Student | 89 | 5% |
| Other | 326 | 19% |
| Unknown | 410 | 24% |
| Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Psychology | 439 | 25% |
| Social Sciences | 141 | 8% |
| Medicine and Dentistry | 105 | 6% |
| Arts and Humanities | 101 | 6% |
| Agricultural and Biological Sciences | 93 | 5% |
| Other | 400 | 23% |
| Unknown | 447 | 26% |
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 2164. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 25 September 2023.
All research outputs
#3,833
of 24,510,033 outputs
Outputs from Science
#209
of 79,832 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#13
of 217,407 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Science
#4
of 853 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 24,510,033 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 99th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 79,832 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 64.5. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 217,407 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 853 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its contemporaries.