(no subject)

[dahlia_moon]

I came online for a few minutes to share an article with you I read today from Psychology Today (should really be studying for midterms). I'm really into psychology and am hoping to take the elective next year (or maybe this semester if my other elective falls through).

Novel Delights

Fiction readers score higher on empathy and social acumen tests than do readers of nonfiction.

I find this true. Mostly because since I read a lot more fiction than compared with my brothers, I fancy myself as being more empathetic than them.

And this puts it in much better words than I could ever come up with about why some of us like reading fiction:

'So why turn to fiction at all, when we can enjoy the real thing? For starters, works of fiction don't simply mimic real life. "They intensify it and make it much more interesting," Zunshine says. What's more, stories let us play with the fire of emotions from a safe remove. "You know that this whole set of events is contained and you can get up and leave or you can put your book down," explains Keith Oatley, a psychology professor at the University of Toronto. With a thriller, for example, you can feel the hero's grief and anxiety without actually losing your family or being pursued by assassins. And unlike real friends, your literary soul mates expect nothing of you. As Oatley puts it, "You get these emotions for free."'

It's an interesting article, and definitely worth a read

P.S.-After this week, I'll be on a lot more; I'll catch up with commenting and I have a meme to fill out, and I'm working on some other projects. But until Friday, I won't be fully on; I will probably just lurk.