Haley Hobson

Barnum
ENGL 2010
10/19/16

How Leisure Reading May Impact Your Life

Leisure reading is often considered to simply be a form of entertainment, but could there
be more to it? Multiple studies have suggested that leisure reading may be linked to a myriad of
benefits, such as improved intelligence, social skills, neurological health, and emotional health.
This essay will take a closer look at the research that has been conducted on this subject in order
to shed light on the possible effects of reading.
A study published by Neurology suggests that reading may contribute to neurological
health. This study, conducted by Robert S. Wilson, et al., discovered that elderly people who
regularly engaged in mentally stimulating activities, such as reading, showed a 32% decrease in
the rate of mental decline compared to the average study participant. Meanwhile, study
participants who rarely engaged in such mentally stimulating activities, showed a 48% increase
in the rate of mental decline compared to the average group.
Reading may also help prevent Alzheimers and dementia from developing, according to
a study published by The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study,
conducted by Robert P. Friedland, et al., reported that study participants who frequently engaged
their minds with stimulating activities, such as reading, were 2.5 times less likely to develop
Alzheimers compared to those who spent their free time doing less mentally stimulating
activities.

Haley Hobson
Barnum
ENGL 2010
10/19/16

Reading may also improve help to improve intelligence, according to a study published
by the National Center for Biotechnology Information. The study, done by Stuart J. Ritchie, et
al., examined 1,890 sets of identical twins who were raised within the same family. Each set of
twins was tested at ages 7, 9, 10, 12, and 16 to determine possible associations between reading
ability and intelligence. The results of these examinations indicated that there were, indeed, links
between reading ability and intelligence. The report states that, Twins with better earlier reading
ability compared to their identical cotwin tended not only to have better reading at subsequent
measurements but also higher scores on general intelligence tests.
According to a paper published by the University of California, Berkeley, reading may
also improve vocabulary. The university reported that children learn as much as 50% more words
by reading childrens books than they do by simply watching TV. Having a large vocabulary has
been shown to lead to higher test scores, not only in reading tests, but also on general tests of
intelligence, which was also demonstrated in Ritchies research of twins.
There is also evidence that leisure reading may reduce stress, as reported by a study done
by Sussex University. The study, which was referenced by the National Reading Campaign of
Canada, found that reading may reduce stress by as much as 68%. Participants in this study
showed slower heart rates and reduced muscle tension after only six minutes of reading, which
indicated that reading is a more efficient stress reliever than listening to music, going for a walk,
playing video games, or settling down with a cup of tea.
It is possible that reading may even help to relieve depression, according to a study
published by PLOS ONE. The study, performed by Christopher Williams, et al., showed that

Haley Hobson
Barnum
ENGL 2010
10/19/16

when patients who were receiving treatment for depression combined bibliotherapy, which is the
practice of reading self-help books, with their support sessions, they reported feeling lower levels
of depression after one year compared to patients who only received support sessions without the
use of bibliotherapy.
Reading may also improve social and emotional skills, as indicated in a study published
by Science. According to the journal, The Theory of Mind is the human capacity to comprehend
that other people hold beliefs and desires and that these may differ from ones own beliefs and
desires. David Comer Kidd and Emanuele Castano, whose research was published by Science,
explained that reading passages of literary fiction, in comparison to nonfiction or popular
fiction, does indeed enhance the reader's performance on theory of mind tasks. In addition, Kidd
and Castanos research found that the more one cultivates theory of mind through reading, the
better they are at identifying nonverbal cues from people in real life, which NPR describes as the
ability to read the thoughts and feelings of others.
Another study published by PLOS ONE suggests that reading helps to cultivate empathy.
The study, performed by Matthijs Bal and Martijn Veltkamp, found that when people are reading,
they are emotionally transported, which helps them to become more empathetic by allowing
them to step into the life and mind of another person. Annie Murphy Paul of The New York Times
reports that researchers in Spain have found that the empathic response to what one reads is,
indeed, so strong that the brain actually responds to literary experiences nearly the same way it
would to a real life experience. Similar results were found in a study done by Carnegie Mellon

Haley Hobson
Barnum
ENGL 2010
10/19/16

University, which discovered that reading a chapter of Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone
activated the same brain regions that would be used in a real life experience.
As we can see, reading may have the potential to impact and improve our lives in ways
that we do not fully realize. If reading does, indeed, improve our lives in the areas that have been
discussed in this paper, imagine the ripple effect that these benefits could have on a persons life:
better health, higher intelligence, and more fulfilling relationships. While we cannot assume that
reading is the cure to all of lifes ailments, it does appear to be worth further research.

Haley Hobson
Barnum
ENGL 2010
10/19/16

Works Cited

Bal, Matthijs, and Martijn Veltkamp. "How Does Fiction Reading Influence Empathy? An
Experimental Investigation on the Role of Emotional Transportation." plos.org, 30 Jan.
2013, http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0055341, 21 Oct.
2016.

Comer Kidd, David, and Emanuele Castano. "Reading Literary Fiction Improves Theory of
Mind." Science, 3 Oct. 2013, http://science.sciencemag.org/content/342/6156/377, 22
Oct. 2016.

Friedland, Robert P., et al. "Patients with Alzheimer's Disease Have Reduced Activities in
Midlife Compared with Healthy Control-group Members." The Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences, 17 Feb. 2000,
http://www.pnas.org/content/98/6/3440.abstract, 21 Oct. 2016.

Lambrozo, Tania. Is Your 4-Year-Old A Liar? Heres the Bright Side. www.npr.org, 2 Nov.
2015, http://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2015/11/02/453730157/is-your-4-year-old-a-liarheres-the-bright-side, 21 Oct. 2016

Haley Hobson
Barnum
ENGL 2010
10/19/16

Paul, Annie Murphy. "The Neuroscience of Your Brain on Fiction." New York Times, 17 Mar.
2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/18/opinion/sunday/the-neuroscience-of-yourbrain-on-fiction.html, 20 Oct. 2016.

Ritchie, Stuart J., et al. "Does Learning to Read Improve Intelligence? A Longitudinal
Multivariate Analysis in Identical Twins From Age 7 to 16." The National Center for
Biotechnology Information, 24 July 2014,
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4354297/, 22 Oct. 2016.

The National Reading Campaign of Canada. "Reading Facts." The National Reading Campaign
of Canada, 30 Mar. 2009, http://www.nationalreadingcampaign.ca/wpcontent/uploads/2013/09/ReadingFacts1.pdf, 22 Oct. 2016.

Williams, Christopher, et al. "Guided Self-Help Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Depression
in Primary Care: A Randomised Controlled Trial." plos.org, 11 Jan. 2013,
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0052735, 22 Oct. 2016.

Wilson, Robert S., et al. "Life-span Cognitive Activity, Neuropathologic Burden, and Cognitive
Aging." Neurology.org, 3 July 2013,
http://www.neurology.org/content/early/2013/07/03/WNL.0b013e31829c5e8a.abstract,
21 Oct. 2016.

Haley Hobson
Barnum
ENGL 2010
10/19/16

Wise, Abigail. "8 Science-Backed Reasons to Read a (Real) Book." Real Simple, 08 Jan. 2015,
http://www.realsimple.com/health/preventative-health/benefits-of-reading-real-books, 21
Oct. 2016.