Yes, Reading Might Actually Make You a Better Person
I remember the first time a book made me cry — not just teary-eyed, but rather tears actively streaming down my face and snot rolling down to my lip. It was 2013, and twelve-year-old me was entranced by a book, which was not unusual for me, as I loved to read (and still do!). I was sitting on my bedroom floor with Wonder by R.J. Palacio cracked open in my lap, devouring every page with vigor because it was one of those books that I could not get enough of and actually finished in very few sittings. What made me activate the “I’m not crying, you are” phenomenon, you ask? The ending of the book.
*Spoiler alert incoming (but come on, the book came out in 2012 and has a movie adaptation; just read it already!)*
When he received an award at his fifth-grade award ceremony, Auggie finally experienced acceptance from his peers after years of feeling ostracized and different due to his facial deformity. I felt the joy that Auggie felt. I felt the weight lift off of his shoulders. I felt the tears streaming down his face.
As a young reader and middle schooler, this book had a profound impact on how I viewed the world and those who may feel different. As a result, I became more empathetic; I cared about someone who didn’t actually exist.
Nowadays, many people do not read. I know people who haven’t picked up a book in 10+ years (and boy, does it show!). I know many, many children who are not reading. As an educator, I hear these same sentiments over and over again: “I do not like to read,” “reading isn’t for me,” or “I am bad at reading, so I don’t do it.” And this makes me sad — not just because I know the depressing research about literacy rates in America, but because many people are not experiencing what it means to understand and feel for a person that does not exist, and they do not receive the opportunity to step into a reality different from their own.
People are reading less — that’s a problem! And not for the reason that you may think.
The National Assessment of Educational Progress revealed that in 1984, 35% of 13-year-olds read for pleasure almost every day; by 2023, this number dropped to just 14% (NAEP Long-Term Trends: Student Experiences). Many people hear this statistic, and with vindicated concern that I also share, automatically spiral into panic about the ongoing and recently ubiquitous literacy crisis. While this is an incredibly valid concern, I raise another concern that does not seem to be as widely discussed: what happens when we lose opportunities to inhabit perspectives beyond our own and thus lose out on an experience to develop empathy?
Every time you read, you are in someone else’s head.
Empathy is a “key skill and process considered important for supporting and deepening adolescents’ understanding of others’ emotions, perspectives and experiences” (Santi et al. 304). When both adolescents and adults have stopped valuing reading as an important part of life, they lose out on an opportunity to develop an understanding of others’ lived experiences. The thing is, every time one reads a fictional book, they are transported into that character’s reality — their brain, their emotions, their body, the full human experience. When you’re reading, you subconsciously ask, “Why did she do that?” “What does he know?” and sometimes, you question why the character doesn’t understand what you understand about life. You are essentially reading the character’s mind!
Theorists and scholars have long studied the phenomenon of Theory of Mind, which is described as the ability to infer the thoughts, emotions, beliefs, intentions, and perspectives of others (Premack and Woodruff 515), and whether literary reading engages these mind-reading abilities. Scholars have begun to examine the relationship between Theory of Mind and literary reading because of the fact that readers inherently encounter mental states and beliefs different from their own (Van der Kleij et al. 2). In other words, when a reader engages in a story, they are often tasked with being able to move beyond just simple comprehension of the plot events; instead, they often must consider why characters think, feel, and behave in certain ways. This process of engaging in a character’s mental states may mimic the same perspective-taking abilities associated with Theory of Mind.
Understanding a character is not the same as feeling for them.
There has been quite a bit of research that supports the hypothesis that a relationship between reading and empathy exists because readers often form emotional connections to the character and experience other perspectives (Koopman 170). Eva Koopman, author of “Does Originality Evoke Understanding? The Relation Between Literary Reading and Empathy,” states that:
“Reading is like a conversation between narrator and reader: When we try to understand a character in a book, we make similar inferences about what the other is thinking and feeling as in conversation, and making such inferences would increase our understanding of and identification with the character” (170).
Essentially, the process of understanding fictional characters requires readers to make inferences about their internal experiences, which can create a stronger sense of emotional connection to the characters.
Take Haymitch from Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games as an example of a character who readers become emotionally attached to despite the character’s original aloof demeanor, especially thanks to the recent release of Sunrise on the Reaping (don’t worry — no spoilers here). As readers came to know and understand Haymitch’s experiences as a young contestant in the games, readers began to understand that Haymitch is riddled with PTSD and struggles with using alcohol to cope, which explains his ”rough around the edges” behavior in the first book.
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Because readers made an effort to understand Haymitch, they formed an emotional connection and gained an understanding of Haymitch, and some may even recognize themselves in him. Ideally, readers may even begin to utilize their newfound perspective to become more kind and empathetic towards those in their lives because they recognize that others have complex minds due to their lived experiences.
Now, there is one thing to keep in mind: I have discussed both empathy and Theory of Mind thus far, but it must be noted that they are not interchangeable entities. They are entirely their own separate thing with their own separate nuances — empathy concerns itself with understanding others’ emotional experience (Lenhart et al. 697), while Theory of Mind is concerned with imputing mental states (Premack and Woodruff 515).
Understanding a person’s mental state is not the same as actually feeling for them and “stepping into their shoes,” so to speak. With that being said, because readers inherently work to understand a fictional character’s mental state and their internal experiences, Theory of Mind may be a possible mechanism for empathy development and forming emotional connections to the fictional characters (Koopman 170; Santi et al. 306).
But don’t throw a book at someone and expect them to become more empathetic.
I do want to be careful to not insinuate that if you do not read, then that must mean that you are not an empathetic person; in fact, there are many people who would not consider themselves to be readers but have the kindest of hearts. On the flip side of that, I also want to make it clear that research does not suggest that just reading a book automatically makes someone empathetic.
In fact, some research suggests that how people read might actually matter more than just the simple act of reading. Transportation, or the “tendency to immerse into narrative worlds” (Lenhart et al. 679), may be an important factor that affects how deeply a reader engages in the mental-state processes associated with Theory of Mind (Lenhart et al. 687). This is because when readers become immersed in the story, they might be more likely to attend to the characters’ perspectives and mental states.
Maybe the thought that “reading makes you a better person” isn’t so far-fetched, however.
Even though there are some nuances to the research on the relationship between empathy, Theory of Mind, and reading, it cannot be denied that fiction provides an inherent opportunity to participate in mind reading and perspective-taking processes. When engaging with a text, one receives repeated opportunities to understand familiar perspectives, interpret motives, consider conflicting emotions, and recognize that people do not always see the world in the same way that we do. The more that people engage in these processes, the more opportunity that they give to themself to become more empathetic and increase their Theory of Mind due to the exposure to differing realities and perspectives.
So…Pick Up a Book!
So, maybe the point of reading isn’t necessarily to become smarter, but rather to learn more about the human experience and the world around us— to become more empathetic, kind human beings and to recognize that everyone has a mind as complex and unknowable as our own. Because while Auggie from Wonder may not be a real person, the emotions I felt and the new perspectives I gained were real.
Furthermore, there are real-life “Auggies” in the world — those who feel outcast, different, or disenfranchised due to their disability, appearance, identity, or other external factors, and if we continue to take on other perspectives, maybe the world would be a kinder place.
So, pick up a book! Pick one that challenges you. Pick one that makes you uncomfortable. Pick one that lets you spend a few hours in another world, inside someone else’s head. And then ask yourself: did it change the way I see anyone outside of its pages?
Sources:
Koopman, Eva Maria (Emy). “Does Originality Evoke Understanding? The Relation Between Literary Reading and Empathy.” Review of General Psychology, vol. 22, no. 2, June 2018, pp. 169–77, https://doi.org/10.1037/gpr0000107.
Lenhart, Jan, et al. “The Relationship Between Lifetime Book Reading and Empathy in Adolescents: Examining Transportability as a Moderator.” Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, vol. 16, no. 4, November 2022, pp. 679–93, https://doi.org/10.1037/aca0000341.
NAEP Long-Term Trends: Student Experiences. www.nationsreportcard.gov/ltt/reading/student-experiences/?age=13.
Premack, David, and Guy Woodruff. “Does the Chimpanzee Have a Theory of Mind?” Behavioral and Brain Sciences, vol. 1, no. 4, Dec. 1978, pp. 515–26, doi:10.1017/s0140525x00076512.
Santi, Elena, et al. “Reading and Empathy: Qualitative Insights into Adolescents’ Experiences with Fiction Books.” Literacy, vol. 59, no. 3, September 2025, pp. 304–13, https://doi.org/10.1111/lit.70006.
Van Der Kleij, et al. “Reading Fiction and Reading Minds in Early Adolescence: A Longitudinal Study.” Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, vol. 222, June 2022, p. 105476, doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2022.105476.
