Bonding with characters in a book boosts your empathy to real people

We've all been there. You get so into a novel that you are totally immersed, so far down the rabbit hole and into the story that you're emotionally invested in its characters. Hooked. It turns out that losing yourself in a work of fiction could make you understand your fellow humans better. A new study finds that people who find themselves absorbed in novels tend to be more empathetic than those who just read without becoming invested in a story. Researchers say that losing yourself in a novel and bonding with the characters enables people to "learn" how others think and feel about problems, and the knowledge can be applied in real life. [Source]

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