What Fiction Gives Us That Nonfiction Can’t.

by Martin Pustavrh

Most purely nonfiction readers have stances on fiction that look something like this: “It doesn’t teach me anything useful.” “It feels like a distraction.” “Give me hard facts over fairy tales any day.” And my favorite: “If I just want to make stuff up, I can do that myself.” These views share a common assumption: that fiction offers no real value.

Most nonfiction readers think that if they invest time in a book, it needs to be actionable, valuable, and full of takeaways. But there are many benefits to reading fiction. The evidence supporting this is surprisingly strong.

First, who hasn’t watched a movie or TV show purely for entertainment in the last few weeks? Who hasn’t played a sport just for the sake of it, without calculating the physical and mental benefits? Who hasn’t listened to music just for the vibe? These are all examples of conscious decisions we make to do an activity simply for the pleasure of it. Fiction deserves the same logic. Why wouldn’t the same rational thinking apply to reading fiction?

There are many studies showing the benefits of reading fiction. A large review of more than 70 studies, with more than 11,000 participants, confirmed that regular fiction reading—versus nonfiction or no reading—provides cognitive benefits. These include enhanced verbal skills and memory. Fiction readers also outperform non-readers in empathy and "theory of mind" (our ability to understand others’ thoughts).

The same researchers also analyzed 114 studies with 30,503 participants, examining lifetime exposure to fiction and cognitive abilities. They found that habitual fiction reading correlates with better verbal and general cognitive skills, such as reasoning and problem-solving, as well as social cognition. Reading fiction acts as a low-risk training ground. The brain simulates social scenarios and emotional experiences as if they were real, strengthening memory pathways. In other words, stories exercise mental muscles that nonfiction often doesn't.

Why? Because stories stick with us. Over the centuries, we have learned through stories; our brains are wired that way. We remember and incorporate lessons from fiction because they are stories well told. A narrative with setup, conflict, and resolution aligns perfectly with how our memory encodes information.

We might not remember a specific date from history class, but I bet you can remember the stories surrounding those dates. A well-crafted story aligns with how our brains encode long-term memory. The truths in fiction are often more useful than those in dense nonfiction. Nonfiction often falls out of our brains the moment we finish the book. When there is a moment of tension in a story where all is about to be lost, and a character speaks a truth about the situation, we remember it more than a research paper about human behavior. At least, that’s been my experience.

And if you’re a science geek, there is hard fiction to read. For example, Neal Stephenson’s book Seveneves deep dives into how to install a nuclear reactor inside an asteroid. I don’t think we’ll ever need to do that in the foreseeable future, but the depth of technicality is impressive. It’s fiction, but fiction that teaches. If you are still skeptical, remember that many science fiction writers are also scientists.

If not for any of the above reasons, reading fiction can have a relaxing effect by turning off your problem-solving brain and immersing you in a completely new world with its own rules and characters.

You might not like a book, and that’s okay. Just pick another one from the millions out there. Life is too short to read things we don’t like. And it’s far too rich to limit ourselves only to what feels "useful."

Evidence shows: