Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Literature Makes you a Valuable Employee

There is new scientific evidence that might be valuable to you as you make your case to an employer who isn't sure a "literature major" is a good bet for the business world.

Below is a link to the publication information; and here is the abstract:

Understanding others’ mental states is a crucial skill that enables the complex social relationships that characterize human societies. Yet little research has investigated what fosters this skill, which is known as Theory of Mind (ToM), in adults. We present five experiments showing that reading literary fiction led to better performance on tests of affective ToM (experiments 1 to 5) and cognitive ToM (experiments 4 and 5) compared with reading nonfiction (experiments 1), popular fiction (experiments 2 to 5), or nothing at all (experiments 2 and 5). Specifically, these results show that reading literary fiction temporarily enhances ToM. More broadly, they suggest that ToM may be influenced by engagement with works of art.

You can see the material at this link: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/342/6156/377.short
I can forward a copy upon request, or you can contact the Library to get it by interlibrary loan. (The full article was passed to me on a collegial basis by Phil Collington; I don't wish to break any copyright laws by offering more online.)

1 comment:

  1. Valuable employee is one who dedicates his life towards the growth of the organization. These days, anybody can work when guided. But important employee is hard to find who respects wherever he is put to work.

    Regards,
    Jimmie Menon
    Guelph Payroll Service

    ReplyDelete

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