Can reading make you happier?

Can reading make you happier? Many studies and research seem to prove that it does indeed. And we would agree!

Courtesy of The New York & illustrator Sarah Mazzeti.

Studies and research has found that people who read a lot of fiction – that’s us and our readers – are more empathetic and have higher social perceptions.

“Since the discovery, in the mid-nineties, of “mirror neurons”—neurons that fire in our brains both when we perform an action ourselves and when we see an action performed by someone else—the neuroscience of empathy has become clearer. A 2011 study published in the Annual Review of Psychology… when people read about an experience, they display stimulation within the same neurological regions as when they go through that experience themselves. We draw on the same brain networks when we’re reading stories and when we’re trying to guess at another person’s feelings.” – We identify with these characters.

Read more of the The New Yorker‘s article on it.