When you read a novel, you are immersing yourself in what its like to be inside another persons head. You are simulating a social situation. You are imagining other people and their experiences in a deep and complex way. So maybe, he said, if you read a lot of novels, you will become better at actually understanding other people off the page. Perhaps fiction is a kind of empathy gym, boosting your ability to empathize with other peoplewhich is one of the most rich and precious forms of focus we have. Together, they decided to begin to study this question scientifically.

Stolen Focus by Johann Hari