How 18 Months of Literary Fiction Rewired My Emotional Intelligence

One can be highly intelligent and well informed, intellectually curious, driven to improve, but possess mediocre emotional intelligence. Even highly developed critical thinking skills won’t guarantee emotional intelligence. Neither will good manners, affability, sociability, charm, looks or great communication skills. Sustained reading of high quality, complex fiction, however, can train the habits needed for higher emotional intelligence (HEI). These habits include paying attention to behaviour, motives, contradictions, and emotional states.

Defining Higher Emotional Intelligence

Whereas intelligence has to do with reasoning, cognition and problem solving, emotional intelligence has to do with social skills and how you ‘respond’ in any given situation. And how you ‘respond’ or ‘manage an emotion’ in yourself or others depends on how you understand or perceive a situation. High emotional intelligence focuses on ‘responding’ rather than ‘reacting’.

As this article is focused on developing a higher level of emotional intelligence beyond average emotional intelligence or social competence, I will use the term HEI (high emotional intelligence) to distinguish it from average or even above average EI and from social competence.

For the purposes of this article, I would describe someone with above average EI as having a good measure of self-awareness and self-control. They manage relationships and boundaries well and are generally aware of how their moods, actions and behaviours affect others. They also empathize, read non-verbal cues, and validate others. These are valuable and desirable traits, but a HEI individual (like an athlete going above and beyond) goes further still.       

Higher emotional intelligence means being able to diagnose and identify one’s own feelings. You are specific about how you feel. For example, you might consider the feeling of being ‘stressed’ as too broad a categorization. Instead, you might identify the feeling as ‘confused’ or ‘overwhelmed’. In tense moments, you pause rather than allowing an emotional reaction to dictate your response. You also strive to understand others (the big picture or the hidden picture). You think about why they may be acting a certain way rather than immediately writing them off as ‘fill-in-the-blank’. You use more sophisticated reasoning rather than judging bad behaviour. You are able to set aside the urge to solve the problem and instead listen to where they are emotionally.

Unfortunately, most of us are not highly emotionally intelligent. In fact, it has been my experience that high EI individuals are few and far between. They are a relatively rare breed. I have also observed that most people enjoy working with or for highly emotionally intelligent people. Scientific studies on EI in the workplace support this view (The British Psychological Society, Science Direct, National Library of Medicine).

Is Emotional Intelligence Innate or Learned?

Psychologists generally recognize that both genetics and environment can influence emotional competence, meaning that some people may begin with advantages in certain aspects of EI. Fortunately, psychologists also believe that EI can be improved significantly. This is great news. There is however no magic pill, and willing it won’t make it happen. Abstract advice such as ‘Don’t get triggered’, ‘Don’t react’, or ‘Be more socially aware’ is hardly effective for most people, with many concluding that highly emotionally intelligent people are just wired differently. While it is true that environment and experience can increase EI, it does not necessarily always do so in a meaningful way. 

Why Literary Fiction Develops Higher Emotional Intelligence 

Non-fiction readers who dismiss fiction should take particular note. Speaking from experience (and as a heavy non-fiction reader), I conducted my own personal literary experiment by reading high-quality fiction nonstop for 18 months. The results were quite remarkable. I will expand on this shortly below, but first, an explanation as to why reading ‘quality’ fiction increases EI.

The many cognitive benefits to reading are well documented for both fiction and non-fiction. Reading fiction has been associated with greater empathy, social awareness and an improved ability to see things from other perspectives. Research in psychology and neuroscience has examined how fiction may influence these abilities. Humans are emotional beings and very complex with a multitude of different and often contradictory emotions. Fiction can provide a training ground for emotional regulation. Recalling the earlier point about labelling emotions with precision as a mark of HEI, fiction repeatedly labels nuanced emotions with words like bewildered or zealous that train the mind to better interpret human feelings. Fiction is also a valuable training ground for developing better observational skills and interpreting hidden motives, beliefs and intentions. Fiction reading activates neural networks involved in simulating the thoughts and mental states of other people, providing a form of practice in social cognition.

Experimenting with High-Quality Fiction and the Surprising Results

The science and research prompted me to conduct my own experiment. HEI is a trait that I have always greatly admired in others, and so I set about reading high-quality fiction continually for 18 months. I recorded my results. At first, I was not sure about how much of a real impact it would make but remained cautiously optimistic. This was a big change for my reading habits since I have always been a voracious reader of non-fiction and only occasionally read novels, usually on a beach vacation, or upon a strong recommendation. All the research I had been involved with academically in the past involved primarily non-fiction. And while all the news, books and articles I enjoyed reading on one topic or another were highly helpful and informative, and given that non-fiction and fiction exercise different capabilities, it left me lagging greatly in the fiction department. 

As a founder of a bookstore specializing in high-quality works, sourcing the material was straight forward, but the real challenge was finding titles that would actively stretch my emotional perception. I sought out truly great works and also consulted with Artificial Intelligence (AI) to create a HEI training/reading program that would further my cause. My first reaction to the first book that my AI EI trainer strongly suggested, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen was, ‘Come on, fictional romance, really?’ But it was precisely because it was outside of my comfort zone (fictional romance) that I read it. Despite my initial reticence, I enjoyed it and concluded that this was indeed a great classic for a reason. It is a brilliant piece of literature where the complex character development is phenomenal, and the motives and appearances are not at all what they appear to be. This reading was followed by other great literary classics by authors such as Dickens, George Eliot, de Maupassant, Maugham, and many others. The works were carefully selected with the express goal of developing my EI. In this regard some works are far more effective than others, but for real results, the effort must be consistently sustained over a lengthy period of time. How long depends on one’s starting baseline and level of commitment. 

High-Quality Fiction for High Emotional Intelligence

If the goal is to increase EI, then the type of fiction consumed matters. For this kind of exercise, the quality of the fiction is particularly important. What distinguishes high-quality literary fiction from formulaic fiction is the complexity of the characters and situations. Characters are not reduced to stereotypes where everything is simply black or white with no room for ambiguity or nuance. Characters can be flawed, complex and unpredictable. They can change and are not static. The reader is left to infer motives rather than having them spelled out and explained. Literary fiction often requires more active interpretation and deeper cognitive effort. Beyond engaging attention span and critical thinking, quality fiction with rich character development engages the brain in such a way that presents a wide variety of perspectives, emotions and mental states. High-quality fiction does not rely on predictable formulaic tropes. The reader continually asks questions about true motives and behaviours. A high-quality novel is thought provoking and will stay with the reader long after the final page. The process of interpretation does not necessarily end with the book.   

The Results

Switching to fiction after being primarily a non-fiction reader was a new mental exercise. In my case, the results were cumulative with the biggest benefits manifesting themselves after 18 months of continuous high-quality fiction. I suspect the length of time required to get results will vary considerably depending on each individual’s starting point. These were my results.

After Three Months

The first three months were the least dramatic. I was learning to see and pay attention to things that I would not in non-fiction such as: What does this character ‘really’ want? Is their stated reason really their motivation? What are they telling themselves? Why do they react that way? In sum, my attention was being retrained, and I began to be increasingly interested in the difference between what people say, want, and believe about themselves, and what their actual behaviour really reveals.

One important note for anyone attempting this exercise: I urge you to be patient and see this exercise ‘all the way through’ because relatively early on, as your mind begins to observe people’s motives and inconsistencies more clearly, it is easy to become disappointed in others. At this point, even more reading practice is needed (not less) to allow the mind to adapt and process the changes. Failing to do so could lead to judgemental or resentful behaviour especially if  you are someone who has always taken others at their word.

After 6 Months

 After 6 months of continual and sustained fiction reading effort, I was able to interpret and process real-life, everyday situations with more clarity as if a veil had been lifted from my eyes. My first interpretation of others’ behaviour was no longer ‘the’ interpretation. I was now more likely to ask what was behind it. Importantly, I was also beginning to recognize patterns. It became increasingly evident that people were behaving in certain ways because of fear, vanity, pride, misunderstanding, self-interest, etc., and not because they were ‘bad people’. Equally, I was also beginning to notice and observe my own behavioural blind spots more clearly and objectively. 

After One Year

At the one-year mark, the changes had become truly consequential. I had not only become more empathetic, but I was also becoming more balanced or measured in my interpretations. Without becoming cynical, I began noticing patterns of reliability, reciprocity, commitment and character, and putting much less weight on people’s words or isolated incidents. I had previously based my understanding of others primarily on their intentions. I was now basing my understanding of others primarily on demonstrated behaviour. The friend or colleague for example who said they would call the next day but did not was insignificant by itself, but repeated failure to do so became information. Essentially, it became clear that understanding someone did not mean trusting them or relying on them. I was interpreting people differently, but I was also developing better interpretations. Rather than jumping to conclusions because I felt one way or another, I questioned why I was feeling a certain way. I was becoming more aware in general.                   

After 18 Months

After 18 months, the transformation had become particularly noticeable. The cumulative effects were now more pronounced. Emotional regulation was much improved, with less automatic reactivity and a greater ability to pause. I had become more aware of my own inner workings and better able to distinguish between feeling something and acting upon it, in other words, I was less likely to get ‘triggered’.

My perception of others (as well as of myself) had changed. With better recognition of patterns and motives, I had developed more tolerance for ambiguity and made less simplistic judgements. I had become more compassionate without being naïve and was more willing to revise my relationships based on accumulated evidence. I was better able to respond to situations with greater situational awareness. And among the most valuable benefits was a greater ability to pause, combined with a better understanding of what was happening within the self. Indeed, reading fiction is a great and safe training ground for interpreting human beings. Ultimately, though, the greatest benefit of fiction is its power to make one a better, more attentive observer of oneself and of others.