Novel finding: reading fiction can make you a better doctor

“For this was the point, surely: he would be a better doctor for having read literature. What deep readings his modified sensibility might make of human suffering, of the self-destructive folly or sheer bad luck that drive men toward ill health! Birth, death, and frailty in between. Rise and fall – this was the doctor’s business, and it was literature’s too.” – Ian McEwan, Atonement

As a result of the moral dimension of patient care, physician conduct inevitably requires qualities like compassion and empathy. However, the ability to display these attributes is not easily assessed, nor, for that matter, easily taught.

Although the importance of empathy is stressed to students during medical school, it can be a difficult task to accurately gauge the affective and emotional state of another, especially when there are limited opportunities to have constructive one-on-one interactions with patients outside of clinical training. In an attempt to master the art of empathy and compassion, some medical students have been known to hunt down heartbroken friends after break-ups, or strike up conversations with their grandmas over tea. 

As a prospective medical student, you’ll be relieved to know that there is an easier, simpler, and more cost-effective way to increase your capacity for empathy and compassion. That way is reading literary fiction. Yes, reading literary fiction is not just useful for when you're preparing for GAMSAT Section 2 to build your essay writing idea bank. 

As opposed to popular fiction, works categorised as literary fiction are mainly those that explore complexities of the human condition alongside social, political or moral commentaries. Recent research in the fields of cognitive science and psychology has spotlighted deep reading – “slow, immersive, rich in sensory detail with emotional and moral complexity” – as a distinctive experience with a multitude of benefits. Within a recent 2013 study by Kidd and Castano published in Science, it was found that just ten minutes of reading literary fiction significantly increased the scores of participants in an advanced empathy test, which involved correctly identifying facially expressed emotions and inferring affective state from linguistic and visual cues.

It is now proposed that literary fiction functions not as a social simulator, but as an actual social experience in and of itself. Researchers posit that the same cognitive processes are used to navigate both literary fiction and real-life interactions. Just as physicians are required to read between the lines, deep reading requires readers to invest time and energy in understanding characters whose inner conflicts and thoughts are not always explicitly perceivable. The rise and fall of Macbeth, the ambition of Stephen Dedalus, and the unattainable dreams of Willy Loman are all visceral experiences facilitated by literary fiction cannot be experienced in real life, and this is what makes them so valuable to medical students. 

There is still a considerable dearth in research within this field, but such novel findings are very encouraging. So next time you’re flicking through Kindle or strolling through your local bookstore, pick up some James Joyce or Dostoyevsky to really connect with your fellow man. 

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