The book someone packs for their summer holiday may reveal more about their personality than they realise, according to researchers who study the psychology of reading. "It's definitely not a random choice," says Edgar Dubourg, a cognitive scientist at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris. "Your reading list is basically a map of your personality."
Why genre choice is not random
Dubourg says that choosing a thriller, romance, horror or science fiction novel taps into intuitive and long-established parts of the brain, rather than serving as an escape from one's own psychology. "Fiction isn't inventing new emotions in you. It's pressing on those pre-existing motivations like instincts," he says.
Studies have shown that book choices can subconsciously reveal important aspects of personality, including what brings pleasure and what triggers emotion.
Four psychological clusters
Research by Dr Valerie van Mulukom, a senior lecturer in psychology at Oxford Brookes University, suggests that inner anxieties, which she terms existential insecurities, determine which books people are drawn to. Her study grouped genre engagement into four clusters:
- Epic other-world adventures: action, adventure, science fiction, dystopian/post-apocalyptic, fantasy
- Everyday life and human relationships: comedy, romance, drama, family, musical
- Threat and danger: true crime, crime/mystery/thriller, horror
- Facts and histories: documentary, biography, historical
Threat and danger: an intrigue with risk
A preference for crime novels, true crime, spy stories or supernatural horror, including the works of Stephen King, suggests a concern with, or fascination for, threat and danger. Current UK bestsellers in this category include The Secret of Secrets by Dan Brown (Penguin), The Family Friend by Claire Douglas (Penguin), and London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe (Picador).
Everyday life: relationships and reputation
A preference for romance novels points to insecurities centred on relationships, both romantic and platonic, as well as concerns about social status and reputation. UK bestsellers in this category include The Correspondent by Virginia Evans (Penguin), The Names by Florence Knapp (Phoenix), and Heartstopper Volume 6 by Alice Oseman (Hodder).
Epic adventures: worries about the wider world
Readers drawn to science fiction or fantasy tend to be more concerned with the broader state of the world, such as climate change or the threat of conflict. UK bestsellers in this category include Duskbound by Bree Grenwich and Parker Lennox (Penguin), Red Dwarf: Titan by Rob Grant and Andrew Marshall (Gollancz), and To Flame a Wild Flower by Sarah A Parker (HarperVoyager).
Facts and histories: searching for answers
Not every reader turns to fiction. Dubourg says what matters psychologically is the narrative itself, not whether it is factual or invented. "Everybody consumes narratives, be it in the form of actual news, of anecdotes, of stories that people tell in neighbourhoods," he says. UK bestsellers in this category include Regime Change by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan (Simon & Schuster), Mother Mary Comes to Me by Arundhati Roy (Penguin), and Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams (Pan).
Source:BBC
