The Psychological Effects of Reading

-By Derek Campbell

Reading is a basic human activity taught to us at an extremely young age. It can teach us basic morales, lesser known historical facts, how to control the world, etc. It doesn't matter if thou wisheth to quoth a quote from the  tale of "The Raven", nor does it matter to perhaps embark on the perilous and dubious adventure of "Pat the Bunny", all literature has meaning. Most of us can see this point plain and simple. However, there lies a much larger effect on your cognitive ability than what meets the eye. Not only does all literature have meaning, but all types of literature have specific physiological and psychological effects as well. It's time someone ought to tell you what's going on up there when you read:

Positive Effects:
Reading for the most part is good for you (that's a no-brainer), but what you haven't realized is actually how good it is for you:

Well, for starters, it's an incredible stress reliever. A 2009 University of Sussex conducted an experiment and concluded that the reading for a half an hour was more effective than listening to music, drinking tea, or walking. The studied showed that a person's stress level reduced by 68% (compared to 61% for music, 54% for tea, and 42% from going on a walk, data collected from theargus.co.uk).

Also, there is a debated theory regarding reading's role in the evolutionary process. Dr. Maryanne Wolfe wrote a book Proust and the Squid, to which she explains her theory that the invention of reading prompted the human mind to think differently, taking in information in a way that increased the average human intelligence. Although the theory has been unconfirmed, the scientific community has taken it into thought. I find it pretty funny to think of this theory in these terms: "Pat the Bunny is a human invention to perfect the evolution of the human cerebrum".

What if I told you secretly and almost unconsciously made an involuntary movement and/or reaction just from something like a metaphor. This isn't The Number 23, and you are not Jim Carrey, this is real (and personally a little spooky too). A recent study has yielded these results:                                
              
                   "In an interesting recent study conducted by Simon Lacey of Emory University and his colleagues they chose sentences that contained tactile metaphors—such as “She had a rough day”—and paired them with sentences with the same meaning but without the metaphors, such as “She had a bad day.” Participants lay in an fMRI scanner and listened to the various sentences. The researchers found that the brain regions that were activated when the participants heard sentences with texture metaphors were the same brain regions that are activated when people sense texture through touch" (huffing post)

Although it isn't mind control (at least not yet), science has shown us that what we read triggers something internal, even if when we don't consciously feel the effects. Nevertheless, this sounds utterly amazing, as well as terrifying as this could be the secret to brain-washing or hypnosis (the power of words is a force to be reckoned with)


Negative Effects:
You may be wondering, "What's so bad about reading?", and to be perfectly honest, not much. However, I believe nothing is without a second face, and behind the printed pages, there is a darker agenda:

One word, propaganda. When authors and poets write, they usually do so to push a certain message, morale, or even specific agenda. An author can write nearly anything and hide it in a satirical or allegorical form, almost forcing a person to subconsciously agree with the author. Just look at pieces such as The Crucible (Red Scare), Animal Farm (Anti-Communist Ideas), and all political cartoons. Hell, look at all the Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton memes circling the internet, subconsciously creating bias opinions about of the two. Why is this a big deal? It's all about truly knowing what you're fighting for. The German citizens in the 1930's wanted a stronger Germany after WW1, do you really think all wanted to sign up for the mass genocide of jews as well, or do you think they were coerced by propaganda-like media (such as novels)?

Not to mention the fact that similarities can be drawn between intense fictitious reading and drug use. That may sound extreme, but if you examine both, they seem closer related than what you previously thought. Why some (if not most) alcoholics or hard-core drug users is to escape reality and escape the harsh and punishing world around them. People can also do this with works of fiction. Although one clearly has much more severe consequences, it is the urge to escape reality that relates the two. It's one thing to read and enjoy a story, its another to close off your own life for one of dead trees. We should not turn a blind-eye to what is important in life. We wouldn't want to turn into Annie Wilkes now would we (Misery, Stephen King)?