Supplementary file 1_Empathy and perspective-taking in literary fiction: a systematic review and meta-analysis of psychological evidence and theoretical insights.docx

For cognitive empathy and theory of mind specifically, experimental studies produced a pooled effect of g = 0.27, 95% CI [0.10, 0.44], z = 3.15, p = 0.002 and correlational work showed an association of r = 0.20, 95% CI [0.03, 0.36], z = 4.75, p < 0.001. Across the 21 primary studies, 10 (47.6%) reported positive or beneficial outcomes, 6 (28.6%) reported mediated or conditional effects, 5 (23.8%) reported null or weak effects, and 3 (14.3%) contributed neurocognitive evidence.

Because these evidence descriptors were not mutually exclusive, percentages were not intended to form a partition of the study set.</p>Conclusion<p>Taken together, the findings suggest that reading literary fiction does not uniformly transform readers’ empathy, but is linked to modest, context-sensitive gains, particularly in perspective-taking and theory of mind. These gains are most visible when readers are engaged with demanding narratives and are invited, by the text or by instructions, to actively simulate characters’ minds, with affective empathy and prosocial responses emerging more selectively under such conditions.</p>