Reading Increases Our Emotional Intelligence
In 2017, a study from the American Psychiatric Association indicated that reading Harry Potter increases emotional intelligence. Specifically, increasing open-mindedness and decreasing prejudice towards minorities.
Another, published in the journal Science (2013), concluded that reading science fiction helps the development of the theory of mind.
Reading -not only of this saga, but of many other books- seems to help emotional development. And this emotional development, in turn, often predicts personal, social, and work success.
Are there gender differences?
Regarding differences by gender, studies show that there are no significant differences when it comes to global emotional intelligence.
However, we do find differences when analyzing the components that make it up. The main differences are shown in the following table:
| Women | Men |
| Greater awareness of emotions | Better stress tolerance |
| Greater ability to perceive, understand and express emotions | Increased impulse control skills |
| Greater empathy | More personal safety |
| Greater aptitude in interpersonal relationships | Greater independence |
| Greater opportunities for social interaction | More optimism |
The development of emotional intelligence
Emotional intelligence is described as a “type of social intelligence that allows people to manage their own emotions and those of others, discriminate them, and use and understand this emotional information to direct their thoughts and behaviors” (Del Pilar Jiménez et al., 2019).
There are two main points of view in relation to the development of emotional intelligence. The first establishes that it increases progressively with age and experience. The second, which develops during childhood and settles in early adulthood.
Be that as it may, starting to train people at an early age can be very beneficial for the development of this type of intelligence. In school-age children, it has been shown that working through specific programs or through cross-sectional treatment has the following advantages:
- Significant improvement of social skills.
- Significant increase in emotional abilities.
- Protection against the appearance of behavioral and mental problems.
- Increase in positive academic results.
What books do I choose to work on my emotional intelligence?
When choosing books or readings that help boost our emotional intelligence, we find several options. Let us now place ourselves in the space of a bookstore.
The first option is to walk to the wide section of novels and choose one whose plot “hooks” us. By doing this, developing a certain bond with one or more characters is practically inevitable. And with this bond we are developing our empathy.
Putting oneself in the shoes of the protagonist, understanding his emotional states, understanding the reason for his actions,… in short, taking a character as a reference to learn from him is not a direct but very entertaining way of developing our emotional intelligence.
The second option is to go to the psychology or self-help section of the bookstore. Although it is not as extensive as the novels section, we will find many books dedicated to the development of skills, abilities or personal attitudes, and among them emotional intelligence.
Thus, this typology of books is characterized by providing the reader with direct knowledge or action guidelines, frequently using characters as examples but without these being the protagonists of the book. If you are interested in learning more about emotional intelligence books, we recommend visiting the article ” 7 essential emotional intelligence books “.
Lastly, if what we want is to combine the advantages of both types, we can opt for a third option. This is a strand of self-help books in which usually short stories are told. However, in this case they are designed to teach through the actions and experiences of the characters, the attitudes or skills that the author proposes from the beginning.
Develop emotional intelligence in children
To work on emotional intelligence, two fundamental strategies are used: the first is through techniques, methods or direct actions that act as modeling and that are carried out by parents. In this sense, the article “Ten strategies to educate children in emotional intelligence” develops this first way.
The second, less direct but just as effective, is through reading. Whether in the form of stories, fables, comics, novels, … all these resources help parents to work on the social and emotional skills of their children. In fact, reading books helps develop
