In 2017, a study by the American Psychiatric Association found that reading Harry Potter increased emotional intelligence. More specifically, this reading increases openness and decreases prejudice against minorities.
Another study, published in the journal Science (2013), concluded that reading science fiction contributes to the development of mind theory.
- Reading not only the aforementioned saga.
- But many types of books seems to favor emotional development.
- This emotional development.
- In turn.
- Seems to predict the individual’s personal.
- Social and professional success.
In terms of sex, studies show that there are no significant differences in overall emotional intelligence.
However, we find differences when analyzing the components that make up it, the main differences are presented in the following table:
Emotional intelligence is described as a “type of social intelligence that allows people to manage their own emotions and those of others, discern them and use and understand this emotional information to guide their thoughts and behaviors” (Del Pilar Jiménez et al. , 2019).
There are two main views on the development of emotional intelligence, the first establishes that it gradually grows with age and experience; the second, which develops during childhood and is based on the principle of adulthood.
In any case, starting to train people from an early age can be very beneficial for the development of this type of intelligence.
In school-age children, working with emotional intelligence in specific programs or cross-treatments has the following advantages:
When choosing books or readings that help improve our emotional intelligence, we find several options, say, for example, that we are in a bookstore.
The first option is to go through the great section of the novels and choose the one whose plot catches our attention, in doing so it is almost inevitable to develop a certain link with one or more characters, with this connection we will develop our empathy. .
Take on the role of the protagonist, understand his emotional states, understand why his actions, etc. In the end, taking a character as a reference to learn is a non-direct but very fun way to develop emotional intelligence when reading a book. .
The second option is to go to the psychology or self-help section of the library. Although not as extensive as the novels section, we can find many books dedicated to developing personal skills, skills or attitudes, including emotional intelligence.
This type of book is characterized by providing the reader with direct knowledge or advice on how to act, often using the characters as an example, but without being the protagonists of the book.
If you want to know more about which of these books to read to increase emotional intelligence, we recommend reading the article 5 emotional intelligence books to know.
Finally, if you want to combine the benefits of the two types, you can choose a third alternative.
There is a series of self-help books that tell stories, created to show, through the actions and experiences of the characters, the attitudes or skills that the author wants to propose to develop from the beginning.
To work with emotional intelligence it is possible to use two fundamental strategies: the first includes techniques, methods or direct actions that act as models and perform by parents. The article “The Secrets of Child Emotional Education?”Develop this idea.
The second, less direct but equally effective, involves reading, whether in the form of stories, fables, comics, novels, etc. , all these resources help parents work on their children’s social and emotional skills.
In fact, reading books helps to develop the theory of mind, it is a very important skill because it allows us to reflect and understand our mental states and those of others.