Are you uncomfortable with
ambiguity? It’s a common condition, but a highly problematic one. The compulsion
to quell that unease can inspire snap judgments, rigid thinking, and bad
decision-making.
Fortunately, new research suggests a simple anecdote for this affliction: Read
more literary fiction.
A trio of University of Toronto scholars, led by psychologist Maja Djikic,
report that people who have just read a short story have less need for what
psychologists call “cognitive closure.” Compared with peers who have just read
an essay, they expressed more comfort with disorder and uncertainty—attitudes
that allow for both sophisticated thinking and greater creativity.
“Exposure to literature,” the researchers write in the Creativity Research
Journal, “may offer a (way for people) to become more likely to open their
minds.”
Djikic and her colleagues describe an experiment featuring 100 University of
Toronto students. After arriving at the lab and providing some personal
information, the students read either one of eight short stories or one of eight
essays. The fictional stories were by authors including Wallace Stegner, Jean
Stafford, and Paul Bowles; the non-fiction essays were by equally illustrious
writers such as George Bernard Shaw and Stephen Jay Gould.
Afterwards, each participant filled out a survey measuring their emotional need
for certainty and stability. They expressed their agreement or disagreement with
such statements as “I don’t like situations that are uncertain” and “I dislike
questions that can be answered in many different ways.”
Those who read a short story had significantly lower scores on that test than
those who read an essay. Specifically, they expressed less need for order and
more comfort with ambiguity. This effect was particularly pronounced among those
who reported being frequent readers of either fiction or non-fiction.
So how does literature induce this ease with the unknown? Djikic and her
colleagues, Keith Oatley and Mihnea Moldoveanu, have some ideas.