What your summer reading list says about you
A cognitive scientist and a psychology lecturer discuss how book genre preferences reflect personality traits and existential anxieties. The research categorizes readers into clusters based on their subconscious motivations for choosing specific types of fiction.
Why it matters
Understanding the psychological drivers behind media consumption offers insight into how individuals process emotions and manage personal insecurities.
Image source, Getty Images Image caption, Dive into a good book this summer
You've been dreaming about that summer break on the sun lounger, book in one hand and drink in the other, for months. Now the dash to the airport gate, train station or hours-long drive is all that stands in your way.
But what does the book you've just shoved in your suitcase say about you?
"It's definitely not a random choice," says Edgar Dubourg, a cognitive scientist at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris. "Your reading list is basically a map of your personality.
"When you pick a thriller or romance or horror or science fiction you're not escaping your psychology, in a way, you're really feeling very intuitive and very old parts of your brain.
"Fiction isn't inventing new emotions in you. It's pressing on those pre-existing motivations like instincts."
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