It’s a big day for bookworms: scientists studying how reading fiction affects your brain say the news is very good.

In an interview with PsyPost, Lena Wimmer, a postdoctoral researcher at Germany’s Maximilian University, explained that she and her colleagues wanted to lay the groundwork for quantitative studies about fiction’s effect on thinking — and found, to their delight, that reading it is better for you than some detractors suggest.

“Over the last decades, scholars from several disciplines have claimed far-reaching benefits — but also potential disadvantages — of reading fiction for cognition in the real world,” she told the website. “I wanted to get an objective, quantitative overview of the relevant empirical evidence in order to decide whether any of these assumptions is supported by empirical studies.”

To figure out how reading fiction affects the brain, Wimmer and her co-researchers conducted two meta-analyses. The first, as the German psychological researchers explain in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, looked into the results of a study that measured cognitive function for people who read various types of fiction. The other took data from a longitudinal study that correlated lifelong fiction readership with cognitive outcomes ranging from abstract thinking and reasoning skills to the ability to empathize with others.

In the first meta-analysis, which included data from 70 studies and more than 11,000 participants, the researchers found that reading fiction had a small but “statistically significant” positive effect on subjects’ cognition. In particular, the people in that cohort who read more fiction seemed to better empathize with others and understand the way they thought, PsyPost explains.

That analysis also found that reading fiction was more impactful compared to either doing nothing or watching fiction on a screen than it was when held up against reading nonfiction.

The second meta-analysis, which included 114 studies and more than 30,000 participants, found an even more substantial positive correlation between reading fiction and cognitive abilities, especially when it came to verbal skills, reasoning, abstract thinking, and problem-solving. Like with the first analysis, the researchers found a general trend towards better emotional cognitive abilities like empathizing, though that correlation wasn’t as pronounced.

Overall, Wimmer said, both meta-analyses demonstrated similar trends: “That people who read a lot of fiction have better cognitive skills than people who read little or no fiction.”

“These benefits are small in size across various cognitive skills, but of medium size for verbal and general cognitive abilities,” she told PsyPost. “Importantly, there is a stronger association between reading fiction and cognitive skills than between reading nonfiction and those skills.”

By no means a smoking gun, this research introduces a framework for further study into how different types of reading habits affect our brains — but for now, let’s just say that the fiction section wins this round.

More on thinking: Researchers Find That Higher Intelligence Is Correlated With Left-Wing Beliefs

NEW DELHI: In a surprising turn of events, Barron Trump, the youngest son of former President Donald Trump, has decided to withdraw from his planned political debut as a delegate at the Republican Party convention in July.
The 18-year-old, who has largely been kept out of the public eye, captured global attention earlier this week when reports suggested he would follow in his family’s footsteps and enter the political arena.
However, a statement from the office of Barron’s mother, Melania Trump, the former First Lady, clarified the situation and put an end to the convention plan.
“While Barron is honored to have been chosen as a delegate by the Florida Republican Party, he regretfully declines to participate due to prior commitments,” the statement read.
The convention, scheduled to take place in Milwaukee, is set to officially nominate Donald Trump as the Republican candidate for the upcoming November election, with delegates from each state selecting their candidate.
Barron was expected to join his siblings, Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, and Tiffany Trump, as part of the Florida delegation.
Although Barron spent his childhood years in the White House during his father’s presidency, he has been carefully shielded from the public eye.
In contrast, his older siblings have been more prominently involved in their father’s political endeavors. Ivanka Trump served as a senior advisor in the Trump administration alongside her husband, Jared Kushner, while Donald Jr. and Eric have been regular fixtures at Trump rallies and on the campaign trail.
The Trump family’s involvement in politics extends further, with Eric’s wife, Lara, being elected to a leadership position within the Republican National Committee in March.
Barron’s decision to step back from his political debut raises questions about his future involvement in politics and continues to fuel speculation about the Trump family’s role in the political landscape.

A report from the administration of President Joe Biden has found that Israeli forces likely used United States-supplied weapons in a manner “inconsistent” with international law, but it stopped short of identifying violations that would put an end to the ongoing military aid.

In the report, released on Friday after a delay, the US State Department indicated Israel did not provide adequate information to verify whether US weapons were used in possible violations of international law during its war in Gaza.

The Biden White House had issued a national security memorandum, NSM-20, in February requiring Israel and other countries receiving military aid to provide written assurances that all US-supplied weapons were used in a manner consistent with international law.

The US would then make a decision about future military aid based on those written assurances. Friday’s report is a byproduct of that memorandum.

“It is reasonable to assess that defense articles covered under NSM-20 have been used by Israeli security forces since October 7 in instances inconsistent with its IHL [international humanitarian law] obligations or with established best practices for mitigating civilian harm,” the report said.

The report nevertheless adds that the Biden administration believes Israel is taking “appropriate steps” to address such concerns.

Political backlash

The US has been a consistent ally to Israel throughout its seven-month-long military campaign in Gaza, which began on October 7.

That war, however, has spurred international outcry as humanitarian concerns mount.

Nearly 35,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, many of them women and children, and the head of the United Nations World Food Programme has declared a “full-blown famine” in the northern part of the narrow enclave.

Still, Israel’s siege on Gaza continues, with access to food, water and electricity severely limited. UN experts have repeatedly warned of a “risk of genocide” in the territory.

As a result, the Biden administration has faced pressure, particularly from the progressive flank of the Democratic Party, to address the humanitarian concerns by placing conditions on military aid to Israel.

After the report’s release on Friday, progressive lawmakers expressed disappointment with its conclusions.

Senator Chris Van Hollen, for instance, stated it “fails to do the hard work of making an assessment and ducks the ultimate questions that the report was designed to determine”.

Meanwhile, Republicans blasted the report as undermining Israel in its campaign against the Palestinian group Hamas.

Senator Jim Risch, for instance, called the document “politically damaging” and said it would do long-term harm to US allies beyond Israel.

“NSM-20 is aimed squarely at Israel in the near-term, but the additional highly-politicized reporting requirements will eventually be aimed at other American allies and partners across the globe, further impeding the delivery of security assistance and undermining our ability to deter China and Russia,” he wrote in a statement.

Impediments to the report

Friday’s report acknowledges limits to the US State Department’s findings, pointing out that the information that Israel provided was not comprehensive.

“Although we have gained insight into Israel’s procedures and rules, we do not have complete information on how these processes are implemented,” the report reads.

It also said the war itself creates barriers to understanding what is happening on the ground.

“It is difficult to assess or reach conclusive findings on individual incidents” in Gaza, the report said, citing a lack of US government personnel on the ground.

It also echoed Israeli accusations that Hamas could be manipulating civilian casualties for its own gains.

Gaza, the report said, represents “as difficult a battlespace as any military has faced in modern warfare”.

Tracing the flow of aid

The report also sought to assess whether Israel was impeding the flow of aid into Gaza, another possible violation of international humanitarian law, as well as US law.

It found “numerous instances during the period of Israeli actions that delayed or had a negative effect on the delivery of aid to Gaza”.

Nevertheless, the report concluded that it could not assess that the “Israeli government is prohibiting or otherwise restricting the transport or delivery of US humanitarian assistance within the meaning of section 620I of the Foreign Assistance Act”.

Humanitarian groups, however, have reported for months that Israel systematically blocks large portions of aid from entering the Gaza Strip.

Overall, the report said that US intelligence agencies have “no direct indication of Israel intentionally targeting civilians”, but they assessed that “Israel could do more to avoid civilian harm”.

In addition, the State Department pledged to continue to monitor the situation in Gaza, particularly with regards to the delivery of aid.

“This is an ongoing assessment and we will continue to monitor and respond to any challenges to the delivery of aid to Palestinian civilians in Gaza moving forward.”