A dating website claims to have discovered what kind of reading preferences make one more attractive to potential partners. According to eHarmony, women who listed The Hunger Games among their favourite books saw the biggest boost to their popularity, while men who read Richard Branson’s business books were approached most often. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo was a hit for both genders. But crucially, reading anything is a winning move; men who list reading on their dating profiles receive 19% more messages, and women 3% more.
This welcome news does not come out of the blue. Last year, the dating app My Bae also announced that people who used reading tags on its profiles were more successful in finding dates. More recently, research from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, showed that reading a novel can improve brain function.
Numerous studies have shown that readers have more empathy, including a 2005 University of Toronto paper which found that heavy readers – those who recognised more authors’ names – scored better in the interpersonal reactivity index, an empathy test, and the reading the mind in the eyes test. In general, literary fiction is thought to be most personally improving.
And being a reader can confer even more advantages. In 2015, the Reading Agency charity analysed 51 papers and reports and discovered that reading resulted in benefits including increased empathy, better relationships with others, reduced symptoms of depression and risks of dementia and improved wellbeing throughout life.
So being an avid reader makes you more popular, more successful, happier, sexier and, all in all, a better human being than someone who isn’t. But people who read a lot already knew this.
