People who habitually read paper books tend to have a higher degree of willingness to work on anything and to think more multilaterally than those who prefer to read electronic books on a smartphone or a computer, according to a recent survey by the National Institution For Youth Education, which was released Monday.
The survey on reading habits was conducted on 5,000 people in their 20s to 60s in February. For the first time in a survey of this kind, the respondents were divided into five groups depending on their reading habits, such as which medium they mainly use and how many hours they read. The groups are: 1) paper book readers; 2) those who read on a smartphone or a tablet computer; 3) those who read on a PC; 4) those who read on two or more electronic devices; and 5) those who hardly ever read books.
To appraise the respondents' critical thinking and self-understanding abilities, the survey also asked for self-assessments on their ability to think multilaterally and logically, as well as to grasp and affirm themselves, with a maximum rating of 20 points. The average points of each group regarding each question were then compared with those of other groups.
As a result, the paper book group came in on top in all the questions, scoring 13.11 points in ability to take independent action, 13.48 points in critical thinking ability and 14.02 points in self-understanding ability -- prevailing over the three groups preferring electronic devices by a margin of from 0.22 points to 1.04 points. In all questions, those who hardly ever read got the lowest points.
"People who have a habit of reading possess such abilities regardless of the medium. But the survey has made it clearer that physical book readers are better in those abilities," an official of the institution said.
Nevertheless, the number of people who read paper books are in gradual decline. In the survey, 49.8% of the respondents said the number of books they read in one month is zero, up 22 percentage points from the previous survey in 2013. On the other hand, those who said they read one or more electronic books in one month increased from the 2013 survey by 11 percentage points to 19.7%.
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