Review: Oatley, K. (2012). The passionate muse: Exploring emotion in stories

In his 1999 article “Why action may be twice as true as fact: Fiction as cognitive and emotional simulation”, Keith Oatley argues that by triggering emotions, reading fiction can provide deeper insights than reading an expository text on the same subject. Reading fiction is like engaging in a type of simulation of social roles and interactions: through identifying with characters and adopting their goals, we can gain a better understanding of ourselves and others (Oatley, 1999; cf. Mar & Oatley, 2008). We may, for example, find out how we react in situations we have not previously encountered.

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