Literary work readership and its relationship with mentalisation and empathy

Research has shown that literary work readership can positively contribute to individuals' social cognitive skills, particularly empathy. This thesis examines the relationship between literary fiction exposure and two key constructs: empathy and mentalisation, building on research suggesting that literary fiction fosters social understanding by engaging readers in complex psychological simulations. It also explores how existential anxiety relates to these abilities. A total of 258 university students (aged 19–30) participated in the study. Literary engagement was operationalised as the number of books participants reported having read from the Turkish Ministry of Education's "100 Fundamental Works" literary canon. Empathy (cognitive and affective), mentalisation (self- and other-oriented), state anxiety, trait anxiety, and existential concerns were measured via standardised self-report scales administered online. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that greater literary exposure predicted significantly higher overall, cognitive, and affective empathy, independent of demographic factors. However, literary exposure did not predict mentalisation or its subcomponents. Existential concerns were positively associated with empathy and other-oriented mentalisation but negatively associated with self-oriented mentalisation. Trait anxiety followed a similar divergent pattern: negatively predicting cognitive empathy and both mentalisation dimensions, while showing a marginally positive trend with affective empathy. Interaction effects between literary exposure and anxiety or existential concerns were not significant. These findings suggest that empathy and mentalisation are shaped by distinct psychological processes, with literary fiction more closely linked to empathic sensitivity than reflective mentalising.