- Published
You've been dreaming about that summer break on the sun lounger, book in one hand and drink in the other, for months.
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You → publish → months
Now the dash to the airport gate, train station or hours-long drive is all that stands in your way.
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that → stand → way
But what does the book you've just shoved in your suitcase say about you?
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you → shove → you
"It's definitely not a random choice," says Edgar Dubourg, a cognitive scientist at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris.
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Dubourg → say → Paris
"When you pick a thriller or romance or horror or science fiction you're not escaping your psychology, in a way, you're really feeling very intuitive and very old parts of your brain.
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you → pick → brain
"Fiction isn't inventing new emotions in you.
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Fiction → invent → you
It's pressing on those pre-existing motivations like instincts."
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It → press → instincts
Studies have shown that our book choices can subconsciously reveal important parts of our personality - including what gives us pleasure and what makes us feel emotion.
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us → show → emotion
Research by Dr Valerie van Mulukom, a senior lecturer in psychology at Oxford Brookes University, suggests that our inner anxieties (or what she calls existential insecurities) determine which book we pick from the shelf.
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we → suggest → shelf
During her study, she used how often someone might engage with a certain genre to match it up with one of the following four clusters:
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someone → use → clusters
Everyday life and human relationships (comedy, romantic, drama, family, musical)
Threat and danger (true crime, crime/mystery/thriller, horror)
Facts and histories (documentary, biography, historical)
But what do they mean?
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they → mean → what
And how do they match up with our own anxieties?
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they → match → anxieties
You're probably intrigued by danger
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You → intrigue → danger
If, like me, you're big on crime novels, then this suggests you're concerned with - or intrigued by - threat and danger.
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you → suggest → novels
This isn't just limited to old-fashioned detective novels or psychological thrillers, but can be anything from true crime and spy stories to supernatural horrors like the works of Stephen King's books.
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This → limit → books
The UK bestseller lists have a range of titles that sit in the "threat and danger" category defined by the research, including:
The Secret of Secrets by Dan Brown (Penguin)
The Family Friend by Claire Douglas (Penguin)
London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe (Picador)
Beach bag full of romance novels?
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that → have → novels
You likely worry about your relationships
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You → worry → relationships
The UK bestseller lists have a range of titles that sit in the "everyday life and human relationships" category defined by the research, including:
The Correspondent by Virginia Evans (Penguin)
The Names by Florence Knapp (Phoenix)
Heartstopper Volume 6 by Alice Oseman (Hodder)
Spending summer in Westeros?
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that → have → Westeros
You may be someone who worries about humanity's future
At the opposite end, someone who likes science fiction or fantasy novels tends to be more concerned with the state of the world.
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who → worry → world
If you're spending your summer holiday finally reading the Game of Thrones novels, known for mixing political intrigue and medieval battles with tales of dragons and undead armies, then you're likely to be someone who worries about climate change or the threat of war.
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who → spend → war
The UK bestseller lists have a range of titles that sit in the "epic other-world adventures" category defined by the research, including:
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that → have → research
Duskbound by Bree Grenwich and Parker Lennox (Penguin)
Red Dwarf: Titan by Rob Grant and Andrew Marshall (Gollancz)
To Flame a Wild Flower by Sarah A Parker (HarperVoyager)
Prefer non-fiction?
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Dwarf → Duskbound → fiction
You might be searching for answers rather than adventures
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You → search → answers
On my last trip abroad, I took eight books for a three-week holiday, ranging from Frank Herbert's sci-fi epic Dune to James Ellroy's noir throwback The Black Dahlia.
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I → take → throwback
But not everyone likes disappearing off into fictional worlds.
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everyone → like → worlds
Dr Dubourg says it is narratives that are important, not necessarily whether they're fact or fiction.
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they → say → ?
"Everybody consumes narratives, be it in the form of actual news, of anecdotes, of stories that people tell in neighbourhoods."
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people → consume → neighbourhoods
The UK bestseller lists have a range of titles that sit in the "facts and history" category defined by the research, including:
Regime Change by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan (Simon & Schuster)
Mother Mary Comes to Me by Arundhati Roy (Penguin)
Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams (Pan)
So next time you pick up a book, what you think is just something vaguely interesting might actually make up an important part of your psychology.
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is → have → psychology
The Aporia
