Earlier this week our Discovery Research Platform Co-Director Ben Alderson-Day featured in an episode of All in the Mind with Claudia Hammond, to explore the science of what reading does to the mind and the profound impact it can have on our lives and well-being.
Ben is a Professor of Psychology at Durham University and Principal Investigator of ReaderBank – our large scale study of reading, imagination and well-being.
Ben joined a panel of experts live on stage at the Hay Festival of Literature & Arts, including award-winning novelist and travel writer Joanna Kavenna and Dr Paula Byrne, Jane Austen biographer, writer and co-founder of ReLit: The Bibliotherapy Foundation.
These leading experts in psychology and the literary world examined the range of imaginative experiences that fiction readers have, whether novels can deepen our capacity for empathy and the therapeutic effect of reading on our minds.
You can catch the full episode on BBC Sounds or on the All in the Mind website.
And if you’d like to find out more about your own reading imagination, take part in the activities on our ReaderBank website.
