Reading Fiction and Economic Preferences of Rural Youth in Burkina Faso
通过在布基纳法索西南部村庄进行实地实验，随机让青年接触小说，发现阅读对信任、公共品贡献、风险偏好和耐心等经济偏好几乎没有影响，与小说能显著改变偏好的假设相悖。
A field experiment generated random variation in access to fiction for youth living in villages in southwestern Burkina Faso to test whether reading fiction affects economic preferences. There were few differences in trust, contribution to public goods, risk, and patience between those participating in the reading program and the control group. The results run counter to a supposition that reading fiction would have significant effects on the preferences of readers. Advocates of reading fiction have argued that readers develop empathy, perspective taking, and theory of mind. The null results presented here suggest the relevance of more research on this subject.