Did fiction audiobooks improve older adults’ well-being more than nonfiction?

Details

Previous research had explored fiction’s psychological benefits, especially for social-cognitive and interpersonal processes, but had not examined its effects on personal well-being in a natural setting over time.

A longitudinal randomized controlled trial (RCT) using audiobooks compared fiction (novels and short stories) with nonfiction over six weeks. It involved 94 older adults from diverse urban communities and assessed subjective, eudaimonic and social well-being. Participants chose one of four books in the condition to which they were allocated.

Over the study period, the fiction group did not show greater improvement than the nonfiction group in any aspect of well-being. However, regression analysis controlling for initial well-being found that people who reported greater absorption in and appreciation of their audiobook had greater subsequent well-being, particularly meaning in life, extending beyond completion of the book.

The researchers concluded that an audiobook can have a lasting positive impact on various aspects of older adults’ well-being, depending on personal engagement with its content rather than whether it is fiction or nonfiction.