Reading Fiction can help the socially awkward says research

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Fiction supplemented by non-fiction did help me access information that has made me more adept at social performance (for instance, through the use of 'pre-fab' principles and rules), however, the ability to 'run inflexible routines' or 'calculate' what others intuit, or to eventually figure out what behaviour/reaction is expected of one in a particular context/circumstance, is limited in usefulness given the 'Real time' speed and flexible/varied nature of social interactions.

Reading fiction never did me no good.

I think it's like catching a bird by putting salt on it's tail. If the technique helps you, it's because you didn't need to use it.

Aspie social problems involve the inability to detect or transmit non-verbal communication, not the belief that everybody else in the world is a mindless robot. Somebody please tell the "mental health" morons.

Fictional characters are completely made out of words, so reading fiction, by definition, doesn't involve interpreting nonverbal cues and the reader's non-verbal behavior is entirely irrelevant to the events in the story.

One more solution that has absolutely nothing to do with the problem. God forbid one of those people might do something that makes sense or does anybody any good.

Writing lit Major here.

I'll disagree with that research.

Why? Because reading isn't going to help you make friends and whatnot.

You need experiences, not experiencing what the writer wrote.

hmn... yup in reading you won't meet friends

but it opens the door of conversation

in reading you will vicariously experience

what other people (might) experiencing and

in your mind create a script on how to do the same

thus giving you the confidence to approach people and make friends

Reading never helped me with close social interactions. I still have no clue and I think my biggest stumbling block is mentally stalling and crashing and burning when interacting with people. I have not found a book yet that helps me form mental pathways on how my thoughts should flow.
It possibly helped the arm length ones as I could use the scripts as interaction outlines. You need to ask directions to where you are going, what did the Hardy boys say in book #xx type of thing.