March 30, 2021
Timothy Broom Examines What happens in your brain when you ‘lose yourself’ in fiction
If you count yourself among those who lose themselves in the lives of fictional characters, scientists now have a better idea of how that happens.
Researchers found that the more immersed people tend to get into “becoming” a fictional character, the more they use the same part of the brain to think about the character as they do to think about themselves.
“When they think about a favorite fictional character, it appears similar in one part of the brain as when they are thinking about themselves,” said Timothy Broom, lead author of the study and doctoral student in psychology at The Ohio State University.