Theory of mind, leisure reading, and reading comprehension in adulthood

Theory of mind, our understanding of our own and others' mental states, is related to leisure reading as well as reading comprehension. However, most work has been siloed by reading domain. Whereas research on leisure reading and theory of mind has been conducted mainly with adults using the Reading the Mind in the Eyes task (RMET), research on reading comprehension and theory of mind has been conducted mainly with children and a range of theory of mind tasks. This study integrates these lines of research in adults by examining the pathways among leisure reading, theory of mind, and reading comprehension using a comprehensive set of measures. Leisure reading included both inferred reading exposure (Author Recognition Test) and self-reported reading. We examined not only the RMET, but other theory of mind tasks-false belief, Strange Stories, the Animations task, and the four-item mentalizing index. Participants included 207 young adults (Mage = 19.26, SD = 1.13; 76% female). Participants were 74% White, 15% Black, 7% Asian, 3% Other, and < 1% American Indian or Alaska Native; 12% identified as Hispanic or Latino. Leisure reading was significantly related to theory of mind and theory of mind was significantly related to a standardized reading comprehension test, though relations differed across measurements. Controlling for covariates, theory of mind (RMET) mediated the relation between leisure reading (Author Recognition Test) and reading comprehension. The results suggest a model for how research on leisure reading, theory of mind, and reading comprehension may be integrated in future work.