@mastersthesis{bal2025literary,
  author = {Bal, Onur},
  title = {Literary Work Readership and Its Relationship with Mentalisation and Empathy},
  school = {Yeditepe University},
  year = {2025},
  type = {Master's thesis},
  url = {https://onurbal.com/en/academics/thesis/}
}

5.5. Conclusion

In this Turkish university sample, greater exposure to literary fiction predicted higher empathy, including both cognitive and affective components, even when controlling for demographic variables. Yet, literary exposure showed no significant association with mentalisation. Instead, mentalisation was predicted by lower trait anxiety, older age, and female sex. Existential concerns positively predicted empathy and other-oriented mentalisation, while negatively predicting self-oriented mentalisation. Trait anxiety showed a similarly divergent pattern, negatively predicting cognitive empathy and both dimensions of mentalisation, but trending positively with affective empathy. Interaction effects between literary exposure and anxiety or existential concerns were non-significant across models. Together, these findings suggest that empathy and mentalisation are shaped by partially distinct mechanisms, with literary fiction specifically contributing to empathic processes.