This take is unpopular because it’s real immature, btw. I’ve literally watched white classmates develop real empathy for Black people because of To Kill a Mockingbird. Fiction can expand how folks understand motivation, fear, contradiction. The shit essays and self help books barely touch. Autobiographies always have a spin but good Fiction often doesn't tell you what to think. It drops you into situations where every choice costs something, and you have to sit with ambiguity and imperfect decisions, which builds REASONING. I've learned about West African traditions, Constantinople's politics, and political struggles of the Ottoman Empire from fiction. Malcolm Gladwell is cool, but he didn't improve my vocabulary like Ursula K. Le Guin. Fiction isn’t just entertainment. It’s mental rehearsal for being human. Escaping into a book can be as good for your brain and self regulation as meditation. And yeah, let me add one more chaotic perception I've had: Many “non-fiction only” men I've met are uncreative as hell and tend to treat women like achievements.