Given that I'm only reading this post after following a long chain of fanfiction which lead me to Methods of Rationality, I have to disagree.
In fact, I'd hazard a guess that if we surveyed all of the readers on this site, we'd find a very strong tendency toward fiction reading when compared to the general population.
The brittish cohort study famously found that reading for pleasure in childhood is one of the most important factors for childhood development. https://cls.ucl.ac.uk/briefings_impact/?s=&filter=1&and=1&post_type=briefings_impact&a... (read more)
You're right, science fiction and reading for pleasure clearly have the developmental benefits.
I myself was an avid consumer of science fiction, but most of it was junk, especially the Hollywood sci-fi. A much more carefully selected diet of fiction would've greatly benefited my development.
It's so much easier to design a nutritious fiction diet these days, thanks to:
* rational fiction
* post-cyberpunk science fiction
* tools like TV Tropes that allow checking a work for harmful tropes beforehand
Given that I'm only reading this post after following a long chain of fanfiction which lead me to Methods of Rationality, I have to disagree. In fact, I'd hazard a guess that if we surveyed all of the readers on this site, we'd find a very strong tendency toward fiction reading when compared to the general population. The brittish cohort study famously found that reading for pleasure in childhood is one of the most important factors for childhood development. https://cls.ucl.ac.uk/briefings_impact/?s=&filter=1&and=1&post_type=briefings_impact&a... (read more)