Researchers say fiction should be taken as seriously as facts-based research

Fiction - including poetry - should be taken just as seriously as facts-based research, according to the team from Manchester University and the London School of Economics (LSE).

Novels should be required reading because fiction "does not compromise on complexity, politics or readability in the way that academic literature sometimes does," said Dr Dennis Rodgers from Manchester University's Brooks World Poverty Institute.

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Tom Clougherty, policy director of the Adam Smith Institute, said fiction was "a useful tool in aiding people's understanding, sparking their interest, and humanising issues".

But he warned: "There's a problem. Fiction works by appealing to people's emotions, not their intellect or rationality."

He said issues like poverty and international development were "emotionally charged" and consequently solutions often failed to take into account hard, unpalatable facts.

"Years of aid won't sort out fundamental problems," he said, concluding: "Fiction absolutely can't replace factual, evidence-based analysis."

Novels ‘better at explaining world’s problems than reports’ - Telegraph.