The stereotype of the reclusive bookworm would point to the encouragement of antisocial behaviour by literary studies, but in fact, if you want to make a serious pursuit of literary criticism, you need to take other readers' opinions into account.
It is believed that a simple consumption of literary works does not necessarily enhance creativity directly. However, fictional works can help to develop our ability to use our phantasy, which is a prerequisite of creativity. Through a widening of one's vocabulary and stylistic refinement, one's ability to write creatively might also develop.
In a study conducted by researchers at Toronto University, it was found that regular readers also appeared to be more creative thinkers and less prone to snap judgments; The study also said that people who read fiction, especially short stories are less rigid thinkers. These people have lesser needs for cognitive closure and are more comfortable with ambiguity, uncertainty, and disorder. A reader may relate to the thinking of various characters of the story and hence with the course of reading, he subconsciously develops a sub-set of new thinking patterns within the set of his thinking preferences.
Studies have also shown that craving cognitive closure is linked to being less rational when decisions need to be made, using less information when making decisions and using overly simple ideas and concepts to interpret the world. There is also a well-catalogued effect on creativity – in one study, having a strong need for cognitive closure led to producing objects and figures that were less creative (when inspected by an impartial judge).
So, with this connection in place, the researchers are looking to manipulate the need for cognitive closure using literary fiction. The researchers argue that fiction can act like a simulation of real-world events – instead of the simulation being run on a computer, it is run instead inside the mind of the reader, who can empathize with the characters, or even assume their identity. Also, fiction does not necessarily demand the reader make a decision–indeed, some fiction relies on the reader being unsure of what happened at the end! This can be true for non-fiction too–history books can be frustratingly incomplete, as can the fossil records of the Earth as they are described in a textbook.
That being said, it can be established that people become more insightful during the process of literary reading and it does facilitate creative thinking.