Pengaruh media terhadap kemampuan memahami mental state, yang dikenal sebagai theory of mind (ToM), telah menarik perhatian peneliti perkembangan dalam lima tahun terakhir. Salah satu bentuk media yang sering diteliti adalah fiksi sastra yang telah terbukti berpengaruh terhadap ToM karena mampu memunculkan respon emosi dan intelektual. Penelitian pengaruh fiksi sastra terhadap ToM di kalangan anak usia sekolah bernilai penting. Di masa sekolah, anak tengah menghadapi interaksi dan konteks sosial yang semakin luas, seiring semakin berkembangnya penalaran mental state dan kemampuan literasinya. Untuk membuktikan pengaruh fiksi sastra terhadap ToM anak usia sekolah, peneliti melakukan studi dengan tiga kelompok eksperimen yang masing-masing diberikan bacaan fiksi sastra, fiksi populer, non fiksi, dan satu kelompok kontrol. Perbandingan hasil tes keempat kelompok pada kemampuan first order dan second order ToM menunjukkan bahwa membaca fiksi sastra berpengaruh secara signifikan terhadap kemampuan first order dan pengaruhnya lebih baik dibandingkan membaca genre lainnya.

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Media influence on the ability to understand the mental state, known as the theory of mind (ToM), has attracted the attention of developmental researchers in the last five years. One of the media that is often studied were fiction. The type of fiction that has proven to give effect on ToM is the literary fiction in which considered able to bring emotional and intellectual response. The study of the effect of literary fiction on ToM conducted towards schoolage children is an important value. School-age children is facing wider interactions and social context, as their development of mental-state in reasoning ability and literacy skills.

Experimental study has done to prove the effect of literary fiction on ToM of school age with three experimental groups, they were groups of reading literary fiction, popular fiction, non-fiction, and one as a control group. Comparison of the results of ToM tests of four groups on the ability of first-order and second order indicate that reading literary fiction significantly affect the ability of first-order and the effect is better than reading the other genres.