My wife was telling me about this at dinner. It makes sense, right? If you indulge yourself in an activity which requires you to assemble complex nuances to form an understanding, you will be better at ToM tests. Doesn't seem terribly shocking to me. Still, another reason to read the classics!
Unsurprising to us, perhaps, but the ramifications are important. We now have peer-reviewed research which shows that literary fiction enhances the "skills and thought processes fundamental to complex social relationships - and functional societies". I'm tempted to send a copy of this to my local MP arguing the case for increased grant funding. Interesting that it's limited to literary fiction. A skeptic could probably argue that readers who head for the literary section of the bookstore are already more inclined to creative engagement and hence to perform well in ToM tests; the actual reading might therefore be incidental.
I thought the reading might be incidental as well. I'd like to see how they how they chose people for the tests they preformed. Did they randomly select people to read different things or did they ask people who identified as reading different material? However that is answered is going to greatly affect my faith in this study.