Openness to experience, absorption-like states, and the aesthetic, explanatory, and pragmatic effects of literary reading

Although several measures of reading engagement (e.g., absorption, immersion) have been developed in recent years, the possibility that they reflect different constructs has not been systematically examined. The present study investigated two factorially independent forms of reading engagement measured by the Absorption-Like States Questionnaire (ASQ; Kuiken & Douglas, 2017, 2018). We examined whether (a) expressive enactment (ASQ-EE) and integrative comprehension (ASQ-IC) differentially predict aesthetic, explanatory, and pragmatic reading outcomes; (b) whether the components and outcomes of ASQ-EE and ASQ-IC differ from those of another measure of reading engagement (the Story World Absorption Scale, SWAS; Kuijpers et al., 2014), and (c) whether ASQ-EE and ASQ-IC are differentially related to two measures of trait openness to experience: the Tellegen Absorption Scale (Tellegen & Atkinson, 1974) and the Big Five Aspects Scale for Openness/Intellect; DeYoung et al., 2007).