Reading, empathy and virtual community

I've given that title because it seems to me that it describes what the research seems to show. I'm pleased to find some confirmation of something I'd suspected for a long-time. In my case that although I'm a MBTI 'E', in fact my love of reading has been a form of meeting the need to engage my thinking 'out there' -at least in the sense it gives me even if not always in reality.
Becoming a vampire without being bitten: Reading expands our self-concepts, study shows: "When we read, we psychologically become part of the community described in the narrative -- be they wizards or vampires. That mechanism satisfies the deeply human, evolutionarily crucial, need for belonging."
Of course this report brings together the stuff we are discovering about the importance of narrative and also the inbuilt empathy/mimetic thing we have. My suspicion is that a similar, or perhaps the same, psychological mechanisms are at work with online and more fully virtual relationships.

The report of the same research in Psychology Today seems to equate the love of reading with introversion, but I'm not convinced by that: I think there is an extrovert way of reading which is about enjoyment of the engagement with other minds and, in the case of fiction, an ersatz engagement with others imaginitevily. Let's remember that no encounter with a live other is free of 'fantasy' and imagination, so there is is a link.

What it makes me revisit though, is the question of the use of fiction in some academic pursuits where the development and reflection on the human condition are at a premium. Things like pastoral care or spirituality to take two that I tend to deal with. I suspect those who deal with literature studies will probably be thinking "told you so", but so be it. The challenge would be how to properly use fiction in such case -both for stimulating thought, reflection and insight and also in assessment.