"Literary fiction" is frequently simply a means of elevating the prestige of certain writing, by indicating that it is by/for literary elites. In this case, th

"Literary fiction" is frequently simply a means of elevating the prestige of certain writing, by indicating that it is by/for literary elites. In this case, the authors contrasted "literary fiction" with nonfiction, "popular fiction" and nothing. The literary fiction samples were drawn from a PEN/O Henry prize 2012 winners' anthology and the US National book awards finalists. The examples of popular fiction consisted of a Danielle Steele novel, "Gone Girl" by Gillian Flynn, and know knows what, although one of the authors mentioned "...genre fiction like adventure, romance and thrillers." Not much more in the abstract. http://www.sciencemag.org/content/342/6156/377.abstract http://www.sciencemag.org/content/342/6156/377.abstract