How to make reading fun for struggling readers (what actually works)

Last updated 2026-07-09

Why do struggling readers hate reading in the first place?

Most kids who hate reading don't hate stories. They hate the physical act of decoding words on a page, because for them it's slow, effortful, and embarrassing. That's a completely different problem than not liking books.

When a child has a phonics gap or dyslexia, every sentence is a small emergency. Working memory gets eaten up by sounding out words, leaving nothing left to actually enjoy the meaning. Reading researchers call this the "Simple View of Reading": comprehension equals decoding multiplied by language comprehension ^[1]. If decoding is close to zero, the product is zero, no matter how bright the child is.

The shame loop makes it worse fast. A kid who struggles reads less, which means less practice, which means the gap widens, which makes reading feel even more humiliating. Work by Anne Cunningham and Keith Stanovich found that first-grade reading skill predicts how much children read voluntarily years later, and that reading volume compounds vocabulary growth over time ^[2]. The longer a child avoids reading, the more they fall behind in vocabulary too, even more than in decoding.

So before you try to make reading "fun," accept one honest truth. Fun reading activities for struggling readers only work when they remove friction first and add enjoyment second. Swapping the order is why most well-meaning efforts fail.

What does the research actually say about reading motivation?

The data here is real and encouraging. Students who read about 20 minutes a day outside school encounter roughly 1.8 million words per year and land near the 90th percentile on reading volume by middle school ^[3]. Students who read only 1 minute a day encounter about 8,000 words per year and sit near the 10th percentile. That gap compounds every year.

Volume matters enormously. Here's the catch: volume follows motivation, not the other way around. You can't force a child to read 20 minutes by threatening or bribing them. The minute the external pressure lifts, the reading stops.

John Guthrie's research on Concept-Oriented Reading Instruction (CORI) found that giving students choice over what they read, and connecting reading to interests they already have, produced measurable gains in both motivation and comprehension ^[4]. Choice isn't a soft, feel-good variable. It's a mechanism.

The practical upshot: let the child pick the topic, even if it's Minecraft, anime, dogs, or monster trucks. A "low-quality" book read voluntarily beats a "high-quality" book read under duress every single time, because only one of them actually gets read.

How do you pick the right books for a child who struggles with reading?

Two numbers matter: reading level and interest level. For struggling readers, those two numbers are almost always far apart, and that gap is where frustration lives.

Most reading specialists use the "five-finger test." Have the child read a random page and hold up a finger for each word they don't know. Five or more unknown words on a single page means the book is too hard for independent reading right now. But that same book might be perfect as a read-aloud.

Match books to interest, not to grade level.

High-interest, lower-text books are not a consolation prize. Graphic novels have real research support. A 2014 study in the Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy found that reluctant readers engaged more deeply with graphic novels than with traditional text, and that the combination of image and text supported comprehension development ^[5]. The Dog Man series, Big Nate, and Diary of a Wimpy Kid have pulled enormous numbers of resistant readers back toward print.

For older kids reading at a 2nd or 3rd grade level but sitting in a 5th or 6th grade classroom, look for Hi-Lo books (high interest, low readability). Saddleback Educational and Orca Book Publishers make series built for exactly this gap. They don't look babyish, the plots hold up, and the sentence complexity stays manageable.

For younger kids still building foundational phonics, decodable readers earn a place alongside fun trade books. They feel less exciting, but a child who can actually read every word on the page often finds that satisfying in a way that struggling through a "better" book is not. See our guide on sight words for more on building that early word recognition base.

Book type	Best for	Why it helps
Graphic novels	Ages 6-14, visual learners	Image context reduces decoding load
Hi-Lo chapter books	Ages 9-14, big gap between ability and age	Age-appropriate content, accessible text
Decodable readers	Ages 5-8, early phonics stage	Builds fluency through controlled vocabulary
Audiobook + print	Any age	Lets comprehension run ahead of decoding
Nonfiction on obsessions	Any age	Motivation overrides friction
Comics and manga	Ages 8-16	High engagement, natural re-reading

Nonfiction deserves its own mention. A child obsessed with dinosaurs, cars, or a favorite sport will push through harder text than you'd expect, because the topic makes it worth it. Don't underestimate this.

What are the best reading activities for struggling readers at home?

The reading activities that work for struggling readers share two traits: they reduce the burden of decoding, and they give the child some control. Here are the ones with the best evidence and the most staying power.

Paired reading (also called "buddy reading") Sit beside your child. Read a passage aloud together at the same time. When the child signals they want to try alone, step back. When they get stuck, say the word without making it a lesson. This method has been tested in multiple UK studies and consistently produces gains in reading accuracy and fluency when practiced 15 minutes, 3 to 5 times per week ^[6].

Audiobook plus print This is arguably the single highest-value thing you can do. The child follows along in the physical book (or on a screen) while the audio plays. Hearing the words pronounced correctly while seeing them in context builds neural connections that silent struggling doesn't. Learning Ally and Bookshare both provide human-narrated audiobooks for students with documented reading disabilities, often at no cost ^[7].

Read-alouds (you read, they listen) Reading aloud to a child well above their reading level is not "cheating." It builds vocabulary and comprehension, and it shows them that books contain things worth reaching for. Jim Trelease's Read-Aloud Handbook, now in its eighth edition, collects decades of evidence for this practice. Read something exciting enough that they beg you to keep going.

Repeated reading Have the child read the same short passage (100 to 200 words) three times in a row, tracking how many words they read correctly per minute each time. Most children naturally get faster and more accurate, and they can see the improvement themselves. That visible progress is genuinely motivating. The National Reading Panel supports repeated reading as an effective fluency intervention ^[8].

Reader's theater Children perform a script rather than reading silently. Nobody memorizes lines; they read from the page each time. Because performing matters, they practice repeatedly without being told to. It feels like rehearsal, not homework. Scripts based on well-known stories work best.

Reading games Word-level games like Zingo Sight Words, Blink, or simple homemade sight-word cards build automaticity without feeling like drill. For phonics, games that involve word-building (Boggle Jr., or making words with letter tiles) hand kids physical control over language. See also our printable reading comprehension resources for worksheet-style activities that don't feel like worksheets.

Writing and reading together Have the child dictate a story while you type it. Then they read back what they said. Their own words, at their own language level, are the easiest text they'll ever read. This also builds the link between writing and reading that many struggling readers don't feel on their own.

Does technology actually help, or is it a distraction?

Honest answer: it depends entirely on how it's used.

Text-to-speech tools (where the device reads text aloud while highlighting each word) have solid evidence as accommodations, not as replacements for learning to read. The National Center on Accessible Educational Materials has documented that these tools increase reading access for students with dyslexia and other print disabilities ^[9]. Voice Dream Reader, NaturalReader, and the built-in accessibility features on iOS and Android all do this reasonably well.

E-readers with adjustable font size, spacing, and background color can reduce visual stress for some children with dyslexia. The British Dyslexia Association has published guidance on typefaces and formatting that lower reading difficulty. Fonts like OpenDyslexic (free) and Lexie Readable are designed with letter differentiation in mind, though the research on dyslexia-specific fonts is genuinely mixed and not settled ^[10].

Games that claim to "cure" reading difficulties through screen time are a different story. Programs like Fast ForWord generated enormous commercial interest in the early 2000s, but later independent research found effect sizes far smaller than company-funded studies suggested. Be cautious about any app that promises reading improvement without explicit phonics instruction or fluency practice built into it.

The tools worth spending money on: Learning Ally (around $135/year for families; free for qualifying students), Bookshare (free for students with qualifying disabilities), and the built-in accessibility features you probably already own. The ReadFlare reading toolkit keeps a curated list of free digital tools sorted by age and reading stage if you're sorting through the noise.

Screen time becomes a distraction when the technology substitutes for engagement rather than enabling it. An audiobook while a child follows along in print is productive. Forty minutes of a phonics game the child clicks through without thinking is not.

How can you make daily reading a habit without turning it into a battle?

Consistency beats intensity. Ten minutes every day is worth more than an hour on Saturday, and there's a physiological reason: spaced practice consolidates memory better than massed practice. That finding has held up across learning domains for decades.

A few things that actually shift the dynamic at home:

Keep the session short enough to end before they want to stop. This is counterintuitive. Ending while the child is still engaged leaves them with a slightly positive feeling about reading rather than a "finally it's over" feeling. Over weeks, that emotional residue adds up.

Never correct every mistake. Reading specialists generally say to step in only when errors change the meaning, and to do it neutrally: say the correct word and move on. Constant correction kills fluency practice and builds dread.

Read in normal, public places. Menus at restaurants. Captions on TV. Text messages. Street signs. These moments prove reading has real-world purpose, and they're almost always low-stakes enough to feel good.

Keep books visible and within reach. Research on the home literacy environment consistently finds that the number of books physically present in a home correlates with children's reading achievement, even after controlling for parent education ^[2]. Library trips are free. A basket of books in the living room matters.

Let there be nights off. Rigid rules breed power struggles. A child who reads 5 nights a week without a fight gets more practice than one who reads 7 nights with one.

For parents who want to go deeper on comprehension alongside fluency, our reading comprehension practice guide covers the evidence-based strategies that work once decoding starts to click.

What if the real problem is a reading disability like dyslexia?

Fun reading activities help every struggling reader. But if your child has dyslexia, a phonics gap, or a language-based learning disability, fun alone won't close the gap. They need structured, systematic, explicit phonics instruction from someone trained to deliver it.

The most rigorously supported approach is Structured Literacy, an umbrella term for programs built on Orton-Gillingham (OG) principles. The International Dyslexia Association describes Structured Literacy as explicit, systematic, sequential teaching of phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension ^[11]. Wilson Reading System, Barton Reading and Spelling, and SPIRE all fall under this umbrella.

If your child's school is not providing adequate reading support, federal law is on your side. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA, 20 U.S.C. § 1400 et seq.) requires that eligible children with disabilities receive a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) in the least restrictive environment ^[12]. Dyslexia is commonly addressed under the "specific learning disability" category. You can request a full psychoeducational evaluation in writing, and in most states the school has 60 days to complete it.

Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 offers another path for children who don't qualify for an IEP but still have a disability that substantially limits a major life activity. Reading is a major life activity. Accommodations under 504 can include extended time, audiobooks, text-to-speech, and reduced homework volume.

The U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights has published guidance on dyslexia, making clear that schools cannot refuse to evaluate a child simply because their grades are passing. "A student does not need to fail before being identified as a student with a disability," per the Department of Education's 2015 Dear Colleague Letter on dyslexia ^[13].

Fun reading activities keep a struggling reader in the game emotionally. That matters. But they work best as the context around real intervention, not as a substitute for it. If you want help figuring out what to ask for at school, the ReadFlare parent advocacy kit walks through the evaluation request process and IEP rights in plain language.

For a closer look at comprehension skills by grade, see our guides on 2nd grade reading comprehension and 4th grade reading comprehension.

How do you adapt reading activities by age?

What works for a 6-year-old and what works for a 14-year-old are almost entirely different, even when both kids read at a similar level.

Ages 5 to 7 (early readers) At this stage, phonological awareness games are reading activities. Rhyming games, clapping syllables, playing with initial sounds ("I spy something that starts with /b/") build the auditory foundation decoding depends on. Alphabet books with strong visual associations help. Board books and easy readers with predictable patterns let kids feel what "reading the whole thing" is like.

Ages 8 to 10 (developing readers) This is when the gap between struggling and non-struggling readers becomes socially visible, and shame peaks. Privacy matters more. Reading one-on-one rather than in a group, choosing books with relatable protagonists, and treating audiobooks as a fully legitimate way to experience a book all help. If the gap is large, 1st grade reading comprehension and 2nd grade reading comprehension level decodables work here too, presented without embarrassment.

Ages 11 to 13 (middle school) Middle schoolers want autonomy and hate anything that feels remedial. Series books work well, because once they're invested in a character, they'll push through harder text to find out what happens. Letting them choose their own audiobooks from a streaming service feels autonomous. Graphic novel series with ongoing plots (Saga, Amulet, or Heartstopper, depending on the reader) can sustain engagement across hundreds of pages. See our 6th grade reading comprehension guide for on-grade-level comprehension targets.

Ages 14 and up (high school) The focus shifts. A teenager who still struggles with reading needs accommodations that let them reach grade-level content without being defined by their reading difficulty. Audiobooks, text-to-speech, speech-to-text for written responses, and extended time on tests all matter. Nonfiction tied to genuine interests (sports journalism, true crime, science) often beats assigned fiction. Working with a reading tutor who specializes in older struggling readers gives targeted support without the social awkwardness of school pull-out programs.

What about reading comprehension specifically? Can struggling readers improve that too?

Yes, and this is one area where struggling decoders can be surprisingly strong, because comprehension is mostly a language skill, not a decoding skill.

Many children with dyslexia have excellent listening comprehension. When you read to them or play an audiobook, they understand, infer, predict, and discuss at or above grade level. That strength is real, and it deserves to be named and built on directly.

Comprehension strategies that work without fluent decoding:

"Think-alouds" while reading together: narrate your own thinking as you read. "Hm, I wonder why the character did that. What do you think?" This models active comprehension as a process, not a passive act.

Pre-reading discussion: before starting a book or chapter, talk about what the child already knows about the topic. Background knowledge is among the strongest predictors of reading comprehension, according to a 2020 meta-analysis by Peng et al. in Educational Psychology Review ^[14].

Retelling after reading: ask the child to tell you what happened, not to answer specific questions. Retelling forces them to organize and sequence, which is harder than a yes/no question but much closer to real comprehension.

For grade-specific comprehension support, our how to improve reading comprehension guide covers the research in detail, and we have reading comprehension passages by grade you can use at home.

Are reading rewards and incentive systems a good idea?

This one is genuinely complicated, and honest practitioners disagree.

The worry with external rewards (sticker charts, pizza parties for books read, gift cards) is that they can crowd out intrinsic motivation. A 1999 meta-analysis by Deci, Koestner, and Ryan in Psychological Bulletin found that tangible, expected rewards tied to performance reliably reduced intrinsic motivation for activities people initially found interesting ^[15]. If a child somewhat enjoyed reading and you add gold stars, you may get more reading in the short run and less in the long run.

The complication: if a child has no intrinsic motivation at all right now because reading is painful, external rewards can get them over the first hump. Reading 10 pages a day for a prize creates repetitions. Repetitions build some fluency. Fluency reduces friction. Reduced friction creates the conditions where genuine enjoyment might eventually show up.

My honest take: use very small, process-based rewards ("we finished a chapter, let's have popcorn while we talk about it") over performance-based rewards ("read 100 books and get a gift card"). The first celebrates reading as an experience. The second turns it into a transaction.

School programs like Accelerated Reader (AR) have been widely adopted, but the research is much weaker than the marketing. A 2010 systematic review found insufficient evidence that AR causes reading improvement, plus some evidence it nudges kids toward gaming the quiz instead of reading deeply. I wouldn't lean on it as a home strategy.

How do you know if your child needs more than fun reading activities at home?

Watch for these specific signs that home strategies aren't enough and a formal evaluation or specialist support is needed.

Your child is more than one full grade level behind on reading fluency or accuracy by the end of 2nd grade. Reading difficulties identified and addressed before 3rd grade have significantly better outcomes than later interventions, because the brain's phonological processing is more plastic early ^[11].

They skip words, guess from pictures, or refuse to attempt unknown words rather than sounding them out. Those are specific patterns, more than general difficulty.

They can read words correctly in isolation but not in context (or the reverse). That split suggests something specific about how their reading system is running.

They show anxiety, school refusal, or behavior problems that spike around reading-heavy activities. Emotional avoidance at this level needs professional attention alongside academic support.

They've been through a full school year of reading intervention and made less than one standard deviation of growth. That's a reasonable threshold for raising the alarm.

In these cases, the next step is a written request for a psychoeducational evaluation from your school district. Keep a copy. IDEA requires the school to respond to your written request and either evaluate or give written reasons for refusing ^[12]. An evaluation is free, and you don't need to be paying for private testing to get started.

If you want to understand what the tests measure and how to read the results, our reading comprehension test guide explains the main assessments schools use and what the scores mean.

Frequently asked questions

What are the best books for struggling readers who hate reading?

Start with graphic novels (Dog Man, Big Nate, Amulet) or nonfiction on a topic the child is obsessed with. Hi-Lo books from publishers like Orca or Saddleback give older kids age-appropriate stories at lower reading levels. The goal is a book they'll actually finish, which builds more reading confidence than any "better" book left unread.

How do I get my child to read for 20 minutes a day without a fight?

Keep sessions short enough to end before they're worn out. Pair reading with something they like, such as a snack or a cozy spot. Count audiobooks with print follow-along as reading time. Don't correct every error. Give them some control over the book choice. Five peaceful nights a week beats seven fought-over nights every time.

Do audiobooks count as reading for struggling readers?

Yes, especially when the child follows along in the physical book or on screen while listening. This paired audiobook-plus-print method builds vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension at the same time. For students with documented reading disabilities, audiobooks through Learning Ally or Bookshare are often free. Listening without following the text still builds vocabulary and language, which supports reading development.

Can graphic novels really help a struggling reader improve?

The evidence says yes. A 2014 study in the Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy found reluctant readers engaged more with graphic novels than traditional text, and the image-text combination supported comprehension. More practically, kids who read graphic novels read a lot of them, and reading volume is one of the strongest predictors of reading growth. Volume follows motivation.

What's the difference between a struggling reader and a child with dyslexia?

Dyslexia is a specific, neurobiological reading disability marked by difficulties with accurate or fluent word recognition and poor spelling, originating from phonological processing deficits, according to the International Dyslexia Association. Not all struggling readers have dyslexia. Some have phonics gaps from inconsistent instruction. An evaluation by a psychologist or reading specialist can tell them apart, which matters because dyslexia needs Structured Literacy instruction, more than more practice.

How often should a struggling reader practice at home?

Daily practice beats once-a-week sessions, even when the daily sessions are shorter. Ten to fifteen minutes, five days a week, is a realistic and research-consistent target for most families. Repeated reading of the same short passage (100 to 200 words) three times in a row is one of the best fluency exercises and takes under ten minutes. Consistency across weeks matters more than any single session length.

Is it okay to read books below my child's grade level?

Absolutely. A book a child can read independently beats one they struggle through. Independent reading is about volume and enjoyment, not challenge. Challenging texts belong in guided reading with a teacher or in read-alouds you do together. Reading below grade level on their own builds fluency and the habit of reading. Both matter enormously.

What can I do if the school won't help my struggling reader?

Submit a written request for a psychoeducational evaluation. Under IDEA (20 U.S.C. § 1400 et seq.), the school must respond in writing and either evaluate or give written reasons for refusing. A 2015 U.S. Department of Education Dear Colleague Letter clarified that schools cannot require a child to fail before referring them for evaluation. If the school refuses, you can request an independent educational evaluation (IEE) at school expense.

Are reading apps and games actually helpful for struggling readers?

Some are. Text-to-speech apps (Voice Dream Reader, NaturalReader) have solid evidence as accommodation tools. Phonics-based games that require actually sounding out words build real skills. Apps that promise rapid gains through passive play are almost always oversold. Independent research on programs like Fast ForWord found effect sizes far smaller than company-funded studies suggested. Stick to free or low-cost tools with clear phonics or fluency mechanics.

What reading activities work specifically for struggling readers in 2nd or 3rd grade?

Paired reading with a parent (reading aloud together, then letting the child try solo), reader's theater with simple scripts, and repeated reading of decodable passages all have strong evidence at this age. Word-building games with letter tiles help phonics click. Audiobooks plus print work well here too. The main thing at this stage is catching phonics gaps before 3rd grade, when the brain's phonological plasticity begins to decrease.

How can I tell if my child has a phonics gap versus a comprehension problem?

Ask yourself: can the child understand a story when you read it aloud? If yes, and they struggle when reading themselves, the problem is decoding, not comprehension. If they struggle to understand even when listening, that's a language comprehension issue and a different set of strategies applies. Most struggling readers have decoding problems at the root, though comprehension often falls behind as a secondary effect over time.

Do reading reward programs like Accelerated Reader actually work?

The evidence is weak. A 2010 systematic review found insufficient evidence that Accelerated Reader causes reading improvement, and some researchers found it nudges children toward gaming the quiz rather than reading for meaning. Small, process-based rewards (celebrating finishing a chapter together) work better than performance-based systems. External rewards tied to volume can reduce intrinsic motivation in kids who already have some interest in reading.

What is 'reader's theater' and how do I use it at home?

Reader's theater is a performance activity where children read from a script rather than memorizing lines. Because performing matters to kids, they practice the same text repeatedly without being told to, which is exactly what repeated reading research recommends for fluency. You can find free scripts online based on fairy tales, fables, or popular stories. Even two people (parent and child) are enough to make it work.

At what age is it too late to help a struggling reader?

It's never too late, though earlier intervention produces better outcomes. Adults with dyslexia can and do learn to read more fluently with structured, explicit instruction. For school-age kids, research shows reading difficulties are much more tractable before 3rd grade, but meaningful gains are possible through adolescence and beyond with systematic Structured Literacy instruction. The brain keeps some plasticity for phonological processing throughout life.

Sources

1. Gough, P.B. & Tunmer, W.E. (1986). Decoding, Reading, and Reading Disability. Remedial and Special Education. Overview via Reading Rockets.: The Simple View of Reading holds that reading comprehension equals decoding multiplied by language comprehension.
2. Cunningham, A.E. & Stanovich, K.E. (1998). What Reading Does for the Mind. American Educator. Overview via Reading Rockets.: Early reading skill predicts how much children read voluntarily years later, and reading volume compounds vocabulary growth over time; home book access correlates with reading achievement.
3. Anderson, R.C., Wilson, P.T., & Fielding, L.G. (1988). Growth in Reading and How Children Spend Their Time Outside of School. Reading Research Quarterly.: Students reading about 20 minutes per day outside school encounter approximately 1.8 million words per year and score near the 90th percentile on reading volume measures.
4. Guthrie, J.T. et al. (2004). Increasing Reading Comprehension and Engagement Through Concept-Oriented Reading Instruction. Journal of Educational Psychology.: Giving students choice over what they read and connecting reading to genuine interests produced measurable gains in both reading motivation and comprehension.
5. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy (2014), International Literacy Association.: Reluctant readers engaged more deeply with graphic novels than traditional text, and the image-text combination supported comprehension development.
6. Topping, K.J. (1995). Paired Reading, Spelling and Writing. London: Cassell. Reviewed via What Works Clearinghouse.: Paired reading practiced 15 minutes, 3 to 5 times per week consistently produces gains in reading accuracy and fluency in controlled studies.
7. National Center on Accessible Educational Materials, CAST.: Learning Ally and Bookshare provide human-narrated audiobooks for students with documented reading disabilities, often at no cost through school qualification.
8. National Reading Panel (2000). Teaching Children to Read: An Evidence-Based Assessment of the Scientific Research Literature. NICHD.: Repeated oral reading with guidance and feedback reliably improves reading fluency and overall reading achievement.
9. National Center on Accessible Educational Materials, CAST. AEM Navigator and research summaries.: Text-to-speech tools increase reading access for students with dyslexia and other print disabilities, documented as effective accommodation tools.
10. British Dyslexia Association. Dyslexia Style Guide and typeface guidance.: Adjustable formatting and certain typefaces can reduce reading difficulty, though research on dyslexia-specific fonts is mixed and not settled.
11. International Dyslexia Association. Definition of Dyslexia and Structured Literacy.: Dyslexia is characterized by difficulties with accurate or fluent word recognition originating from phonological processing deficits; Structured Literacy is the evidence-based instructional approach.
12. Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, 20 U.S.C. § 1400 et seq. U.S. Department of Education.: IDEA requires eligible children with disabilities receive a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE); dyslexia is commonly addressed under the specific learning disability category.
13. U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (2015). Dear Colleague Letter on dyslexia.: A student does not need to fail before being identified as a student with a disability; schools cannot refuse to evaluate solely because grades are passing.
14. Peng, P. et al. (2020). Educational Psychology Review, Springer.: Background knowledge is among the strongest predictors of reading comprehension, per 2020 meta-analysis examining predictors of comprehension outcomes.
15. Deci, E.L., Koestner, R., & Ryan, R.M. (1999). A Meta-Analytic Review of Experiments Examining the Effects of Extrinsic Rewards on Intrinsic Motivation. Psychological Bulletin, 125(6), 627-668.: Tangible, expected rewards contingent on performance reliably reduced intrinsic motivation for activities people initially found interesting, across 128 controlled experiments.