Believing Chicken Little: Evolutionary Perspectives on Credulity and Danger

Fessler, Daniel M. T.

doi:10.1142/9789813274853_0003

“…La mortalità, sia agentiva che non agentiva, sembra rilevante per la narrativa non-finzionale che per quella finzionale Nessuna singola teoria sembra in grado di spiegare cosa potrebbe rendere i temi legati alla morte così prevalenti sia nella narrativa non-finzionale che in quella finzionale. I teorici che cercano di spiegare il fascino culturale dei contenuti negativi sostengono che le informazioni legate alle minacce e ai pericoli siano più credibili per tre ragioni principali (Fessler 2019; Blaine e Boyer 2018). Una è il «principio del rilevatore di fumo» (Nesse 2001): i rischi di non riuscire a scongiurare un possibile pericolo sono molto maggiori di quelli di una prudenza eccessiva.…”

Section: Discussione Generaleunclassified

Perché si muore nei romanzi: l’ipotesi della simulazione dell’ordalia

Morin¹,

Acerbi

²

,

Sobchuk³

2022

La Narrazione Come Incontro

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What is fiction about, and what is it good for? An influential family of theories sees fiction as rooted in adaptive simulation mechanisms. In this view, our propensity to create and enjoy narrative fictions was selected and maintained due to the training that we get from mentally simulating situations relevant to our survival and reproduction. We put forward and test a precise version of this claim, the “ordeal simulation hypothesis”. It states that fictional narrative primarily simulates “ordeals”: situations where a person’s reaction might dramatically improve or decrease her fitness, such as deadly aggressions, or decisions on long-term matrimonial commitments. We study mortality in fictional and non-fictional texts as a partial test for this view. Based on an analysis of 744 extensive summaries of twentieth century American novels of various genres, we show that the odds of dying (in a given year) are vastly exaggerated in fiction compared to reality, but specifically more exaggerated for homicides as compared to suicides, accidents, war-related, or natural deaths. This evidence supports the ordeal simulation hypothesis but is also compatible with other accounts.

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“…La mortalità, sia agentiva che non agentiva, sembra rilevante per la narrativa non-finzionale che per quella finzionale Nessuna singola teoria sembra in grado di spiegare cosa potrebbe rendere i temi legati alla morte così prevalenti sia nella narrativa non-finzionale che in quella finzionale. I teorici che cercano di spiegare il fascino culturale dei contenuti negativi sostengono che le informazioni legate alle minacce e ai pericoli siano più credibili per tre ragioni principali (Fessler 2019; Blaine e Boyer 2018). Una è il «principio del rilevatore di fumo» (Nesse 2001): i rischi di non riuscire a scongiurare un possibile pericolo sono molto maggiori di quelli di una prudenza eccessiva.…”

Section: Discussione Generaleunclassified

La narrazione come incontro

2022

Moderna/Comparata

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Narrative has been the subject of theoretical reflection and empirical investigation since Aristotle’s Poetics. However, with the turn of the millennium, we are witnessing a real narrative turn in the humanities and social sciences. This volume aims to provide an overview of recent developments in the theoretical analysis of narrative, offering the reader a series of contributions that are organized along the following three theoretical-disciplinary axes: theories of narrative at the intersection of cognitive, evolutionary, and computational approaches; narrative theory and cognitive neuroscience; and narrative and storytelling as socio-communicative phenomena.

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“…No single theory seems able to explain what could make deathrelated themes so prevalent both in fictional and non-fictional material. Theorists trying to account for the cultural appeal of negative content claim that threat-related information is more believable for three main reasons (Fessler, 2019;Blaine and Boyer, 2018). One is the "smoke-detector principle" (Nesse, 2001): the risks of failing to ward off a possible danger are much greater than those of excessive caution.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Why people die in novels: testing the ordeal simulation hypothesis

Morin

¹

,

Acerbi

²

,

Sobchuk

³

2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

What is fiction about, and what is it good for? An influential family of theories sees fiction as rooted in adaptive simulation mechanisms. In this view, our propensity to create and enjoy narrative fictions was selected and maintained due to the training that we get from mentally simulating situations relevant to our survival and reproduction. We put forward and test a precise version of this claim, the "ordeal simulation hypothesis". It states that fictional narrative primarily simulates "ordeals": situations where a person's reaction might dramatically improve or decrease her fitness, such as deadly aggressions, or decisions on long-term matrimonial commitments. Experience does not prepare us well for these rare, high-stakes occasions, in contrast with situations that are just as fitness-relevant but more frequent (e.g., exposure to pathogens). We study mortality in fictional and non-fictional texts as a partial test for this view. Based on an analysis of 744 extensive summaries of twentieth century American novels of various genres, we show that the odds of dying (in a given year) are vastly exaggerated in fiction compared to reality, but specifically more exaggerated for homicides as compared to suicides, accidents, war-related, or natural deaths. This evidence supports the ordeal simulation hypothesis but is also compatible with other accounts. For a more specific test, we look for indications that this focus on death, and in particular on death caused by an agent, is specific to narrative fiction as distinct from other verbal productions. In a comparison of 10,810 private letters and personal diary entries written by American women, with a set of 811 novels (also written by American women), we measure the occurrence of words related to natural death or agentive death. Private letters and diaries are as likely, or more likely, to use words relating to natural or agentive death. Novels written for an adult audience contain more words relating to natural deaths than do letters (though not diary entries), but this is not true for agentive death. Violent death, in spite of its clear appeal for fiction, does not necessarily provide a clear demarcation point between fictional and nonfictional content.

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Believing Chicken Little: Evolutionary Perspectives on Credulity and Danger

Cited by 4 publications

References 52 publications

Perché si muore nei romanzi: l’ipotesi della simulazione dell’ordalia

Perché si muore nei romanzi: l’ipotesi della simulazione dell’ordalia

La narrazione come incontro

Why people die in novels: testing the ordeal simulation hypothesis

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