How much cultural variation around the globe is explained by ecology?

Wormley, Alexandra S.; Kwon, Jung Yul; Barlev, Michael; Varnum, Michael E. W.

doi:10.1098/rspb.2023.0485

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…Another example is pregnancy, which has an effect on the sensitivity of the disgust mechanism (Fessler et al, 2005;Kaňková et al, 2023). Among ecological factors, we focused on the level of resources, but other factors (e.g., population density, pathogen levels, climate) have been shown to explain a significant part of the variance of inter-individual differences in the sensitivity of some mechanisms (Wormley et al, 2023). For instance, the sex ratio could be another interesting source of variability, as it might affect the sensitivity of many cognitive mechanisms, particularly through its influence on inter-and intrasexual competition (e.g., Barber, 2000).…”

Section: Other Sources Of Variabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Cognitive Foundations of Fictional Stories

Dubourg,

Thouzeau,

Thomas

et al. 2024

Preprint

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We hypothesize that fictional stories are highly successful in human cultures partly because they activate evolved cognitive mechanisms, for instance for finding mates (e.g., in romance fiction), exploring the world (e.g., in adventure and speculative fiction), or avoiding predators (e.g., in horror fiction). In this paper, we put forward a comprehensive framework to study fiction through this evolutionary lens. The primary goal of this framework is to carve fictional stories at their cognitive joints using an evolutionary framework. Reviewing a wide range of adaptive variations in human psychology – in personality and developmental psychology, behavioral ecology, and evolutionary biology, among other disciplines –, this framework also addresses the question of interindividual differences in preferences for different features in fictional stories. It generates a wide range of predictions about the patterns of combinations of such features, according to the pattenrs of variations in the mechanisms triggered by fictional stories. As a result of a highly collaborative effort, we present a comprehensive review of evolved cognitive mechanisms that fictional stories activate. To generate this review, we (1) listed more than 70 adaptive challenges humans faced in the course of their evolution, (2) identified the adaptive psychological mechanisms that evolved in response to such challenges, (3) specified four sources of adaptive variability for the sensitivity of each mechanism (i.e., personality traits, sex, age, and ecological conditions), and (4) linked these mechanisms to the story features that trigger them. This comprehensive framework lays the ground for a theory-driven research program for the study of fictional stories, their content, distribution, structure, and cultural evolution.

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Section: Other Sources Of Variabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Cognitive Foundations of Fictional Stories

Dubourg,

Thouzeau,

Thomas

et al. 2024

Preprint

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show abstract

“…Recent research in behavioral ecology and ecological psychology suggests that, on average, ecological parameters (e.g., density, relatedness, sex ratio, mortality likelihood, resources, disease) explain a substantial amount of human psychological variation (Sng et al, 2018; Wormley et al, 2023). In this article, we focus on the effect of resource availability on the individual variations in curiosity.…”

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confidence: 99%