Storytelling as Adaptive Collective Sensemaking

Abstract

Storytelling represents a key element in the creation and propagation of culture. Three main accounts of the adaptive function of storytelling include (a) manipulating the behavior of the audience to enhance the fitness of the narrator, (b) transmitting survival-relevant information while avoiding the costs involved in the first-hand acquisition of that information, and (c) maintaining social bonds or group-level cooperation. We assess the substantial evidence collected in experimental and ethnographic studies for each account. These accounts do not always appeal to the specific features of storytelling above and beyond language use in general. We propose that the specific adaptive value of storytelling lies in making sense of non-routine, uncertain, or novel situations, thereby enabling the collaborative development of previously acquired skills and knowledge, but also promoting social cohesion by strengthening intragroup identity and clarifying intergroup relations.

Editors’ Introduction: Remembering With Others: Conversational Dynamics and Mnemonic Outcomes

“…In formal (e.g., schools) and informal (e.g., home) settings, conversations about past experiences enable us to transmit cultural information (e.g., new knowledge and skills) through teaching and social learning (Bietti, Bangerter, & Tilston, in this topic; Bietti et al., in press; Morgan et al., ; Tan & Fay, ). Social learning (Kendal et al., ) is learning by observing or interacting with another individual or a product, whereas teaching is “behavior evolved to facilitate learning in others” (Kline, , p. 2), enabling younger or less experienced group members to become better fitted within their community.…”

“…Teaching via conversations constitutes a means for learners to vicariously expand their own experience via teachers’ experiences, which in turn may enhance their ability to imagine or predict future events (Scalise Sugiyama, ). Conversational remembering enables the transmission of cultural information which helps recipients avoid the costs involved in the first‐hand acquisition of that information (Bietti et al., ; Scalise Sugiyama, ). In evolutionary terms, the transmission of narratives about survival‐relevant information reduces the complexity of the natural and social world (i.e., avoidance of dangerous situations), representing a cost‐effective way for audiences to acquire fitness‐enhancing information (Boyd, ; Scalise Sugiyama, ).…”

Why people die in novels: testing the ordeal simulation hypothesis

“…We shall not concern ourselves with other adaptationist accounts of fiction, those that argue that storytelling has adaptive benefits not related to simulation-for instance, as a vehicle for subsistence-related information (Scalise Sugiyama, 2001), as a device to enhance social cohesion (Dissanayake, 1979), or as a way of making sense of events (Bietti et al, 2018). These accounts may or may not be accurate, but they can usually be applied beyond fiction sensu stricto, to linguistic communication or to the arts in general (Mellmann, 2012).…”

“…Accordingly, these accounts usually dwell on broader categories such as "storytelling" in a sense that includes non-fictional narratives, gossip, etc. (Bietti et al, 2018). This paper will focus on narrative fiction in a narrow sense, not including things like rumours, incorrect hypotheses, counterfactual reasoning, conceptual abstractions, reasoning by analogy, over-reaction to possible threats, self-deception, etc.…”

Application of Storytelling Techniques in Improving Speaking Skills in Elementary School Students

“…One way to overcome these problems is by applying storytelling techniques to improve students' speaking skills. As the opinion expressed by Bietti, Tilston, & Bangerter (2018); Bruner in Lombardo & Damiano (2012) that storytelling can be said as a center for the creation and distribution of cultural values for generations. This opinion is in line with the theory put forward by Geanellos (1996) that storytelling is a reconstruction of the past used by someone in conveying history, culture, traditions, knowledge, and skills to the public.…”