The evolutionary functions of imagination and fiction and how they may contribute to psychological wellbeing during a pandemic

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic caused widespread social disruption and lockdowns, with negative consequences for psychological wellbeing worldwide. We argue that mental simulation, through the cognitive capacity of imagination and its instigator fiction, may have substantial positive contributions to psychological wellbeing during the pandemic. We review relevant research on the evolutionary functions of simulation through imagination and fiction, and propose that simulation is a tool to support (i) planning and future thought, (ii) coping and emotion regulation, (iii) bonding and social needs, and (iv) identity and worldviews. We suggest that these functions can contribute to coping during the pandemic. We also address the dark side of simulation, whereby excessive simulation may have negative effects such as rumination. In light of previous research and the negative psychological effects of COVID-19 disruptions and lockdowns, we suggest that there is much scope for future research on this topic, including whether simulations offered by imaginative activity could be useful and inexpensive mental health tools.

The importance of imagination and subjective knowledge: The evolution of art and religion as symbolic representations of feelings, experiences, and beliefs

“…Importantly, we argue that both serve important roles; we do not presume that the existential or social function takes precedence (van Mulukom & Clasen, 2021).…”

The Cognitive Foundations of Fictional Stories

“…Why is that the case? Past research has already provided a hypothesis to explain why motivational mechanisms are activated: we would simulate the activation of motivational mechanisms to learn what to do in specific situations (Mar & Oatley, 2008;Morin et al, 2019;van Mulukom & Clasen, 2021).…”

“…Miller, 2001;Morin et al, 2019;Nettle, 2009b;B. Boyd, 2018;Scalise Sugiyama, 2005;Tooby & Cosmides, 2001;van Mulukom & Clasen, 2021; see D. Smith et al, 2017; K. M. Smith et al, 2022, for empirical evidence in small-scale societies). Others have proposed that fiction is a non-adaptive by-product because, as Tooby and Cosmides (2001) put it: "many wellknown features of the visual arts, music, and literature take advantage of design features of the mind that were targets of selection not because they caused enjoyment of the arts, but because they solved other adaptive problems such as interpreting visual arrays, understanding language, or negotiating the social world" (see also : Pinker, 1997;Bloom, 2012).…”

Why and How Did Narrative Fictions Evolve? Fictions as Entertainment Technologies

“…A common view in behavioral approaches to literature is that the capacity to tell stories is adaptive ( Gottschall and Wilson, 2005 ; Carroll, 2012 ). Notably, it has been argued that consuming fictions leads to acquire fitness-related knowledge ( Sugiyama, 2001 ; Smith et al, 2017 ; Schniter et al, 2018 ; Nakawake and Sato, 2019 ; Sugiyama, 2021b ), self-regulate one’s emotional states ( Schaeffer, 1999 ; Gottschall and Wilson, 2005 ; Martin et al, 2018 ), simulate fake scenarios to be better prepared to face the real world ( Tooby and Cosmides, 2001 ; Sugiyama, 2005 ; Mar and Oatley, 2008 ; Bloom, 2010 ; Gottschall, 2012 ; Clasen, 2019 ; van Mulukom and Clasen, 2021 ), or attract sexual mates ( Miller, 2001 ). Evolutionary speaking, these hypotheses would hold only if our ancestors had faced a specific adaptive challenge that the behavior of producing or consuming fictions would have specifically solved ( Tooby and Cosmides, 1992 ).…”