The Sympathetic Plot, Its Psychological Origins, and Implications for the Evolution of Fiction

Abstract

The sympathetic plot—featuring a goal-directed protagonist who confronts obstacles, overcomes them, and wins rewards—is ubiquitous. Here, I propose that it recurs because it entertains, engaging two sets of psychological mechanisms. First, it triggers mechanisms for learning about obstacles and how to overcome them. It builds interest by confronting a protagonist with a problem and induces satisfaction when the problem is solved. Second, it evokes sympathetic joy. It establishes the protagonist as an ideal cooperative partner pursuing a goal, appealing to mechanisms for helping. When the protagonist succeeds, they receive rewards, and audiences feel sympathetic joy, an emotion normally triggered when beneficiaries triumph. The capacities underlying the sympathetic plot evolved for learning and cooperation before being co-opted for entertainment.

The Cognitive Foundations of Fictional Stories

“…Our interest in this character may be twofold. As a first-party ingredient, we perceive the character as a potential cooperative partner and assess their competence (Singh, 2021). The more skilled and proficient the character appears, the more captivating they become.…”

“…These ingredients comprise elements that would naturally pique our interest in the real world if we were watching from this absolutely safe and secret space. For instance, predators lurking in the environment (Scalise Sugiyama, 2006), competent individuals who could be potential allies or antagonists who seek to harm us (Singh, 2021, unexplored paths opening up new environments (Dubourg & Baumard, 2022b), peculiar physical situations that defy our understanding (Nyhof & Barrett, 2001), highly attractive people who might be suitable mates (Cox & Fisher, 2009;Salmon, 2012) or endearing babies who elicit our protective instincts (Gould, 2008). These features activate, respectively, our predator detector, our competence evaluator, our landscape evaluator, our intuitive physics, our fertility detector, and our cuteness evaluator.…”

“…Carroll, , 2018Durante & Griskevicius, 2018;M. Fisher & Salmon, 2012;Gottschall, 2012;Nettle, 2005b;Saad, 2012;Salmon, 2016;Scalise Sugiyama, 2005;Singh, 2021). Within this tradition, fictional stories gain cultural traction and success by aligning with human preferences (Acerbi, 2023;Berl et al, 2021;Stubbersfield, 2022;.…”

Preferences need inferences: Learning, valuation, and curiosity in aesthetic experience

“…In art and games (as in life), the struggle is inseparable from the joy. Of course, the dynamics of overcoming obstacles also provides the plot for much of the (cultural) narratives that we enjoy so much, as many scholars and artists such as Kurt Vonnegut have noticed (Felix Schoeller & Perlovsky, 2016;Singh, 2021). It is by incurring informational (and metabolic) costs in the form of divergence between one's models and the sensed world (Zénon et al, 2019) that a fallible but pleasurable process of (re)harmonization is enabled.…”

Human cumulative culture and the exploitation of natural phenomena

“…One implication of this is that natural phenomena like those resulting from the specific architecture of our brains can be progressively uncovered and exploited by Type II CCE to produce increasingly appealing cultural traits. This is illustrated by studies that have revealed consistent patterns behind cultural products, behaviours or beliefs that, at first glance, seem dissimilar [57][58][59][60]. For instance, rituals that are used to treat problems are very diverse in the sense that they involve the use of different substances, artefacts and practices.…”