Imaginary worlds through the evolutionary lens: Ultimate functions, proximate mechanisms, cultural distribution

We received several commentaries both challenging and supporting our hypothesis. We thank the commentators for their thoughtful contributions, bringing together alternative hypotheses, complementary explanations, and appropriate corrections to our model. Here, we explain further our hypothesis, usin...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Behavioral and brain sciences 2022, Vol.45
Main Authors: Dubourg, Edgar, Baumard, Nicolas
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Humanities and Social Sciences
Social Anthropology and ethnology
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:We received several commentaries both challenging and supporting our hypothesis. We thank the commentators for their thoughtful contributions, bringing together alternative hypotheses, complementary explanations, and appropriate corrections to our model. Here, we explain further our hypothesis, using more explicitly the framework of evolutionary social sciences. We first explain what we believe is the ultimate function of fiction in general (i.e., entertainment) and how this hypothesis differs from other evolutionary hypotheses put forward by several commentators. We then turn to the proximate features that make imaginary worlds entertaining and, therefore, culturally successful. We finally explore how these insights may explain the distribution of imaginary worlds across time, space, age, and social classes.
ISSN:0140-525X
1469-1825
DOI:10.5040/9781350032491