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Perché si muore nei romanzi: l’ipotesi della simulazione dell’ordalia

  • Olivier Morin
  • Alberto Acerbi
  • Oleg Sobchuk

What is fiction about, and what is it good for? An influential family of theories sees fiction as rooted in adaptive simulation mechanisms. In this view, our propensity to create and enjoy narrative fictions was selected and maintained due to the training that we get from mentally simulating situations relevant to our survival and reproduction. We put forward and test a precise version of this claim, the “ordeal simulation hypothesis”. It states that fictional narrative primarily simulates “ordeals”: situations where a person’s reaction might dramatically improve or decrease her fitness, such as deadly aggressions, or decisions on long-term matrimonial commitments. We study mortality in fictional and non-fictional texts as a partial test for this view. Based on an analysis of 744 extensive summaries of twentieth century American novels of various genres, we show that the odds of dying (in a given year) are vastly exaggerated in fiction compared to reality, but specifically more exaggerated for homicides as compared to suicides, accidents, war-related, or natural deaths. This evidence supports the ordeal simulation hypothesis but is also compatible with other accounts.

  • Keywords:
  • origin of fiction,
  • role of fiction,
  • narratology,
  • cultural evolution,
  • representation of death,
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Olivier Morin

Max Planck institut, Germany - ORCID: 0000-0002-6216-1307

Alberto Acerbi

Brunel University, United Kingdom - ORCID: 0000-0001-5827-8003

Oleg Sobchuk

Max Planck institut, Germany - ORCID: 0000-0002-0793-4944

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  • Publication Year: 2022
  • Pages: 59-80
  • Content License: CC BY 4.0
  • © 2022 Author(s)

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  • Publication Year: 2022
  • Content License: CC BY 4.0
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Chapter Information

Chapter Title

Perché si muore nei romanzi: l’ipotesi della simulazione dell’ordalia

Authors

Olivier Morin, Alberto Acerbi, Oleg Sobchuk

Language

Italian

DOI

10.36253/979-12-215-0045-5.06

Peer Reviewed

Publication Year

2022

Copyright Information

© 2022 Author(s)

Content License

CC BY 4.0

Metadata License

CC0 1.0

Bibliographic Information

Book Title

La narrazione come incontro

Editors

Fabio Ciotti, Carmela Morabito

Peer Reviewed

Number of Pages

174

Publication Year

2022

Copyright Information

© 2022 Author(s)

Content License

CC BY 4.0

Metadata License

CC0 1.0

Publisher Name

Firenze University Press

DOI

10.36253/979-12-215-0045-5

ISBN Print

979-12-215-0044-8

eISBN (pdf)

979-12-215-0045-5

eISBN (epub)

979-12-215-0046-2

Series Title

Moderna/Comparata

Series ISSN

2704-5641

Series E-ISSN

2704-565X

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