Recent research suggests language evolved principally to swap ‘social information’: Evolutionary Psychology, Robin Dunbar, Louise Barrett, John Lycett (Oneworld, 2007) p. 133.
Some researchers believe grandparents came to perform a vital role in such tribes:
‘Grandparents: The Storytellers Who Bind Us; Grandparents may be uniquely designed to pass on the great stories of human culture’, Alison Gopnik, Wall Street Journal, 29 March 2018.
different kinds of stories: The Origins of Creativity, Edward O. Wilson (Liveright, 2017) pp. 22–24.
It is a ‘story processor’, writes the psychologist Professor Jonathan Haidt: The Righteous Mind, Jonathan Haidt (Allen Lane, 2012) p. 281.
Joseph Campbell’s ‘Monomyth’: The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell (Fontana, 1993).
I agree with the story theorist John Gardner who argues: The Art of Fiction, John Gardner (Vintage, 1993) p. 3.
1.1
‘Almost all perception is based on the detection of change’: Comment made by Professor Sophie Scott during review of manuscript, August 2018.
In a stable environment, the brain is relatively calm: The Self Illusion, Bruce Hood (Constable and Robinson, 2011) p. 125.
every one of them is as complex as a city: Incognito, David Eagleman (Canongate, 2011) p. 1.
speeds of up to 120 metres per second: The Brain, Michael O’Shea (Oxford University Press, 2005) p. 8.
150,000 to 180,000 kms of synaptic wiring: The Domesticated Brain, Bruce Hood (Pelican, 2014) p. 70.
John Yorke, has written: Into the Woods, John Yorke (Penguin, 2014) p. 270.
‘There’s no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it’: Halliwell’s Filmgoer’s Companion, Leslie Halliwell (Granada, 1984) p. 307.
1.2
nine-week-old babies are drawn to: The Hungry Mind, Susan Engel (Harvard University Press, 2015) p.24
it’s thought that we ask around 40,000 ‘explanatory’ questions: Curious, Ian Leslie (Quercus, 2014) p. 56.
He writes of a test in which participants were confronted by a grid: ‘The Psychology of Curiosity’, George Lowenstein, Psychological Bulletin, 1994, Vol. 116. No 1. pp. 75–98.
There is a natural inclination to resolve information gaps: An Information-Gap Theory of Feelings about Uncertainty, Russell Golman and George Loewenstein (Jan 2016).
Another study had participants being shown three photographs: ‘The Psychology of Curiosity’, George Lowenstein, Psychological Bulletin,1994, Vol. 116. No. 1. pp. 75–98.
Curiosity is shaped like a lowercase n: ‘The Psychology and Neuroscience of Curiosity’, Celeste Kidd and Benjamin Y. Hayden, Neuron, 4 November 2015: 88(3): 449–460.
In his paper, ‘The Psychology of Curiosity’: ‘The Psychology of Curiosity’, George Lowenstein, Psychological Bulletin, 1994, Vol. 116. No. 1. pp. 75–98.
Mystery, he’s said, ‘is the catalyst for imagination’: J. J. Abrams, ‘The Mystery Box’, TED talk, March 2007.
1.3
Consider that whole beautiful world around you, with all its: ‘Exploring the Mysteries of the Brain’, Gareth Cook, Scientific American, 6 Oct 2015.
If you hold out your arm and look at your thumbnail: The Brain, Michael O’Shea (Oxford University Press, 2005) p. 5.
the rest of your sight is fuzzy: Incognito, David Eagleman (Canongate, 2011) pp. 7–370.
blink 15 to 20 times a minute: ‘Why Do We Blink so Frequently?’, Joseph Stromberg, Smithsonian, 24 Dec 2012.
four to five saccades every second: Susan Blackmore, Consciousness (Oxford University Press, 2005) p. 57.
Modern filmmakers mimic saccadic behaviour: T. J. Smith, D. Levin & J. E. Cutting, ‘A window on reality: Perceiving edited moving images’, Current Directions in Psychological Science, 2012, Vol. 21, pp. 107–113.
Half didn’t spot a man in a gorilla suit walk directly into the middle of the screen: Daniel J. Simons, Christopher F. Chabris, Gorillas in our midst: sustained inattentional blindness for dynamic events, Perception, 1999, Vol. 28, pp. 1059–1074
Other tests have confirmed we can also be: ‘Beyond the Invisible Gorilla’, Emma Young, The British Psychological Research Digest, 30 August 2018.
In a test of a simulated vehicle stop: Daniel J. Simons and Michael D. Schlosser, ‘Inattentional blindness for a gun during a simulated police vehicle stop’, Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, 2017, 2:37.
Dr Todd Feinberg writes of a patient, Lizzy: Altered Egos: How the Brain Creates the Self (Oxford University Press, 2001) pp. 28–9.
less than one ten trillionth of light spectrum: Incognito, David Eagleman (Canongate, 2011) p. 100.
Evolution shaped us with perceptions that allow us to survive’ … Professor Donald Hoffman has said: The Case Against Reality, Amanda Gefter, The Atlantic, 25 April 2016.
mantis shrimp: Deviate, Beau Lotto (Hachette 2017). Kindle location 531.
bees’ eyes are able to see: Deviate, Beau Lotto (Hachette 2017). Kindle location 538.
Russians are raised: How Emotions Are Made, Lisa Feldman-Barrett (Picador 2017) p. 146.
in order to identify ripe fruit: ‘You can thank your fruit-hunting ancestors for your color vision’, Michael Price, Science, 19 Feb 2017.
Dreams feel real: Head Trip, Jeff Warren (Oneworld, 2009) p. 38.
to explain a ‘myoclonic jerk’: Head Trip, Jeff Warren (Oneworld, 2009) p. 31.
Wherever studies have been done: The Storytelling Animal, Jonathan Gottschall (HMH, 2012) p. 82.
seems to have caught people in the act of ‘watching’ the models of stories: Louder than Words, Benjamin K. Bergen (Basic, 2012) p. 63. Surprisingly, related studies suggest the brain doesn’t make much distinction between stories told in the first (‘I’) and third singular persons (‘he’ or ‘she’). Given sufficient context, it tends to take the ‘observer perspective’, as if it’s watching the action of the story remotely.
It ‘appears to modulate what part of an evoked simulation someone’: Louder than Words, Benjamin K. Bergen (Basic, 2012) p. 118.
This is perhaps why transitive construction: Louder than Words, Benjamin K. Bergen (Basic, 2012) p. 99.
For the same reason, active sentence construction: Louder than Words, Benjamin K. Bergen (Basic, 2012) p. 119.
to make vivid scenes, three specific qualities: ‘Differential engagement of brain regions within a “core” network during scene construction’, Jennifer Summerfield, Demis Hassabis & Eleanor Maguire, Neuropsychologia, 2010, Vol. 48, 1501–1509.
As C. S. Lewis implored a young writer in 1956: http://www.lettersofnote.com/2012/04/c-s-lewis-on-writing.html
Only that way: A final lesson from the model-making brain is that simplicity is also crucial. The human beam of attention is narrow. ‘Everything about our hominin past,’ writes the neurobiologist Professor Robert Sapolsky, ‘has honed us to be responsive to one face at a time.’ We have hunter-gatherer brains, specialised to focus on a single moving prey animal, a single ripe fruit or a single tribal confederate. This narrowness is why stories often begin simply, from the perspective of one person, or are centred around one problem.
1.5
it’s been argued: The Domesticated Brain, Bruce Hood (Pelican, 2014).
their physical strength as much as halving: ‘The Domestication of Human’, Robert G. Bednarik, 2008, Anthropologie XLVI/1 pp. 1–17.
Whereas ape and monkey parents: Evolutionary Psychology, Robin Dunbar, Louise Barrett, & John Lycett (Oneworld, 2007) p. 62.
Newborns are attracted to human faces more than to any other object: On the Origin of Stories, Brian Boyd (Harvard University Press, 2010) p. 96.
One hour from birth, begin imitating them: On the Origin of Stories, Brian Boyd (Harvard University Press, 2010) p. 96.
By two, they’ve learned to control their social worlds by smiling: The Self Illusion, Bruce Hood (Constable and Robinson, 2011) p. 29.
so adept at reading people that they’re making calculations about status and character automatically, in one tenth of a second: ‘Effortless Thinking’, Kate Douglas, New Scientist, 13 December 2017.
‘Our species has conquered the Earth because’: Mindwise, Nicholas Epley (Penguin, 2014) p. xvii.
Studies indicate that those who anthropomorphise: Mindwise, Nicholas Epley (Penguin, 2014) p. 65.
Bankers project human moods: Mindwise, Nicholas Epley (Penguin. 2014) p. 62. It says much about the brain’s natural storytelling instincts that these processes seem especially active when things go wrong. Whether it’s a car or a computer, the more it fails, the more likely its owners are to treat is as if it has ‘a mind of its own’. Epley had such owners undergo brain scans. ‘We found the same neural regions involved in thinking about the minds of other people were also engaged when thinking about these unpredictable gadgets,’ he writes. When trouble strikes, when the brain’s predictions fail, we switch into story mode. Our narrow band of attention turns on. We become aware. And there we are, one mind primed for action in the fairytale realm of others.
Charles Dickens, William Blake and Joseph Conrad all spoke of: ‘Introduction of Writer’s Inner Voices’, Charles Fernyhough, 4 June 2014, http://writersinnervoices.com.
the novelist and psychologist Professor Charles Fernyhough: ‘Fictional characters make “experiential crossings” into real life, study finds’, Richard Lea, Guardian, 14 Feb 2017.
some research suggests strangers read another’s thoughts: Mindwise, Nicholas Epley (Penguin, 2014) p. 9.
Alexander Mackendrick writes, ‘I start by asking’: On Film-Making, Alexander Mackendrick (Faber & Faber, 2004) p. 168.
1.6
recent research suggests we’re more likely to attend to: ‘Meaning-based guidance of attention in scenes as revealed by meaning maps’, John M. Henderson & Taylor R. Hayes, Nature, Human Behaviour, 2017, Vol. 1, pp. 743–747.
1.7
when we drink: Subliminal, Leonard Mlodinow (Penguin, 2012) p. 24.
The way food is described: Subliminal, Leonard Mlodinow (Penguin, 2012) p. 21.
use around one metaphor for every ten seconds of speech: I Is an Other, James Geary (Harper Perennial, 2012) p. 5.
Neuroscientists are building a powerful case: Louder than Words, Benjamin K. Bergen (Basic, 2012) pp. 196–206.
When participants in one study read the words, ‘he had a rough day’: ‘Metaphorically feeling: Comprehending textural metaphors activates somatosensory cortex’, Simon Lacey, Randall Stilla, K. Sathian, Brain and Language, Vol. 120, Issue 3, March 2012, pp. 416–421.
In another, those who read ‘she shouldered the burden’: ‘Engagement of the left extrastriate body area during body-part metaphor comprehension’, Simon Lacey, Randall Stilla, Gopikrishna Deshpande, Sinan Zhao, Careese Stephens, Kelly McCormick, David Kemmerer, K. Sathian, Brain & Language, 2017, 166, 1–18.
It won’t come as much of a surprise to discover: Politics and the English Language, George Orwell (Penguin, 1946).
Researchers recently tested this idea that clichéd metaphors: Louder than Words, Benjamin K. Bergen (Basic, 2012) p. 206.
1.8
In a classic 1932 experiment, the psychologist Frederic Bartlett: Subliminal, Leonard Mlodinow (Penguin, 2012), p. 68.
Estimates vary, but it’s believed the brain processes around 11 million bits: Strangers to Ourselves, Timothy D. Wilson, (Belknap Harvard, 2002), p.24.
no more than forty: The Social Animal, David Brooks (Short Books, 2011) p. x.
the ‘Cosmic Hunt’ myth: ‘The Evolution of Myths’, Julien d’Huy, Scientific American, December 2016.
BANANAS. VOMIT: Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman (Penguin, 2011) p. 50.
the early twentieth century by the Soviet filmmakers: Film Technique and Film Acting, Vsevolod Pudovkin (Grove Press, 1954) p. 140. According to some accounts, the third shot was actually an attractive woman reclining on a chaise longue, with the audience projecting lust into the actor. In the 1954 translation of his book Film Technique and Film Acting, Pudovkin describes the bear.
When presented with ‘sham’ wooden blocks: Why?, Mario Livio (Simon & Schuster) Kindle Location 1599
Humans, the Professor of education Paul Harris has said: ‘Probe the how and why’, Curious, Ian Leslie (Quercus, 2014) Kindle Location 626
You want all your scenes to have a ‘because’: Accessed at: https://johnaugust.com/2012/scriptnotes-ep-60-the-black-list-and-a-stack-of-scenes-transcript
Full quote: ‘You want all your scenes to have a “Because” between them and not an “And Then” between them. And it’s something that you learn and get better at which is having everything cause everything, and everything build on everything. But I have noticed, particularly in the action genre, it seems like things have gotten very episodic.’
strongly predicts an interest in poetry and the arts: Personality, Daniel Nettle (Oxford University Press, 2009) p. 190.
2.0
Mr B … writes the neuroscientist Professor Michael Gazzaniga: The Consciousness Instinct, Michael Gazzaniga (Farrahr, Straus and Giroux, 2018) pp. 136–138.
The brain constructs its hallucinated model: Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast, Lewis Wolpert (Faber & Faber, 2011) pp. 36–38.
The mythologist Joseph Campbell said: The Power of Myth, Joseph Campbell with Bill Moyers (Broadway Books, 1998) p. 3.
2.1
this personality is likely to remain relatively stable: ‘A Coordinated Analysis of Big-Five Trait Change Across 16 Longitudinal Samples’, Elieen Graham et al. PrePrint: https://psyarxiv.com/ryjpc/.
fictional characters. One academic paper: ‘The Five-Factor Model in Fact and Fiction’, Robert R. McCrae, James F. Gaines, Marie A. Wellington, 2012, 10.1002/9781118133880.hop205004.
Different personalities have different go-to tactics: In Personality Psychology, Larsen, Buss & Wisjeimer (McGraw Hill, 2013), a ‘taxonomy of eleven tactics of manipulation’ has been compiled (p. 427).
Charm (‘I try to be loving when I ask her to do it’)
Coercion (‘I yell at him until he does it’)
Silent treatment (‘I don’t respond to her until she does it’)
Reason (‘I will explain why I want him to do it’)
Regression (‘I whine until she does it’)
Self-abasement (‘I act submissive so that he will do it’)
Responsibility invocation (‘I get her to make a commitment to doing it’)
Hardball (‘I hit him so that he will do it’)
Pleasure induction (‘I show her how much fun it will be to do it’)
Social comparison (‘I tell him that everyone else is doing it’)
Monetary reward (‘I offer her money so that she will do it’)
writes the psychologist Professor Keith Oatley: Such Stuff as Dreams, Keith Oatley (Wiley-Blackwell, 2011) p. 95.
Conscientious people tend to: Personality Psychology, Larsen, Buss & Wisjeimer (McGraw Hill, 2013) p. 69.
extraverts are more likely to have affairs: ‘Sextraversion’, Dr David P. Schmidt, Psychology Today, 28 June 2011.
and car accidents: Personality Psychology, Larsen, Buss & Wisjeimer (McGraw Hill, 2013) p. 68.
disagreeable people are better at fighting: Personality, Daniel Nettle (Oxford University Press, 2009) p. 177.
those high in openness are more likely to get tattoos: Personality Psychology, Larsen, Buss & Wisjeimer (McGraw Hill, 2013) p. 70.
be unhealthy: Snoop, Sam Gosling (Basic Books, 2008) p. 99
and vote for left-wing political parties: Personality Psychology, Larsen, Buss & Wisjeimer (McGraw Hill, 2013) p. 70.
while those low in conscientiousness are more likely to end up in prison: Personality Psychology, Larsen, Buss & Wisjeimer (McGraw Hill, 2013) p. 69.
and have a higher risk of dying: Personality, Daniel Nettle (Oxford University Press, 2009) p. 34.
males tend to be more disagreeable than females: Personality, Daniel Nettle (Oxford University Press, 2009) p. 177. Nettle quotes the 70 per cent figure but I was warned by one of my expert proof readers, Dr Stuart Ritchie, that although the study Nettle quotes is robust, other robust studies find less dramatic scores. 60 per cent was agreed to be a safer figure to quote.
A similar personality gap is found for neuroticism: Comments from Dr Stuart Ritchie.
2.2
‘Zaha Hadid’, Lynn Barber, Observer, 9 March 2008.
‘Human personalities are rather like fractals,’: Personality, Daniel Nettle (Oxford University Press, 2009) p. 7.
People make ‘identity claims’: Snoop, Sam Gosling (Basic Books, 2008) pp. 12–19.
The psychologist Professor Sam Gosling advises: Snoop, Sam Gosling (Basic Books, 2008) p. 19.
2.4
Between the ages of zero and two: The Social Animal, David Brooks (Short Books, 2011) p. 47.
It’s the main reason we have such greatly extended childhoods: The Self Illusion, Bruce Hood (Constable and Robinson, 2011) p. 22.
Play, including storytelling, is typically overseen: Brain and Culture, Bruce Wexler (MIT Press, 2008) p. 134. See also: C. M. Walker & T. Lombrozo, ‘Explaining the moral of the story’, Cognition, 2017, 167, 266–281.
One study into the backgrounds of sociopathic: ‘A History of Children’s Play and Play Environments’, Joe L. Frost (Routledge, 2009) p. 208.
It’s in our first seven years: ‘The Construction of the Self’, Susan Harter (Guildford Press, 2012) p. 50.
According to some psychologists: ‘The Geography of Thought’, Richard E. Nisbett (Nicholas Brealey, 2003). A fuller exploration of these ideas features in my book Selfie (Picador, 2017) in Book Two: The Perfectible Self.
Because individual self-reliance was the key to success: These differences remain widespread today. If you show an Asian student a cartoon of a fish tank and track their saccades by the millisecond, they unconsciously scan the entire scene, while their Western counterpart focuses more on the dominant, individual, brightly coloured fish at the front. Ask what they saw and the Asian description is more likely to begin with the context – ‘I saw a tank’ – compared to the Westerner’s individual object – ‘I saw a fish’. Ask what they thought of that singular fish and the Westerner is likely to say ‘it was the leader’ whilst the Easterner assumes it’s done something wrong because it’s excluded from the group.
Such cultural differences create radically different experiences of life, self and story. When asked to draw a ‘sociogram’ of themselves in relation to everyone they know, Westerners tend to draw themselves as a big circle in the middle, while Easterners tend to make themselves small, towards the edge. In China, unlike the West, humble and hardworking students are popular, whilst shyness is considered a leadership quality. Such differences begin in the neural models and therefore control our perception of reality. ‘It isn’t just that Easterners versus Westerners think about the world differently,’ the psychologist Professor Richard Nisbett told me. ‘They’re literally seeing a different world.’ This can trigger serious conflicts, with one side simply not perceiving moral realities that seem obvious to the other. ‘The Chinese are willing to accept the idea of unjustly punishing someone if that makes the group better off,’ Nisbett said. ‘That’s an outrage to Westerners who are so individual-rights orientated. But, to them, the group is everything.’
It ‘changed the way people thought about cause and effect’: ‘Life on Purpose’, Victor Stretcher (Harper One, 2016) p. 24.
one three-year-old girl in the US: The Storytelling Animal, Jonathan Gottschall (HMH, 2012) p. 33.
practically no real autobiography for two thousand years: The Autobiographical Self in Time and Culture, Qi Wang (Oxford University Press, 2013) pp. 46, 52.
according to the psychologist Professor Uichol Kim: Interview with author.
2.5
we endeavour to understand our life as a ‘grand narrative’: The Redemptive Self, Dan P. McAdams (Oxford University Press, 2013) p. xii
the neurobiologist Professor Bruce Wexler describes it: Brain and Culture, Bruce Wexler (MIT Press, 2008) p. 9.
As Wexler writes: Brain and Culture, Bruce Wexler (MIT Press, 2008) p. 9.
the ‘makes sense stopping rule’: The Happiness Hypothesis, Jonathan Haidt (Arrow, 2006) p. 65.
Not only do our neural reward systems spike pleasurably: The Political Brain, Drew Westen (Public Affairs, 2007) pp. x–xiv.
It’s not simply that we ignore or forget evidence: A fuller exploration into confirmation bias features in my book The Heretics (Picador, 2013), in chapter six: ‘The Invisible Actor at the Centre of the World’.
Smart people are mostly better: ‘Myside Bias, Rational Thinking, and Intelligence’, Keith E. Stanovich, Richard F. West, Maggie E. Toplak, Current Directions in Psychological Science, 2013, Vol. 22, Issue 4.
‘Cognitive Sophistication Does Not Attenuate the Bias Blind Spot’, Richard F. West, Russell J. Meserve, and Keith E. Stanovich, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 4 June 2012.
One compelling theory: This is the thesis of The Enigma of Reason by Hugo Marcier and Dan Sperber (Allen Lane, 2017).
the screenwriter Russell T. Davies’s observation: ‘Has every conversation in history been just a series of meaningless beeps?’, Charlie Brooker, Guardian, 28 April 2013.
Things are experienced as pleasurable: Brain and Culture, Bruce Wexler (MIT Press, 2008) p. 9.
The neuroscientist Sarah Gimbel watched what happened: ‘You Are Not So Smart with David McRaney’, The Neuroscience of Changing Your Mind, Episode 93, 13 Jan 2017.
2.6
Among the most powerful of these beliefs: ‘The Illusion of Moral Superiority’, B. M. Tappin, R. T. McKay, Soc Psychol Personal Sci, 2017, Aug 8(6):623–631.
participants split money with anonymous others: ‘Motivated misremembering: Selfish decisions are more generous in hindsight’, Ryan Carlson, Michel Marechal, Bastiaan Oud, Ernst Fehr, Molly Crockett, 23 July 2018. PrePrint accessed at: https://psyarxiv.com/7ck25/
What is selected as a personal memory: ‘The “real you” is a myth – we constantly create false memories to achieve the identity we want’, Giuliana Mazzoni, The Conversation, 19 Sept 2018.
Work by Mazzoni and others: ‘Changing beliefs and memories through dream interpretation’, Giuliana A. L. Mazzoni, Elizabeth F. Loftus, Aaron Seitz, Steven J. Lynn, Applied Cognitive Psychology, Vol. 13, Issue 2, April 1999, pp. 125–144.
For the psychologists Professors Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson: Mistakes Were Made (But Not By Me), Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson (Pinter and Martin, 2007) p. 76.
Professor Nicholas Epley catches this hero-maker lie: Mindwise, Nicholas Epley (Penguin, 2014) p. 54.
Moral superiority is thought to be: ‘The Illusion of Moral Superiority’, B. M. Tappin, R. T. McKay, Soc Psychol Personal Sci, 2017, Aug;8(6): 623–631.
Maintaining a ‘positive moral self-image’: ‘Motivated misremembering: Selfish decisions are more generous in hindsight’, Ryan Carlson, Michel Marechal, Bastiaan Oud, Ernst Fehr, Molly Crockett, 23 July 2018. PrePrint accessed at: https://psyarxiv.com/7ck25.
Even murderers and domestic abusers: The Happiness Hypothesis, Jonathan Haidt (Heinemann, 2006) p. 73.
When researchers tested prisoners: ‘Behind bars but above the bar: Prisoners consider themselves more prosocial than non-prisoner’, Constantine Sedikides, Rosie Meek, Mark D. Alicke and Sarah Taylor, British Journal of Social Psychology, 2014, 53, 396–403.
as did Hitler, whose last words: Hitler’s World View: A Blueprint for Power, Eberhard Jäckel (Harvard University Press, 1981) p. 65.
One 35-year-old metal worker, remembered: Ordinary Men, Christopher R. Browning (Harper Perennial, 2017) p. 73.
Researchers have found that violence and cruelty: The Happiness Hypothesis, Jonathan Haidt (Heinemann, 2006) p. 75.
2.7
One such real-life hero is the former ‘eco-terrorist’ Mark Lynas: Interview with author.
3.0
Lisa Bortolotti explains: ‘Confabulation: why telling ourselves stories makes us feel OK’, Lisa Bortolotti, Aeon, 13 February 2018.
series of famous experiments: My account of Gazzaniga’s confabulation experiments is sourced from his books Who’s In Charge? (Robinson, 2011) and Human (Harper Perennial, 2008). Another excellent telling can be found in The Happiness Hypothesis, Jonathan Haidt (Heinemann, 2006).
The job of the narrator, writes Gazzaniga: Who’s in Charge?, Michael Gazzaniga (Robinson, 2011) p. 85.
It’s because of such findings: Mindwise, Nicholas Epley (Penguin, 2014) p. 30.
Leonard Mlodinow said years of psychotherapy: Subliminal, Leonard Mlodinow, (Penguin, 2012) p. 177.
3.1
we’re a riotous democracy of mini-selves: Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain, David Eagleman (Canongate, 2011) p. 104.
Fabrication of stories, he adds: Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain, David Eagleman (Canongate, 2011) p. 137.
Kurt Goldstein recalled a woman whose left hand: Altered Egos: How the Brain Creates the Self, Todd E. Feinberg (Oxford University Press, 2001) pp. 93–99.
Todd Feinberg saw a patient whose hand: Altered Egos: How the Brain Creates the Self, Todd E. Feinberg (Oxford University Press, 2001) pp. 93–99.
The BBC told of a patient: ‘Alien Hand Syndrome sees woman attacked by her own hand’, Dr Michael Mosley, 20 January 2011.
grabbed his wife with his left hand: Altered Egos: How the Brain Creates the Self, Todd E. Feinberg (Oxford University Press, 2001) pp. 93–99.
A child can’t consciously accept: The Uses of Enchantment, Bruno Bettelheim (Penguin, 1976) p. 30.
all the child’s wishful thinking: The Uses of Enchantment, Bruno Bettelheim (Penguin, 1976) p. 66.
They operate ‘in two realms’: Making Stories, Jerome Bruner (Harvard University Press, 2002) p. 26.
the psychologist Professor Brian Little writes: Who Are You Really?, Brian Little (Simon & Schuster, 2017) p. 25.
3.4
Robert McKee writes: Story, Robert McKee (Methuen, 1999) p. 138.
3.6
We’ve spent more than ninety-five per cent: Who’s In Charge?, Michael Gazzaniga (Robinson, 2011) p. 315.
we still have Stone Age brains: Grooming, Gossip and the Evolution of Language, Robin Dunbar (Faber & Faber, 1996), Kindle Locations 1255–1256.
people prefer to sleep as far from their bedroom door: Evolutionary Psychology, David M. Buss (Routledge, 2016) p. 84.
The body’s reflexes remain primed: The Origins of Creativity, Edward O. Wilson (Liveright, 2017) p. 114.
All over the world, people enjoy open spaces: Evolutionary Psychology, David M. Buss (Routledge, 2016) p. 84.
psychologists argue that human language: Evolutionary Psychology, Robin Dunbar, Louise Barrett, John Lycett (Oneworld, 2007) p. 133.
Human tribes were big: Grooming, Gossip and the Evolution of Language, Robin Dunbar (Faber & Faber, 1996), Kindle Locations 1152–1156.
occupy a large physical territory: Evolutionary Psychology by Robin Dunbar, Louise Barrett, John Lycett (Oneworld, 2007) p. 112.
‘from the time I was four until I was a teenager’: The Hungry Mind, Susan Engel (Harvard University Press, 2015) p. 146
found children as young as four: The Hungry Mind, Susan Engel (Harvard University Press, 2015) p. 134–135
‘other people’s behaviour’: The Hungry Mind, Susan Engel (Harvard University Press, 2015) p. 140
‘Stories arose out of our intense interest in social monitoring’: On The Origin of Stories, Brian Boyd (Harvard University Press, 2010) p. 64.
An analysis of ethnographic accounts: O. S. Curry, D. A. Mullins, H. Whitehouse. Is it good to cooperate? ‘Testing the theory of morality-as-cooperation in 60 societies’, Current Anthropology, 15 July 2017.
Even pre-verbal babies: Just Babies, Paul Bloom (Bodley Head, 2013) p. 27.
Psychologist Professor Paul Bloom writes: Just Babies, Paul Bloom (Bodley Head, 2013) p. 27.
Joseph Campbell describes: The Power of Myth, Joseph Campbell with Bill Moyers (Broadway Books, 1998) p. 126.
Christopher Booker writes that: The Seven Basic Plots, Christopher Booker (Continuum, 2005) p. 555.
Another psychologist’s puppet show: The Domesticated Brain, Bruce Hood (Pelican, 2014) p. 195.
Brain scans reveal: Comeuppance, William Flesch (Harvard University Press, 2009) p. 43.
a form of what’s known as ‘costly signalling’: Grooming, Gossip and the Evolution of Language, Robin Dunbar (Faber & Faber, 1996), Kindle Locations 2911–2917.
‘The heroes and heroines of narrative’: Comeuppance, William Flesch (Harvard University Press, 2009) p. 126.
not only is gossip universal: Moral Tribes, Joshua Greene (Atlantic Books, 2013) p. 45. Gossip-type behaviour has even been shown in three-year-olds: Preschoolers affect others’ reputations through prosocial gossip: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bjdp.12143/abstract?campaign=woletoc.
most of it concerns moral infractions: Just Babies, Paul Bloom (Bodley Head, 2013) p. 95.
3.7
Evolutionary psychologists argue: The Redemptive Self, Dan P. McAdams (Oxford University Press, 2013) p. 29.
Getting ahead means gaining status: ‘Is the Desire for Status a Fundamental Human Motive? A Review of the Empirical Literature’, C. Anderson, J. A. D. Hildreth & L. Howland, Psychological Bulletin, 16 March 2015.
‘Humans naturally pursue status’: On the Origin of Stories, Brian Boyd (Harvard University Press, 2010) p. 109.
people’s ‘subjective well-being, self-esteem’: ‘Is the Desire for Status a Fundamental Human Motive? A Review of the Empirical Literature’, C. Anderson, J. A. D. Hildreth & L. Howland, Psychological Bulletin, 16 March 2015.
Studies of gossip in contemporary hunter-gatherer tribes: Behave, Robert Sapolsky (Vintage, 2017) p. 323.
Even crickets keep a tally: Evolutionary Psychology, David M. Buss (Routledge, 2016) p. 49.
the astonishing fact that not only do ravens: Behave, Robert Sapolsky (Vintage, 2017) p. 428.
have a lifespan at the top of about four to five years: Our Inner Ape, Frans de Waal (Granta, 2005) p. 68.
benefits for chimps and humans include: Comeuppance, William Flesch (Harvard University Press, 2009) p. 110.
‘The tendency of chimps to rally for the underdog’: Our Inner Ape, Frans de Waal (Granta, 2005) p. 75. Of course, humans, too, root for the underdog: The Appeal of the Underdog, Joseph A. Vandello, Nadav P. Goldschmied and David A. R. Richards, Pers Soc Psychol Bull, 200, 33: 1603.
Christopher Booker writes: The Seven Basic Plots, Christopher Booker (Continuum, 2005) p. 556.
a ‘hero and heroine must represent: The Seven Basic Plots, Christopher Booker (Continuum, 2005) p. 268.
Biographer Tom Bower writes: ‘The pampered, petulant, self-pitying Prince’, Tom Bower, Daily Mail, 16 March 2018.
When people in brain scanners: Behave, Robert Sapolsky (Vintage. 2017) p. 67.
When they read about them suffering a misfortune: Behave, Robert Sapolsky (Vintage, 2017) p. 67.
researchers at Shenzhen University: ‘Social hierarchy modulates neural responses of empathy for pain’, Chunliang Feng, Zhihao Li, Xue Feng, Lili Wang, Tengxiang Tian, Yue-Jia Luo, Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, Vol. 11, Issue 3, 1 March 2016, pp. 485–495.
A study of over 200 popular nineteenth- and early twentieth-century novels: Palaeolithic Politics in British Novels of the Longer Nineteenth Century, Joseph Cattoll et al., accessed at: http://www.personal.psu.edu/~j5j/papers/PaleoCondensed.pdf
3.8
But on this ‘raw and gusty’ day, Caesar failed: Such Stuff as Dreams, Keith Oatley (Wiley-Blackwell, 2011) p. 94.
Psychologists define humiliation: ‘Humiliation: its Nature and Consequences’, Walter J. Torres and Raymond M. Bergner, Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law Online, June 2010, 38 (2) 195–204.
As Professor William Flesch writes: Comeuppance, William Flesch (Harvard University Press, 2009) p. 159.
3.9
Babylon, 587 BC. A group of 4,000 high-status men: The Written World, Martin Puchner (Granta 2017) pp. 46–59.
‘They immediately bowed their heads to the ground’: The Written World, Martin Puchner (Granta 2017) p. 54.
A recent study of eighteen hunter-gatherer tribes: ‘Cooperation and the evolution of hunter-gatherer storytelling’, Daniel Smith et al., Nature Communications, Volume 8, Article number: 1853, 5 December 2017,
‘We all belong to multiple in-groups’: Subliminal, Leonard Mlodinow (Penguin, 2012) p. 165.
Tribal stories blind us: The Political Brain, Drew Westen (Public Affairs, 2007) p. xvi.
Jonathan Haidt has explored: Capitalism is Exploitation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9B-RkNRGH9s
Capitalism is Liberation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOomUpEdLE4&list=UUFHCypPBiy5cpLKFX11q0QQ
In the twentieth century alone: Our Inner Ape, Frans de Waal (Granta, 2005) p. 5.
halting in silence: Our Inner Ape, Frans de Waal (Granta, 2005) p.132.
When caught, a ‘foreign’ chimp is savagely beaten to death: Our Inner Ape, Frans de Waal (Granta, 2005) pp. 24, 132.
‘it cannot be coincidental that the only animals’: Our Inner Ape, Frans de Waal (Granta, 2005) p. 137.
It takes its individuals and erases their depth and diversity: ‘Intergroup Perception in the Social Context: The Effects of Social Status and Group Membership on Perceived Out-Group Homogeneity’, Markus Brauer, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 37 (2001): 15–31.
caused viewers to pour en masse into the streets of Berlin: ‘Jud Süss: The Film That Fuelled the Holocaust’, Gary Kidney, Warfare History Network, 23 March 2016.
from spree shootings to honour killings: The Domesticated Brain, Bruce Hood (Pelican, 2014) p. 278; Behave, Robert Sapolsky (Vintage 2017) p. 288.
Many deploy a third incendiary group emotion: disgust: ‘Evil Origins: A Darwinian Genealogy of the Popcultural Villain’, J. Kjeldgaard-Christiansen, Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences, 2015, 10(2), 109–122.
3.10
In his inquiry into the psychology of fairy tales: The Uses of Enchantment, Bruno Bettelheim (Penguin, 1976) p. 10.
As literary critic Adam Kirsch has observed: Their Own Petard, Adam Kirsch, The New York Times, 23 May 2013
3.11
Sometime around the year 1600 (etc.): Will in the World, Stephen Greenblatt (W.W. Norton, 2004) pp. 323–327
‘In the final draft it’s there as a shadowy fact’: The Literature of Love, Mary Ward (Cambridge University Press, 2009) p. 61
infants whose caregivers behave unpredictably: The Domesticated Brain, Bruce Hood (Pelican, 2014) p. 116.
The body has a dedicated network of touch receptors: ‘Why your brain needs touch to make you human’, Linda Geddes, New Scientist, 25 February 2015.
doesn’t merely alter who we are as adults superficially: The Popularity Illusion, Mitch Prinstein (Penguin, 2018) Kindle location 1984.
those who’d had high-school experiences of loneliness: The Popularity Illusion, Mitch Prinstein (Penguin, 2018) Kindle location 2105.
Similar tests had people viewing simple cartoons: The Popularity Illusion, Mitch Prinstein (Penguin, 2018) Kindle location 2111.
4.0
For the nineteenth-century critic Ferdinand Brunetière: On Film-Making, Alexander Mackendrick (Faber & Faber, 2004) p. 106
‘almost as basic a need as’: The Happiness Hypothesis, Jonathan Haidt (Arrow, 2006) p. 22.
When researchers put people in flotation tanks: Brain and Culture, Bruce Wexler (MIT Press, 2008) pp. 76–77.
Another study found 67 per cent of male participants: ‘Just Think: The challenges of the Disengaged Mind’, Timothy D. Wilson et al., Science, July 2014, 345(6192), pp. 75–7.
John Bransford and Marcia Johnson: The Sense of Style, Steven Pinker (Penguin, 2014) p. 147.
One clever study asked restaurant employees to circle: Mindwise, Nicholas Epley (Penguin, 2014) p. 50.
Another test found that eight in every ten: The Domesticated Brain, Bruce Hood (Pelican, 2014) p. 222.
using a language millions of years older: The Political Brain, Drew Westen (Public Affairs, 2007) p. 57.
Daniel Nettle writes: Personality, Daniel Nettle (Oxford University Press, 2009) p. 87.
One Welsh teenager, Jamie Callis: ‘The real-life story of a computer game addict who played for up to 16 hours a day by Mark Smith’, Wales Online, 18 Sept 2018.
In South Korea, two parents: ‘S Korea child starves as parents raise virtual baby’, BBC News, 5 March 2010.
a mixture of ‘trivial pursuits and magnificent obsessions’: Who Are You Really?, Brian Little (Simon & Schuster, 2017) p. 45.
Aristotle contemptuously dismissed the hedonists: Life on Purpose, Victor Stretcher (Harper One, 2016) p. 27.
‘It’s living in a way that fulfils our purpose’: Interview with author.
living with a sufficient sense of purpose reduces: ‘A meaning to life: How a sense of purpose can keep you healthy’, Teal Burrell, New Scientist, 25 Jan 2017.
Results from a team led by Professor of medicine Steve Cole: I wrote about Steve Cole’s work in the New Yorker (‘A Better Kind of Happiness’, 7 July 2016).
‘Some people wander aimlessly through life’: ‘Purpose in Life as a Predictor of Mortality Across Adulthood’, Patrick Hill and Nicholas Turiano, Psychological Science, May 2014, 25(7) pp. 1487–96.
Our reward systems spike: Video lecture: ‘Dopamine Jackpot! Sapolsky on the Science of Pleasure’, http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xh6ceu_dopamine-jackpot-sapolsky-on-the-science-of-pleasure_news.
the words ‘do’, ‘need’ and ‘want’: The Bestseller Code, Jodie Archer & Matthew L. Jockers (Allen Lane, 2016) p. 163.
4.1
Researchers downloaded 1,327: ‘The emotional arcs of stories are dominated by six basic shapes’, Andrew J. Reagan, Lewis Mitchell, Dilan Kiley, Christopher M. Danforth, Peter Sheridan Dodds, EPJ Data Science, 5:31, 4 November 2016.
4.2
For the neuroscientist Professor Beau Lotto: Deviate, Beau Lotto (W&N, 2017) Kindle location 685.
When the data scientist David Robinson: Examining the arc of 100,000 stories: a tidy analysis by David Robinson, http://varianceexplained.org/r/tidytext-plots, 26 April 2017.
The psychologist and story theorist Professor Jordan Peterson: Maps of Meaning video lectures. Jordan Peterson, 2017: Marionettes & Individuals Part Three [01:35]
There’s the second level in which characters are altered: Story analysts disagree on the nature of character change. Some say protagonists transform their essential character, others that they reveal some part that was previously hidden. Both positions have merit. When characters change, they’re forcing a better subconscious model of self into dominance, reinforcing the neural networks that conjure this self into being, so it more often wins the neural debates that ultimately control the character’s behaviour. In doing so the characters expand who they are, giving themselves greater elasticity around their core personality, which gives them a more varied collection of tools for controlling the world of humans.
For simplicity’s sake, our focus has been on the changeful journey of an individual protagonist. But, it hopefully hardly needs to be said that all the significant characters in story go through journeys of change, albeit possibly in ways subordinate to a protagonist. They’re all asked that subconscious question until the plot is done with them. They all keep changing. Those changes probably won’t be linear. They’ll move back and forth and up and down. But the change never stops. An immersive plot is a complex and beautiful symphony of change, because brains are obsessed by change.
4.3
When study participants were faced with a machine: The Self Illusion, Bruce Hood (Constable, 2011) p. 51.
Another test found that participants given electric shocks: The Domesticated Brain, Bruce Hood (Pelican, 2014) p. 115.
‘A critical element to our well-being’: Redirect, Timothy D. Wilson (Penguin, 2013) p. 268.
Roy Baumeister writes that: The Cultural Animal, Roy Baumeister (Oxford University Press, 2005) p. 102.
4.4
‘the invisible actor’: Making up the Mind, Chris Frith (Blackwell Publishing, 2007) p. 109.
‘the transported “traveller” can return changed’: ‘The Extended Transportation-Imagery Model: A Meta-Analysis of the Antecedents and Consequences of Consumers’ Narrative Transportation’, Tom van Laer, Ko de Ruyter, Luca M. Visconti and Martin Wetzels; Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 40, No. 5 (February 2014) pp. 797–817.
‘encouraged a highly charged identification’: Inventing Human Rights, Lynn Hunt (W.W. Norton, 2008) p. 38
‘you cannot go into a house without finding a Pamela’: Inventing Human Rights, Lynn Hunt (W.W. Norton, 2008) p. 42
4.5
One study had a group of white Americans: ‘Entertainment-education effectively reduces prejudice’, Sohad Murrar, Markus Brauer; Group Processes & Intergroup Relation, 2018, Vol 21, Issue 7.