Journal of Cultural and Evolutionary Psychology
Volume/Issue:
Volume 3: Issue 1
The Paradox of Narrative Thinking
Author:
Francis F. Steen University of California, Los Angeles Please ask the editor of the journal.

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Pages:
87–105
Online Publication Date:
19 Jul 2005
Publication Date:
01 Mar 2005
Article Category:
Research Article
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1556/jcep.3.2005.1.6
Keywords:
simulation; simulation; consciousness; narrative; evolutionary theory; global workspace theory; pretense; play; unintelligent design theory
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Why do human beings show such a strong preference for thinking in narratives? From a computational perspective, this method of generating inferences appears to be exorbitantly wasteful. Using students' responses to the fairy tale of Little Red Riding Hood, I argue that narrative comprehension requires the construction of idiosyncratic imagery, but that the cognitive yield is structural and shared. This peculiar method of information processing, I suggest, is the outcome of evolutionary path-dependence. The narrative mode of construal is an expert system taking its input from the display of conscious experience, but producing results that are largely unconscious. Drawing on examples from rhesus play, I argue that the core features of narrative thinking have biological roots in strategy formation. Finally, I return to the fairy tale to illustrate the operation of a series of peculiar design features characteristic of human narrative thinking.

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Cover Journal of Cultural and Evolutionary Psychology
Journal of Cultural and Evolutionary Psychology
Print ISSN:
1589-7397
Online ISSN:
1589-5254

Journal of Cultural and Evolutionary Psychology
Language English
Size  
Year of
Foundation		 2003
Publication
Programme		 changed title
Volumes
per Year		  
Issues
per Year		  
Founder Akadémiai Kiadó
Founder's
Address		 H-1117 Budapest, Hungary 1516 Budapest, PO Box 245.
Publisher Akadémiai Kiadó
Publisher's
Address		 H-1117 Budapest, Hungary 1516 Budapest, PO Box 245.
Responsible
Publisher		 Chief Executive Officer, Akadémiai Kiadó
ISSN 1589-5254 (Print)
ISSN 1589-7397 (Online)

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