The Science of Storytelling
Page 21
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.
‘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 d
e 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.
3.11
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.
CHAPTER FOUR
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 analyst 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.
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.
INDEX
The page numbers in this index relate to the printed version of this book; they do not match the pages of your ebook. You can use your ebook reader’s search tool to find a specific word or passage.
Abrams, J.J., 20
addictions and cravings, 114–15, 170, 182–3
Akutagawa, Ryu-nosuke, ‘In A Bamboo Grove’, 82, 83
Alien Hand Syndrome, 115–16, 119
American Beauty (film, 1999), 131–2
animal behaviour, 25, 33, 34–5, 79, 143–5, 158–9, 161
animism, 36–7, 52
Archer, Jodie, 188–9
Aristotle, 82, 183–4,
185; ‘peripeteia’, 13
Aronson, Professor Elliot, 93–4
Austen, Jane: Emma, 15, 147; Mansfield Park, 147–8
Babylon, Ancient, 152
Baldwin, James, Another Country, 77–8, 220–1
Ball, Alan, 131–2
Barber, Lynn, 75
Bartlett, Frederic, 48
Baumeister, Professor Roy, 197–8
beliefs: bolstering sense of moral superiority, 92–3, 94–100, 201–2; as building blocks of neural realm, 63–8, 85–92; and hero-maker stories, 3–4, 92–100, 108–9, 162, 169, 171, 176, 181–2; identity-forming, 89, 92, 98–9, 109, 148, 149, 152–8, 168–76, 191, 192; psychology of, 3–4, 63–4; shifting of, 98–9, 150, 196; and state of ‘transportation’, 199
Beowulf, 162
Bergen, Professor Benjamin, 28, 29, 47–8
Bettelheim, Professor Bruno, The Uses of Enchantment, 116–17, 163
‘big data’, 187–9, 191–2
The Birth of a Nation (film, 1915), 161
Bladerunner (film, 1982), 32
Blake, William, 37
Blick, Hugo, 134–5
Bloom, Professor Paul, 139
Bolt, Robert, 123
Booker, Christopher, 139, 145; The Seven Basic Plots, 186, 188, 228
Bortolotti, Professor Lisa, 109–10
Bower, Tom, 146
Boyd, Professor Brian, 138, 143
the brain and mind: anatomy and physiology of, 12, 49–50, 109–11, 112; associative thinking, 42–8; beliefs as building blocks of neural realm, 63–8, 85–92, 148; cognitive mirages of rightness, 85–92; complex thought, 50–1; and confirmation bias (model-defending behaviour), 85–92, 158, 160–2, 169–70, 194, 218–19; control as mission of, 12–13, 17, 48–9, 65–8, 79, 90–2, 100–1, 148–51, 159–62, 168–9, 172, 193–8, 221–5; damage to senses, 24–5; detection of change, 11–12, 13, 17, 22–3, 26–7, 39, 53–5, 189–92; genetic factors, 69, 170; as hyper-social, 33–7, 56–7, 68, 188, 202–3; left hemisphere, 109, 110; limits to information processing, 23–6; malfunctioning of, 61–2; model defending responses, 85–92, 149–50, 218–19; ‘model’ of the world (hallucinated reconstruction of reality), 20–33, 39–49, 61–8, 77–9, 84–92, 102–3, 109–17, 169–70, 173, 180–2, 198–201; multiple models of self, 114–19; neocortex, 49–51; neural processes and storytelling, 6, 26, 30, 31–2, 41–8, 139, 167–8; neurochemicals, 198–9; and pain, 25; processing of peak moments of stress, 40; and reading, 27–8; and salient details, 39–40, 49; self-domestication of, 33–5, 56; senses as information sources, 21–6, 27, 30–1; Stone Age, 136–8; as ‘story processor’, 3–4, 48–51; subconscious, 7, 85, 90, 94, 103, 119–22, 124–8, 129–32, 134, 159–68, 175–6, 192, 226; and touch receptors, 173–4; two levels of consciousness, 119–30, 131–2, 134–5, 226; use of stories as distraction, 1–2; see also flaws (distortions in cognition)