The Evolutionary Advantage of Storytelling

Storytelling on the Surface makes no sense. Why would any animal, focused on surviving, spend so much time in made-up fantasy?

But as we’ll see, storytelling is actually one of the most impactful skills anybody could spend time learning.

Today we’ll discuss the evolution of storytelling, how it evolved, why its something we still practice, and how storytelling impacts fitness.

Music: Kinou – Deebu · Zoltan David Beladi
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZEpyuw43mw

Timestamps
0:00 – Intro
2:03 – Play, Narrative and Language
2:58 – The Evolution of Recall Memory
6:56 – The 4 Pillars of the Cognitive Niche
9:02 – Evidence in the form of Toolmaking
10:06 – How would Ancient Humans Teach?
11:36 – the Evolution of Speech: Mimesis
16:30 – Phenotypic Plasticity
18:45 – The Evolution of Narrative
22:04 – Is Narrative Selfish? It has an Impact on Fitness
24:37 – The Language Niche
25:39 – The Role of Imagination
27:52 – The Evolution of Fictional Stories
29:35 – Dreaming Has a Role
30:43 – The Evolutionary Benefit of Play
33:24 – The Impact of Storytelling On Fitness, Culture, and Happiness
37:45 – Fictional Storytelling is an Adaptation we Created

Why any species concerned with survival would invest so much time into storytelling is a mystery why are story so engaging how can it make sense from an evolutionary perspective that members of a species successful enough to reshape the Earth in its entirety spends so much time in madeup fantasy telling

One another stories about things that are completely made up in the grand scheme of evolution organisms that can gather accurate and useful information from their surroundings are usually the ones that Sur So based on this criteria it would seem that organisms especially humans would develop a resistance to fiction no the

Antithesis of what we see today to try and answer these questions as highlighted by Brian Boyd we have to gather insights from various different disciplines think things like evolutionary anthropology archaeology biology and admittedly a healthy level of speculation despite the limited evidence the mix of diverse disciplines with different assumptions and the

Ongoing generation of new theories on a regular basis a surprisingly unified understanding of the evolution of fiction has started to emerge the idea is built on three pillars the evolution of language narrative and play each reinforcing the other in a positive feedback loop while some pieces of the

Puzzle are still missing Recent research by Daniel door on the origin of language has identified solutions for many others Bridging the gaps between different theories and filling in the missing pieces a long time ago Homo erectus our ancestors needed to communicate effectively for activities like making tools starting fires or hunting together

Even before spoken language they relied on advanced communication the ability to play something common in many infant animals and especially noticeable in Social primates became even more important for Homo erectus especially because of the prolonged period of childhood Daniel D’s research suggests that the growing importance for improved communication sparked the invention of

Language which when combined with play led to the creation of fiction by building on the evidence supporting evolutionary change influenced by behavior and culture Daniel door proposes an explanation for the emergence of language not rooted in individuals but as a social invention once language was invented even in its

Early stages it began to mold human cognition with natural selection favoring criteria like linguistic creativity and understanding narrative especially things like storytelling played a crucial role in enhancing the daily processes of things like pleasure or pain or excitement these pressures influenced our ancestors to improve language abilities creating a feedback

Loop that further intensified the selection for linguistic ability soon after fictional stories became a compelling way for humans to explore the unknown and understand more about what it means to be human like languages fictional narratives evolve to be more effective in adapting to changing circumstances placing new demands on

Individual minds and societies but I’m getting a bit ahead of myself we know that the evolution of language would eventually lead to the evolution of fiction but in order to get to here there had to be a point in our evolutionary lineage that we evolve the ability to recall events and discuss

Things not just in the present but also in the past and the future so what was that moment the precursor that led to us being able to communicate break down and recall events while to find the answer Brian boy took a deep dive into the literature that exists on animals to

Find the link that would end up being the precursor to narrative and storytelling even distant organisms like bacteria gather information from their surroundings and share it with others animals with their ability to move require mental maps of the areas they navigate these maps are crucial for adapting to the Swift changes happening

All around them all the time analyzing research on animal cognition and behavior psychologist Merlin Donald proposed in 1991 that the mental experiences of apes and other animals are primarily focused on the present he argued that the ability to perceive and comprehend events represents the highest form of cognition in animals Donald

Suggested that animal intelligence can be estimated based on the complexity of the events they can understand with greater complexity indicating a higher level of intelligence in the following years studies on primates both in their natural habitats and in captivity indicate their exceptional ability to represent and understand events for

Example in the social realm primates are considered Adept Learners demonstrating an understanding of individual characters what constitutes exceptional behaviors within a group and the intentions behind others actions while they can speculate knowledge based on what others are capable of seeing their grasp of others beliefs is a bit less

Clear but if animals can comprehend events as they occur can they also recall them initially the idea of recalling events was considered something only unique to humans but later research set out with a goal of investigating this claim to identify whether or not animals actually have memory Birds such as magpies black cap

Chickies and Scrub Jays demonstrate precise what wear when memories and rats exhibit similar capabilities chimpanzees have exhibited the ability to recall unique events after extended periods in fact this period extends up to 5 years along with this evidence of four planning has been observed in various species including orangutans bobos and

Chimpanzees considering this evidence there is a growing suggestion that the ability to recall events might be an early and fundamental mental process C that has evolved across different animal species but can non-human animals communicate these recalled events many animals as observed by friends the wall are highly sensitive to the postures

Gestures and facial expressions of others in the current moment they can consider what others can see and know and adjust their responses based on their relationships examples include honeybees wagle dance signaling foraging opportunities to others as well as veret monkeys whose alarm cries can change to Signal different types of threats but in

All of these examples the responses are tailored to immediate situations yet even with promising signs no human animal appears capable of communicating Complex events beyond the present even friend the wall acknowledges the limitations stating that chimpanzees can detect emotions and responses to ongoing situations but cannot communicate information about events displaced by

Time there is however a recorded instance of a chimpanzee successfully communicating about the present consequences of a past event The Hiding of treats in its sight but Out Of Reach on the previous day this suggests that the urge to share information if there was a chance of it being understood

Might have existed in our common ancestor with chimpanzees from these basic Beginnings the development of language and narrative likely began although the specific timing and sequence of events leading to language remain uncertain there is a broad agreement that homo erectus shifted into what is termed a cognitive Niche originally this concept emphasized

Individual cognition but recent perspectives State the importance of social and cultural context in early human cognitive development proposing the idea of a sociocultural cognitive Niche dor stresses that the survival of humans came to depend more on Collective cooperation than anything else and during the evolution of homo erectus four significant behavioral Evolutions

Proved pivotal Cooperative breeding enhanced usage of stone tools the ability to make fire and collaborative hunting these developments were intricately linked to and further Amplified the central Trends in our Evolution including the enlargement of our brain heighten cooperation and advancements in communication cooperation as highlighted by France the

Wall is a common feature among social species and not an exceptional occurrence in nature but in the homeo lineage Cooperative breeding significantly intensified this form of parenting observed in primat like marmosets and tamarinds may have evolved in Homo erectus approximately 1.6 million years ago according to Sarah Hardy this shift occurred as human

Mothers fa the challenge of rearing offspring that were too demanding to raise alone the practice of group parenting was crucial this shift facilitated more consistent nutrition for energetically demanding brains allowed mothers to reproduce at an accelerated rate compared to other great apes and supported a prolonged childhood allowing social expansion Cooperative

Breeding also contributed to the development of enhanced social responsiveness trust and empathy between infants and their caregivers it created an environment where infants were incentivized to assess comprehend and learn to please their Elders even the earliest primitive stone tools such as the Alan hand axes dating back approximately 2.5 million years served

The purpose of cutting meat from animal carcasses helping us access more nutritional food following the rapid expansion of our cognitive abilities in Homo erectus around 1.5 to 2 million years ago aulian bifacial hand axes became prevalent crafting these tools required extensive training and modern archaeologists have found that it takes

Months of practice to proficiently be able to produce these tools homoerectus in this context quickly demonstrated adaptability venturing Beyond Africa and spreading across Eurasia successfully adapting to the diverse climates of the regions fire making luckely achieved around this same time period had quickly become a routine skill a million years

Later this Innovation not only increased the available caloric intake crucial for sustaining larger brains but also reduce the need for substantial gut stomach and jaw muscles allowing for more space that could be used for cranial expansion along with that it significantly minimized the time required for chewing

Raw food as a need for extended digestion time it diminished an intensified desire for the high energy value of meat led to the development of more strategic Cooperative hunting practices a theory that’s supported by the finely crafted and aerodynamically efficient hunting Spears from about 400,000 years ago during the late

Erectus periods the Mastery of tool making tool using fire making and hunting required extensive instructions these skills increasingly relied on ecological knowledge and close flexible cooperation but also on our sociality our ancestors evolved into apprentices learning these complex skills from their elders and as the process of selection

Pressure is an ongoing one our species were selected for their ability to absorb socially accumulated knowledge all from those who came before them of course this just led to another positive feedback loop as the acquisition and application of skills demanded a higher form of communication and a willingness

To cooperate with others in the process of teaching and learning during the erectus era a set of different but connected adaptations enhanced our communication our ancestors likely acquire the ability to point and direct attention to distant or nearby features of the environment a behavior not observed in Apes this probably further

Developed the great ape capacity for joint attention involving signaling to point out Noy features in environment through a reciprocal gaze Homo erectus also probably had an increased capacity for imitation a behavior already present in Apes of other lineages this would have accelerated the learning of complex skills related to stone tools forging

Fire making and cooking while there is no direct record of these developments they can be inferred from the comparative complexity of the erectus lifestyle as well as because of the early emergence of the social skills in human infants the development of speech likely occurred half a million years ago

In homo H highle bensis supported by really strong evidence in the form of fossils specifically because of the identification on things like the tongue ears and mind in 1991 Donald proposed a series of stages in the evolution of the modern mind trying on archaeological anthropological and neuroscientific

Evidence even though there was a heal healthy amount of speculation Donald’s ideas have had a significant impact he suggested that language emerged with anatomically modern Homo sapiens around 100,000 years ago and went further to suggest that prior to language Homo erectus developed a mimetic mind a set of capacities aimed at representation

For communication this means homoerectus likely communicated through non-linguistic models of expression so things like pointing or gestures or facial expressions all with the goal of conveying meaning the evidence for non linguistic mind in Homo rectus is well indirect it is implied from the communication social learning and coordination required in rectus

Activities like tool making and hunting so it’s not like there’s no evidence and is also supported by fossil and genetic evidence but it is still speculative and Donald’s hypothesis continues to be somewhat controversial given the suggestive nature of his findings Donald argues that Mimis which means intentionally imitating someone else’s

Actions as closely as possible can influence the mind even even without communication as an example it plays a role in mentally rehearsing complex actions such as creating aulian hand axis but this is most significant in communication Donald differentiates mimesis from mimicry through his definition of each mimicry is exact

Reproduction of features and imitation is copying someone else without intentionally trying to represent all of it through this lens mimesis is seen as a highlevel communication system shaped by the intention to con a meaning the archaeological evidence suggests that late erectus faced growing communication demands in activities like tool making

And social play expert hunting among modern Baka pygmies relies on non-linguistic communication as well such as hand gestures and vocal imitations of prey animals the pressure for increased cooperation the primary reason why humans are so successful likely led to communication and social play children’s imitation of adult roles

Social monitoring and the enforcement of group Norms this this type of communication may have led to playful mimickry as a means of gently correcting those who didn’t follow group Norms as seen in Hunter gather societies today as the capacity for mimesis improved there would have been selective pressures for

The ability to produce and interpret mimetic signals think of it like an arms race as Predators get better at hunting prey animal get better at avoiding them and because of this dual process both are continually selecting for more efficient hunting and avoidance tactics deeper social cooperation likely heighten the value of conveying recent

Or anticipated events according to Donald’s hypothesis redic Communication in homoerectus would have revolved around events resembling A Primitive form of Storytelling the key innovation in Homo erectus was the emergence of basic human representation enabling the miming or reenactment of events Mimis evolve for the purpose of reenacting events for the purpose of structuring

Communication and learning from past events transforming event perceptions into prevent reenactments in their prehuman mind but Donald’s perspective on his idea of Mimis varies between optimism and caution on one hand he’s confident in the power of mimesis suggesting that the employer of such a tactic can model anything stored by

Their episodic memory on the other hand he acknowledges the limitations describing it as a restricted form compared to other forms of communication like language the biggest strength of the mim’s communication style probably lied in its ability to communicate about very recent events were those of common

Knowledge and when it came to events in the near future such as plans threats or opportunities it could still have been effective but it’s like playing charades it may have been hit and miss and more of a flailing attempt than a swift decisive method despite it limitations

The crucial aspect for the evolution of stories lies in Donald’s strong argument for the drive to communicate events and engage in narrative even before language evolved to reduce ambiguity many mimetic actions might have evolved into conventionalized forms closer to language assigning specific meaning to gestures similar to the development of

Sign language in deaf communities Apes our distant relatives already use a range of gestures which they actually use more effectively than their vocal cries and the selection pressures leading to finer motor skills and primates coupled with proximity of it to the modern speech regions of the brain suggest that gesture based language or

Combination of gesture and vocal sound might have preceded the evolution of language evolutionary processes have often been thought of as something that only apply at the individual and genetic level but in the last 15 years or so there has been a growing realization that evolution is often driven by

Phenotypic plasticity among other things this perspective suggest that when organisms face new challenges they may experiment with novel Solutions some of these Solutions may prove successful get replicated refined and eventually passed on to new generations this process creates new new ecological niches introducing additional selection pressures into play this idea has hugely

Impacted investigations into the origin of language many researchers now argue that language development has been primarily driven by Behavior characterized by what door describes as a collective process of invention and development another feedback cycle this social gradual invention of language imposed new selection pressures on our ancestors influencing everything from

Cognition to earlier developed characteristics like those of emotion all to better suit the demands of language in doors’s words first we invented language and then language invented us unlike other forms of communication both in humans and other animals language evolved under the persistent need to communicate about things initially just beyond common

Perception aiming to uncover small gaps in experience which eventually extended to larger ones as well door illustrates that what sets language apart from earlier forms of communication is its ability to bridge the gap in knowledge between a shared experience in individuals unlike previous communication methods language enables speakers to intentionally guide their

Listeners in imagining an experience rather than just making it perceptibly present D thinks that language isn’t a universally applicable Communication System it may be ineffective for tasks like teaching specific skills or instantly conveying visual information instead language is crafted for communicating experiences that another individual did not experience through

Language individual acquire the ability to Envision events to imagine things that happen to others incorporating these perspectives into their decision-making on top of that language encourages us to also observe these experiences so that through narration we can share it at a later date storytelling doesn’t necessarily rely on

Language if we accept Donald’s ideas about homoerectus and their mimetic communication it suggest that our ancestors had a compelling need to convey events that occurred in the background or possibly even without their knowledge all before the development of language many examples such as mind performances silent films and wordless graphic novels demonstrate

That narratives can effectively operate without language but our exposure to language-based narratives enhances our ability to understand Stories the narrative impulse in humans lacked an efficient Channel until the emergence of language while Donald thinks narrative is the byproduct of language and that language is primarily for storytelling the reality is language serves various

Purposes including guidance description building social bars and more even so if we believe language evolved to convey information about what one person Visions but others cannot grasp it closely aligns with narrative specifically narrative story arcs as individuals with distinct experiences memories and interests narrative becomes the gateway to transcending the limits

Of Our Lives offering access to the experiences of others explaining the past the private and the imagined as language allowed for the recounting of events those confident enough at constructing or understanding narratives would have experienced selection as the ability to report events would have distinct advantages narrative expands

Our mind it offers a broader spectrum of human experiences than actions or observations ever could through storytelling we uncover the vast subconscious of human behaviors morals desires and problems unlike a routine narratives Captivate Us with the unexpected challenging our understanding of human behavior and engaging our in matters that resonate stories can make

You laugh they can make you cry they can make you understand Concepts that may have been difficult to understand initially all adding to The Human Experience narratives serve as models for personal virtues such as courage or resilience as well as social values like generosity or respect they have the

Power to influence question and shape cultures making the social landscape more beneficial more expansive and filled with possibilities for individuals and groups alike our inherent curiosity and hunger for knowledge drives us to explore narratives that unfold striking personalities situations actions and developments philosopher Daniel hudo has an idea that challenges prevailing

Theory like that of theory of Mind instead he proposes The Narrative practice hypothesis asserting that folk psychology essentially involves the ability to construct a narrative explanation for a person’s actions this explanation considers various factors such as personality history and beliefs among others hudo believes that our acquisition of everyday psychology stems

From continuous engagement with narratives this learning process particularly evident in first and second person cases like asking why did you do that involves translating Behavior into a storytelling format this Narrative Approach allows us to account for actions by considering the unique particulars as well as the shared aspects of situations or individuals

Narrative is a tool that can be used to better understand or monitor the individuals with with whom we interact a capability that our ancestors didn’t possess until narrative evolved in the complex and deadly daily lives of the typical hunter gatherer Society the introduction of narrative allowed for improved tracking of people gossip a

Narrative form plays a crucial role in broadcasting an individual’s reputation and reputation which is challenging to build and easy to jeopardize can significantly impact cooperation but I’ve already made a full video on Gossip which you can check out in detail if you’d like there are many reasons we

Engage in factual narratives whether to learn about specific individuals or just general principles but even though this is the case why do we actively participate in telling narratives spending approximately 40% of our conversational time doing so instead of keeping valuable information to ourselves why do we choose to share it

With others the act of narrating is not perceived as an altruistic service rather we share stories when we believe we have something noteworthy or relevant to offer narrating allows us to demonst demonstrate our social awareness our ability to understand Norms by showcasing our value through the exchange of information which others may

Not already possess fundamentally the driver of sharing information has an effect on our status within a community we earn attention and Status highlighting our acumine in recognizing high value social information and sometimes by exercising social discrimination as social beings the attention we receive is vital to our

Existence and there’s even a risk of disapprove Ral if we withhold socially valuable information from others a study conducted by Daniel Smith looked into storytelling among Hunter gathers in the Philippines reflecting the Practical basis of early storytelling in human societies ACTA stories convey messages that are relevant to group behavior in

Things like emphasizing cooperation and social egalitarianism this study by Smith evaluated storytelling revealing that skilled storytellers were almost twice as likely as unskilled ones to be chosen as campmates and were more preferred than even the most skilled foragers camps with higher proportions of skilled storytellers exhibit increased cooperation levels skilled storytellers

Also demonstrate higher reproductive success with 53% more living Offspring than others moreover they were more likely to receive more resources in experimental game suggesting clear pathway for the evolution of Storytelling through individual based selection examining the impact of the gra ual development of language D highlights several cognitive changes in

Our ancestors even if they were already Adept at social communication the transition to the language Niche that their own efforts had constructed would have brought about a significant shift in cognition similarly our ancestors were already good social monitors before the emergence of Storytelling but their cognitive processes underwent Transformations as they entered newly

Constructed niches Pudo suggest that storytelling or narrative played a crucial role in developing our understanding of everyday psychology which involves grasping why people do what they do this in turn greatly improved how we understand and interact with others our skills in figuring out causes and social situations and our

Tendency to see actions in terms of someone intentionally doing them would have all seen significant Improvement we would have become better at smoothly switching between focusing on specific details and considering the bigger picture effectively placing current details within a broader context the creation of narrative would likely have

Led to improvements in sustained offline thinking and the expansion and enrichment of our imaginations Research indicates that a specific brain Network often referred to as a default mode network is activated during memory imagination and for planning this network sometimes labeled the actor scene or scenario network is implicated

Not only in memory and Imagination but also in the construction of episodic memory for future events events the cognitive Neuroscience literature has extensively explored its involvement in the flexible recombination of past experiences into simulations of Novel future events while much of the research has been focused on Fiction it’s

Important to note that imagination is equally crucial for understanding narrative even those based off factuality as we engage with verbal narratives language likely facilitates our imagination while remembering specific details from many stories might not be the strong suit of word-based calling aided by language the social lessons we draw from these stories like

Forming opinions about people’s personalities would help build a richer semantic memory semantic memory is a type of long-term memory that deals with general knowledge this enhancement is capable of supporting our ability to make judgments and plans for the future this not only comes with practical advantages but also adds to the pleasure

Of letting our minds wander the practice of engaging in storytelling would have contributed to our ability to sh shift perspectives rapidly from One agent to another within a story this skill would have extended to maintaining multi-level responses encompassing reactions to the individuals within the story and considerations of other members in the

Audience as a result our capacity for mental time travel or the ability to mentally transport ourselves across time would have expanded allowing for more efficient processing of events told out of order and organizing them into the necessary sequences the evolution of narrative engagement so those who listen

To or engage in some way with stories likely fostered a heightened desire to understand the world not only through the lens of our direct experiences but also through the experiences of others real and fictional this broader perspective enriched by Theory of mind would have encouraged us to explore diverse viewpoints and scenarios beyond

Our immediate personal encounters although this video was meant to understand the evolution of fictional storytelling it is only now that we will actually be begin analyzing fiction why the factors that drove our ancestors to engage in storytelling were deeply rooted in the evolution of language the evolution of fiction was intertwined

With key drivers such as high sociality intense social monitoring and the increasing Reliance on information sharing the close connection between memory and Imagination or experience and planning allowed imagination to draw not only from personally lived experiences but also from vividly recombined elements of remembered experiences language has played a crucial role in

Our imaginations and is intricately involved in things like communication prompting our ancestors to create something beyond their direct experiences this instructional aspect of language extended to both non-fiction and fiction narratives influencing the brain’s default mode Network the imaginative nature of language has always teetered on the edge of fiction

Suggesting that the foundations for fiction were laid in the very fabric of language Evolution before the creation of fic fiction imagination was already present in the human mind particularly in what Brian Boyd calls the actor scene Network this network designed for the recombination of memories all for the goal of supporting future planning

Served as a foundation for inventing stories it’s even been suggested that we as individuals possess the natural ability for imagination even before the development of language this innate capacity was actively exercised in daily life and its frequency increased significantly in the context of language especially for those engaged as

Listeners in storytelling supported by a phenomenon observed in many species dreaming dreaming involves a combining of old memories into new narratives doing so all while engaging attention and emotion providing immediate inner eye experiences while dreams resemble fictional stories the recombination of memory is often perceived in very random

Ways the main function of Dreams is to keep our mental system active and flexible for daily activities this includes things like casual daydreaming and purposeful creative thinking in our past storytellers might not have been very concerned with sticking to Accurate historical facts they could have spiced up their stories with dramatic gestures

Made things sound more exciting than they actually were or even made up parts of the story to keep the audience interested this suggests that our ancestors might have had a natural inclination to fill in the gaps of their understanding with believable but possibly incorrect details a tendenc known as

Kabul basically the research suggests that even early narratives might have included lies whether to make oneself look better blame others or just navigate everyday social situations the final Factor contributing to the emergence of fictional storytelling is play a phenomenon present on Earth for tens of millions of years predating even

Language play is observed not only in mammals but also in Birds fish seop pods and even insects it provides a way for individuals to learn species specific beneficial skills play has evolved to be self-motivating and enjoyable serving as a mechanism for refining skills social species engage in more play and hunting

Species play more than prey species Homo erectus being highly social and reliant on Hunting had extended childhoods suggesting much of the learning accomplished in the species was done through play the unique Instinct human children have to imitate others coupled with a more extended period of synaptic development suggests that our big brain

Hominid predecessors were already evolving in the direction of increased play and learning one other interesting note is that humans continue to engage in play even as adults a behavior uncommon among other living primates pretend play involving objects and social situations is a universal phenomenon in children although its development stages and cultural

Variations May differ role playing games are found in all cultures and do not necessarily require language even deaf children engage in similar games as their hearing counterparts play especially pretend play is crucial for the development of life skills social regulation and group cohesion in modern Hunter gather societies such as those in

The Congo Basin both children and adults engage in structured role playing games including hunting simulations and fictional ritual games play with its role reversals and self-handicapping elements helps counteract dominance tendenc and fosters egalitarianism in communities fiction can be understood as a form of play using language Gregory

Bateson observed in 1955 that in play experience is decoupled for example in dogs play a play bite is marked as non- serious by the dog’s play bow to its partner similarly fiction decouples the actions within the narrative indicating their fictional nature through markers such as in a land far far away or Once

Upon a Time through the implicit m Mutual recognition that it is a fictional story modern humans demonstrate a deep understanding of fictionality even when presented with a serious storyline fiction arises from children’s pretend play often influenced by stories told by adults or older children such as those featuring superheroes in cinema phog genetically

Stories may have primarily emerged around the campfires that our ancestors regularly used for approximately 400,000 years research by Paulie Weisner on the Bushman h gathers of nambia indicates that over 80% of talk around the campfire involves stories these stories are often filled with gestures imitations sound effects and songs

Similarly in modern Western culture after a long day of work people engage in various forms of Storytelling through reading novels or watching Netflix or watching anime or playing video games the nighttime tail telling pattern is observed not only in the Bushmen but also in the ethnographic record of other forging peoples

This highlights the significance of narrative storytellers across cultures and throughout history have consistently earned recognition attention and status in the case of the Bushman wiser notes that engaging stories created a win-win situation as storytellers gain recognition and their stories traveled among the community similarly among the ACTA people storytellers are valued

Preferred as campmates and rewarded with resources even the bayaka pygmies in the Congo who don’t engage in material trade pay each other for Spirit place this recognition and reward for storytelling persists Even in our large scale dispersed societies of today with figures like JK Rowling or George RR

Martin who are considered the modern Heirs of the earliest campfire storytellers reaching audiences all across the world while non-fiction narrative whether gossip or lore broadens our imaginations and transforms Our Lives by extending our range of experience it remains dependent on real events in contrast fiction breaks these constraints it offers an experience

Limited only by the imaginative freedom of storytellers who can explore life with the boundaries of the story as intensely as they desire fiction allows for a form of exploration unconstrained by the limitations of reality true social exchange captures our attention but fiction has a unique ability to construct engaging narratives with

Surprising events compelling characters and twists of Fate designed to Captivate Us from beginning to end while real life stories indirectly teach us about predicaments prospects and Norms fiction goes beyond by inventing characters and events offering a unique perspective that can help us explore morality death resentment and good vers evil

Additionally throughout history those at campfires not only constructed stories for exploring these themes but also learned from Their audience along the way building more and more compelling narratives that conveyed the themes they wanted to teach people about as opposed to something like gossip fiction grants access to the inner lives of characters

Allowing readers or audiences to delve into the storytellers imaginings of these inner worlds and Fiction’s impact extends to the social realm where stories designed to capture attention evoke emotion and linger in memory proving highly effective in conveying societal norms and illustrating the repercussions of their violation this in

Turn contributes to the promotion of cooperation within communities through the appeal to Broad audiences especially in ancestral or smallscale societies stories address the challenge of common knowledge fostering a sense of shared values along with this stories may have served as a tool for social compassion much like they have today by portraying

Suffering from the perspective of The Afflicted it enabled individuals to empathize with the experience of others promoting a deeper understanding of diverse perspectives and encouraging communal bonds all with the goal of shaping Collective attitudes and behaviors fiction much like language can be considered just as important in the incremental creation of humanity similar

To language and in tandem with storytelling fiction has played a pivotal role in shaping the cognitive and social environment into which human minds are born humans almost from infancy exhibit a natural inclination towards play and what better method could there be for sharing values than combining play with language a

Storytellers explore new avenues stimulate imagination and shift perspectives more dynamically they contribute to the evolution of stories this ongoing Evolution coupled with the constant renewal of the fictional Niche continues to shape both stories and the minds that engage with them eventually extending to broader areas through an impact on things like culture

Influencing almost every corner in the broader climate of humanity meaning fictional storytelling itself is a human adaptation narrative arose from an Adaptive predisposition for sociality and found much richer expression after the invention of language language too arose from an intense need for more intraspecific communication but was an

Invention that then impacted Humanity in complex ways once fueled by language narrative impacted our development our individual and social behavior our emotions and even our genes epigenetics is a study of changes in organisms based off changes in gene expression genes get turned on and off depending on the

Decisions you make the exposures you face the challenges you overcome and the food that you eat effectively we are active players in how our own genome is made up and with this complex actor acte cycle it is no doubt that the power of fiction can even Inspire us into making

Radically different decisions or Life Choices all of which will turn on new genes changing the outcomes of our lives forever I would go so far as to say that the evolution of language and with its stories is probably the single most impactful event in the history of

Humanity it made us more dependent on learning from experiences on our own it influenced group cohesion and sociality it impacts culture and changes what is socially acceptable and what is not and it can even sway the masses as those with the power of Storytelling on their side can influence a generation of

People into making new decisions and ultimately changing their gene expression to adapt door’s ideas as we conclude first we invented stories and then stories invented us