Why and how did narrative fictions evolve? Fictions as entertainment technologies

E Dubourg, N Baumard - Frontiers in Psychology, 2022 - frontiersin.org
Narrative fictions have surely become the single most widespread source of entertainment in
the world. In their free time, humans read novels and comics, watch movies and TV series …

Exploratory preferences explain the human fascination for imaginary worlds in fictional stories

E Dubourg, V Thouzeau, C de Dampierre… - Scientific Reports, 2023 - nature.com
Imaginary worlds are present and often central in many of the most culturally successful
modern narrative fictions, be it in novels (eg, Harry Potter), movies (eg, Star Wars), video …