scholarly journals The Sympathetic Plot, Its Psychological Origins, and Implications for the Evolution of Fiction

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 183-198
Author(s):  
Manvir Singh
Keyword(s):  
Psychological Mechanisms ◽  
Cooperative Partner

The sympathetic plot—featuring a goal-directed protagonist who confronts obstacles, overcomes them, and wins rewards—is ubiquitous. Here, I propose that it recurs because it entertains, engaging two sets of psychological mechanisms. First, it triggers mechanisms for learning about obstacles and how to overcome them. It builds interest by confronting a protagonist with a problem and induces satisfaction when the problem is solved. Second, it evokes sympathetic joy. It establishes the protagonist as an ideal cooperative partner pursuing a goal, appealing to mechanisms for helping. When the protagonist succeeds, they receive rewards, and audiences feel sympathetic joy, an emotion normally triggered when beneficiaries triumph. The capacities underlying the sympathetic plot evolved for learning and cooperation before being co-opted for entertainment.

scholarly journals The sympathetic plot, its psychological origins, and implications for the evolution of fiction

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manvir Singh
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Main Character ◽  
Common Elements ◽  
Psychological Mechanisms ◽  
Common Structure ◽  
Cooperative Partner ◽  
Narrative Patterns ◽  
Psychological Capacities

For over a century, scholars have compared stories and proposed universal narrative patterns. Despite their diversity, nearly all of these projects converged on a common structure: the sympathetic plot. The sympathetic plot describes how a goal-directed protagonist confronts obstacles, overcomes them, and wins rewards. Stories with these features frequently exhibit other common elements, including an adventure and an orphaned main character. Here, I identify and aim to explain the sympathetic plot. I argue that the sympathetic plot is a technology for entertainment that works by engaging two sets of psychological mechanisms. First, it triggers mechanisms for learning about obstacles and how to overcome them. It builds interest by confronting a protagonist with a problem and induces satisfaction when the problem is solved. Second, it evokes sympathetic joy. It establishes the protagonist as an ideal cooperative partner pursuing a justifiable goal, convincing audiences that they should assist the character. When the protagonist succeeds, they receive rewards, and audiences feel sympathetic joy, an emotion normally triggered when cooperative partners triumph. The psychological capacities underlying the sympathetic plot are not story-specific adaptations. Instead, they evolved for purposes like learning and cooperation before being co-opted for entertainment by storytellers and cultural evolution.

How to Psychologically Minimize Scratching Impulses

2014 ◽  
Vol 222 (3) ◽  
pp. 140-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ariane Sölle ◽  
Theresa Bartholomäus ◽  
Margitta Worm ◽  
Regine Klinger
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Placebo Effect ◽  
Psychological Factors ◽  
Pharmacological Treatments ◽  
Physiological Basis ◽  
Psychological Mechanisms ◽  
Physical Complaints ◽  
Factors Influencing ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Placebo Model

Research in recent years, especially in the analgesic field, has intensively studied the placebo effect and its mechanisms. It has been shown that physical complaints can be efficiently reduced via learning and cognitive processes (conditioning and expectancies). However, despite evidence demonstrating a large variety of physiological similarities between pain and itch, the possible transfer of the analgesic placebo model to itch has not yet been widely discussed in research. This review therefore aims at highlighting potential transfers of placebo mechanisms to itch processes by demonstrating the therapeutic issues in pharmacological treatments for pruritus on a physiological basis and by discussing the impact of psychological mechanisms and psychological factors influencing itch sensations.

Is Retest Bias Biased?

2016 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 45-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason G. Randall ◽  
Anton J. Villado ◽  
Christina U. Zimmer
Keyword(s):  
Sex Differences ◽  
Emotional Stability ◽  
Adverse Impact ◽  
Mental Ability ◽  
Ability Test ◽  
General Mental Ability ◽  
Psychological Mechanisms

Abstract. The purpose of this study was to test for race and sex differences in general mental ability (GMA) retest performance and to identify the psychological mechanisms underlying these differences. An initial and retest administration of a GMA assessment separated by a six-week span was completed by 318 participants. Contrary to our predictions, we found that race, sex, and emotional stability failed to moderate GMA retest performance. However, GMA assessed via another ability test and conscientiousness both partially explained retest performance. Additionally, we found that retesting may reduce adverse impact ratios by lowering the hiring threshold. Ultimately, our findings reinforce the need for organizations to consider race, sex, ability, and personality when implementing retesting procedures.

The psychological mechanisms underlying reciprocal prosociality in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes).

2020 ◽  
Vol 134 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-157
Author(s):  
Martin Schmelz ◽  
Sebastian Grueneisen ◽  
Michael Tomasello
Keyword(s):  
Pan Troglodytes ◽  
Psychological Mechanisms

Evolution of Conditional Cooperation in Prisoner's Dilemma

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali Seyhun Saral
Keyword(s):  
Prisoner's Dilemma ◽  
Prisoner’S Dilemma ◽  
Social Dilemma ◽  
Conditional Cooperation ◽  
Psychological Mechanisms ◽  
Medium Level ◽  
Emergence Of Cooperation ◽  
Initial Move ◽  
Evolutionary Success ◽  
Strategy Types

Conditional cooperation has been a common explanation for the observed cooperation, and its decline in social dilemma experiments. Numerous studies showed that most of the experimental subjects can be categorized into three types: conditional cooperators, self-maximizers and hump-shaped (triangle) cooperators. In this study, I investigate conditional strategy types and their role on the emergence of cooperation and their evolutionary success. For this purpose, I use an extension of the Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma Game. The agents are characterized by their initial move and their conditional responses to each level of cooperation. By using simulations, I estimate the likelihood of cooperation for different probability of continuations.I show that, when the continuation probability is sufficiently large, high levels cooperation is achieved. In this case, the most successful strategies are those who employ an all-or-none type of conditional cooperation, followed by perfect conditional cooperators. In intermediate levels of continuation probabilities, however, hump-shaped contributor types are the ones that are most likely to thrive, followed by imperfect conditional cooperators. Those agents cooperate in a medium level of cooperation within themselves and each other. The results explain the existence of hump-shaped type of cooperators with a purely payoff-based reasoning, as opposed to previous attempts to explain this strategy with psychological mechanisms.

CZY ZALEWA NAS FALA PRZEMOCY? POLITYCY I MEDIA VS. DANE STATYSTYCZNE

2014 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Hamer ◽  
Hanna Hamet
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Psychological Mechanisms ◽  
Police Data ◽  
Sense Of Security ◽  
The World ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Drugs And Crime

By detailed analyses of Polish and world statistics, the authors search for the answer if in fact,as some politicians and citizens claim, the world and in particular European Union and Polandare overcome by the wave of violence. Data gathered, among others, by Polish Public OpinionResearch Center (CBOS), Eurostat and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNOCD), aswell as anthropologists and police, clearly prove the opposite. Scientific comparisons concerningviolence over the centuries show that its scale drastically decreased and the world gets saferwith time. Statistical reports of the United Nations especially clearly indicate European Union(including Poland) as particularly peaceful region against the rest of the world, having the lowestmurder rates. Eurostat data confirm these results, also showing decrease in other crimes overthe years. Polish police data similarly prove existence of this trend and CBOS indicates thatit is reflected in increasing sense of security among Poles. In the second part of the article theauthors explain potential reasons for using such false slogans as “increasing wave of violence” bypoliticians and raising fear in voters as well as psychological mechanisms responsible for theirpotential effectiveness.

THE PROBLEMS ARISING IN THE PROCESS OF INFORMAL GROUPS INFLUENCE ON INMATES’ CORRECTION: PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECT

2020 ◽  
pp. 93-99
Author(s):  
Екатерина Васильевна Гусева
Keyword(s):  
Group Behavior ◽  
Correctional Institutions ◽  
Educational Work ◽  
Informal Group ◽  
Psychological Phenomena ◽  
Psychological Mechanisms ◽  
Pedagogical Training ◽  
Educational Structures ◽  
Negative Orientation ◽  
Informal Groups

Статья посвящена рассмотрению особенностей формирования неформальных групп в пенитенциарном учреждении и характеру их влияния на процесс исправления осужденных, являющихся членами этих групп. Приводятся статистические данные о преступности в исправительных учреждениях за последние годы, а также действиях, дезорганизующих работу исправительных учреждений. Рассматриваются причины влияния криминальной субкультуры на личность осужденного и особенности формирования неформальных групп различной направленности (положительной, отрицательной и нейтральной). Особое внимание уделяется взаимообусловленному процессу влияния на личность осужденного неформальной группы и администрации пенитенциарного учреждения, от которого во многом зависит возможность его исправления. Анализируются психологические механизмы, лежащие в основе приобщения осужденного к неформальным группам отрицательной направленности. Описываются психолого-педагогические особенности воспитательной работы с осужденными в неформальных группах. Характеризуется выбор средств, форм и мер воздействия на личность осужденного в неформальных группах. Указываются особенности воспитательных воздействий на личность осужденного, приводящие к тем или иным изменениям в личностной сфере. Рассматриваются обстоятельства для наибольшего положительного эффекта от воспитательной работы и указываются социально-психологические явления, которые наиболее эффективны, а также разнообразные методы профилактического и пресекающего воздействия. В заключение рассматривается важность изменений в управленческих и воспитательных структурах исправительных учреждений, в стилях воздействия и режима содержания осужденных, а также необходимость повышения уровня психолого-педагогической подготовки сотрудников, расширения знаний о специфике индивидуального и группового поведения осужденных. The article is devoted to the consideration of the peculiarities of the formation of informal groups in a penitentiary institution and the nature of their influence on the process of correction of convicts who are members of these groups. Statistics on crime in correctional institutions over the past year sare provided as well as actions that disrupt the work of correctional institutions. The reasons for the influence of the criminal subculture on the personality of the convict and the peculiarities of the formation of informal groups of various orientations (positive, negative and neutral) are considered. Particular attention is paid to the interdependent process of influence on the personality of the convict by the informal group and the administration of the penitentiary institution, on which the possibility of his correction largely depends. The psychological mechanisms underlying the introduction of a convict to informal groups of a negative orientation are analyzed. Psychological and pedagogical features of educational work with convicts in informal groups are described. The choice of meansis characterized as well as forms and measures of influence on the personality of the convicted person in informal groups. Specific features of educational influences on the personality of the convicted person, leading to certain changes in the personal sphere are examined. The circumstances for the most positive effect of educational work are considered, and the socio-psychological phenomena that are most effective are indicated, as well as various methods of preventive and intersecting influence. At the end of the article the importance of changes in the management and educational structures of correctional institutionsis discussed as well as changes in the styles of influence and the regime of detention of prisoners and the need to improve the level of psychological and pedagogical training of employees, expanding knowledge about the specifics of individual and group behavior.

scholarly journals Neural mechanisms of credit card spending

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sachin Banker ◽  
Derek Dunfield ◽  
Alex Huang ◽  
Drazen Prelec
Keyword(s):  
Credit Card ◽  
Credit Cards ◽  
Purchase Behavior ◽  
Facilitation Effect ◽  
Product Price ◽  
Personal Credit ◽  
Psychological Mechanisms ◽  
Network Activation ◽  
Payment Instruments ◽  
Reward Network

AbstractCredit cards have often been blamed for consumer overspending and for the growth in household debt. Indeed, laboratory studies of purchase behavior have shown that credit cards can facilitate spending in ways that are difficult to justify on purely financial grounds. However, the psychological mechanisms behind this spending facilitation effect remain conjectural. A leading hypothesis is that credit cards reduce the pain of payment and so ‘release the brakes’ that hold expenditures in check. Alternatively, credit cards could provide a ‘step on the gas,’ increasing motivation to spend. Here we present the first evidence of differences in brain activation in the presence of real credit and cash purchase opportunities. In an fMRI shopping task, participants purchased items tailored to their interests, either by using a personal credit card or their own cash. Credit card purchases were associated with strong activation in the striatum, which coincided with onset of the credit card cue and was not related to product price. In contrast, reward network activation weakly predicted cash purchases, and only among relatively cheaper items. The presence of reward network activation differences highlights the potential neural impact of novel payment instruments in stimulating spending—these fundamental reward mechanisms could be exploited by new payment methods as we transition to a purely cashless society.

scholarly journals Speech, gesture and the origins of language

2004 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 543-549 ◽  
Author(s):  
WILLEM J. M. LEVELT
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
Genetic Evidence ◽  
Language Origins ◽  
Sole Purpose ◽  
Psychological Mechanisms ◽  
Articulatory Movements ◽  
The 19Th Century

During the second half of the 19th century, the psychology of language was invented as a discipline for the sole purpose of explaining the evolution of spoken language. These efforts culminated in Wilhelm Wundt's monumental Die Sprache of 1900, which outlined the psychological mechanisms involved in producing utterances and considered how these mechanisms could have evolved. Wundt assumes that articulatory movements were originally rather arbitrary concomitants of larger, meaningful expressive bodily gestures. The sounds such articulations happened to produce slowly acquired the meaning of the gesture as a whole, ultimately making the gesture superfluous. Over a century later, gestural theories of language origins still abound. I argue that such theories are unlikely and wasteful, given the biological, neurological and genetic evidence.

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