WHY does storytelling endure across time and cultures? Perhaps the answer lies in our evolutionary roots. A study of the way that people respond to Victorian literature hints that novels act as a social glue, reinforcing the types of behaviour that benefit society.
Literature 鈥渃ould continually condition society so that we fight against base impulses and work in a cooperative way鈥�, says Jonathan Gottschall of Washington and Jefferson College, Pennsylvania.
Gottschall and co-author at the University of Missouri, St Louis, study how Darwin鈥檚 theories of evolution apply to literature. Along with , an evolutionary psychologist at Pennsylvania State University in DuBois, the researchers asked 500 people to fill in a questionnaire about 200 classic Victorian novels. The respondents were asked to define characters as protagonists or antagonists, and then to describe their personality and motives, such as whether they were conscientious or power-hungry.
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The team found that the characters fell into groups that mirrored the egalitarian dynamics of hunter-gather society, in which individual dominance is suppressed for the greater good (Evolutionary Psychology, vol 4, p 716). Protagonists, such as Elizabeth Bennett in Jane Austen鈥檚 Pride and Prejudice, for example, scored highly on conscientiousness and nurturing, while antagonists like Bram Stoker鈥檚 Count Dracula scored highly on status-seeking and social dominance.
鈥淭he characters in the novels fell into groups that mirrored the egalitarian dynamics of hunter-gatherer society鈥�
In the novels, dominant behaviour is 鈥減owerfully stigmatised鈥�, says Gottschall. 鈥淏ad guys and girls are just dominance machines; they are obsessed with getting ahead, they rarely have pro-social behaviours.鈥�
While few in today鈥檚 world live in hunter-gatherer societies, 鈥渢he political dynamic at work in these novels, the basic opposition between communitarianism and dominance behaviour, is a universal theme鈥�, says Carroll. , a cultural anthropologist whose work Carroll acknowledges was an important influence on the study, agrees. 鈥淢odern democracies, with their formal checks and balances, are carrying forward an egalitarian ideal.鈥�
A few characters were judged to be both good and bad, such as Heathcliff in Emily Bront毛鈥檚 Wuthering Heights or Austen鈥檚 Mr Darcy. 鈥淭hey reveal the pressure being exercised on maintaining the total social order,鈥� says Carroll.
Boehm and Carroll believe novels have the same effect as the cautionary tales told in older societies. 鈥淛ust as hunter-gatherers talk of cheating and bullying as a way of staying keyed to the goal that the bad guys must not win, novels key us to the same issues,鈥� says Boehm. 鈥淭hey have a function that continues to contribute to the quality and structure of group life.鈥�
鈥淢aybe storytelling 鈥� from TV to folk tales 鈥� actually serves some specific evolutionary function,鈥� says Gottschall. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e not just by-products of evolutionary adaptation.鈥�
