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Narrative as cultural attractor

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 May 2023

James Holland Jones Open the ORCID record for James Holland Jones [Opens in a new window]  and
Calder Hilde-Jones
James Holland Jones
Affiliation:
Department of Earth System Science, Stanford University, University of California San Diego, Stanford, CA 94305-4216 jhj1@stanford.edu https://heeh.stanford.edu
Calder Hilde-Jones
Affiliation:
Department of Cognitive Science, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0515. childejo@ucsd.edu
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Abstract

By structuring information in a systematic relational framework, narratives are cultural attractors that are particularly well-suited for transmission. The relational structure of narrative is partly what communicates causality, but this structure also complicates both transmission and selection on cultural elements by introducing correlations among narrative elements and between different narratives. These correlations have implications for adaptation, complexity, and robustness.

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Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 46 , 2023 , e98
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press

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