[SOLVED] Why do stories have such effect on us?

Ganesh Venugopal@lemmy.ml to Asklemmy@lemmy.ml – 79 points –

All religions have it's own myths, own stories, own set of values. And these are/were good stories, I mean, even though they are not true, they are certainly interesting. You won't feel bored by it.

Harry Potter has the same effect on people, like, why should I take Harry Potter seriously, why do I care what happens after Dumbledore dances with Snape (won't give actual spoilers :')

I mean, it doesn't make sense to me. Why do I care so much about a soap opera that I am watching. Harry Potter is the product of just one brilliant woman's imagination. It has no real value on my life. I have no real motivation to read that other than the fact that I like it and I want to know. Harry Potter is somewhat irrelevant to my life, than why does it or any other good story capture our imagination?

Why do I care what the next season of House M.D. entails? Why? What should I care if he dies or lives? Why :')?

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Sharing, and believing in, fictions is how distilled units of information are efficiently passed down generations and is one of the bedrocks of our development as a species. This is what allows us to have laws and corporations and agreeing to drive on particular side of the road.

Yuval Noah Harari covers this more eloquently in his book Sapiens. You would definitely dig the relevant chapters.

Yuval Noah Harari covers this more eloquently in his book Sapiens.

time to read it again I think. It is a wonderful book, but I dont remember reading about this particular topic in enough detail. Thank you for your comment

You are more than welcome! The chapter is called Unification of Humankind for anyone else interested, here is a little excerpt:

“Myths and fictions accustomed people, nearly from the moment of birth, to think in certain ways, to behave in accordance with certain standards, to want certain things, and to observe certain rules. They thereby created artificial instincts that enabled millions of strangers to cooperate effectively. This network of artificial instincts is called ‘culture’.”

time to read it again I think. It is a wonderful book, but I dont remember reading about this particular topic in enough detail. Thank you for your comment

haha, thank you again!

Seems like there’s a bunch of Sapiens books. Which book and which chapters were you thinking of?

It's literally Sapiens, the first book. The chapter is called the Unification of Humankind, from the quick look I had online.