E Dubourg
Biographic Data
| ID | 7378 |
|---|---|
| NAME | E Dubourg |
| GIVEN NAMES | E |
| FAMILY NAME | Dubourg |
| SIGNATURE | DUBOURG E |
| AFFILIATIONS | Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-2162-6526 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 12 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 0 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 12 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2021 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 0 |
Vulnerability and the computational logic of fear
Charting the rise of imaginary worlds in history
Fictions with imaginary worlds such as Star Wars , Harry Potter , Game of Thrones or One Piece are achieving global success in industrialized societies. This paper investigates the historical trajectory and psychological underpinnings of this phenomenon. Study 1 ( N = 51,169 novels and 50,928 movies) documents a clear increase in the prevalence and centrality of imaginary worlds from antiquity to the modern era. Study 2 demonstrates a historical …
Did Teddy Bears Culturally Evolve to Be Cuter? A Preregistered Replication
This pre-registered replication study explores the impact of perceived cuteness on the evolution of cultural artifacts, testing whether neotenic traits – eye size, forehead height, and head roundness – have increased in teddy bears over time. In previous research, Hinde & Barden (1980) found an increase in teddy bear neoteny while Gould (1985) found that Mickey Mouse’s features became more neotenic with time. However, both studies lacked statisti…
Quantifying and explaining the rise of fiction
We present a comprehensive analysis of the rise of fictions across human narratives, using large-scale datasets that collectively span over 65,000 works across various media (movies, literary works), cultures (over 30 countries, Western and non-Western), and time periods (2000 BCE to 2020 CE). We measured fictiveness – defined as the degree of departure from reality – across three narrative dimensions: protagonists, events, and settings. We used …
Deep
Video game design and player engagement revolve around the concept of agency, which refers to the ability to influence and shape one’s environment through personal choices and actions. However, agency is far from being a unitary concept: different types of agency can be distinguished according to the nature of the agent’s goal. Recent models of voluntary action in cognitive science suggest that goals are organized hierarchically along two major g…
The Cognitive Foundations of Fictional Stories
Why is there so much diversity in fictional plots? Why are some fictional stories more popular in certain countries or during specific historical periods? In this paper, we propose an evolutionary psychological framework to address these questions. Fictional stories trigger a range of evolved psychological mechanisms—such as finding mates (romance fiction), exploring the world (adventure fiction), or avoiding threats (horror fiction). While these…
The psychological origins of science fiction
A Step-By-Step Method for Cultural Annotation by LLMs
Building on the growing body of research highlighting the capabilities of Large Language Models (LLMs) like Generative Pre-trained Transformers (GPT), this paper presents a structured pipeline for the annotation of cultural (big) data through such Large Language Models (LLMs), offering a detailed methodology for leveraging GPT’s advanced computational abilities. Our approach provides researchers across various fields with a method for efficient a…
Why and How Did Narrative Fictions Evolve? Fictions as Entertainment Technologies
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, and play video games: they consume stories that they know to be false. Such behaviors are expanding at lightning speed in modern societies. Yet, the question of the origin of fictions has been an evolutionary puzzle for decades: Are fictions biological adaptations, or…
Les mondes imaginaires dans les fictions
Cet article est un compte-rendu du livre : Anne Besson, Constellations. Des mondes fictionnels dans l’imaginaire contemporain, Paris : CNRS Éditions, 2015
L’origine des fictions
Nous présentons l’hypothèse des fonctions évolutionnaires sociales de la fiction. Après avoir présenté le cadre théorique dans lequel nous nous inscrivons, et la littérature existante sur cette question, nous décrivons les activités de produire et de consommer des fictions comme des activités intrinsèquement sociales. Les fictions exploitent très finement nos mécanismes cognitifs et les préférences sélectionnées au cours de l’évolution de notre e…
Exploratory preferences explain the cultural success of imaginary worlds in modern societies
Imaginary worlds are one of the hallmarks of modern culture. They are present in many of the most successful fictions, be it in novels (e.g., Harry Potter), films (e.g., Star Wars), video games (e.g., The Legend of Zelda), graphic novels (e.g., One piece) and TV series (e.g., Game of Thrones). This phenomenon is global (e.g., the worldwide success of Lord of the Ring, the emergence of xuanhuan and xanxia genres in China), and massive: people spen…
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Les mondes imaginaires dans les fictions
Cet article est un compte-rendu du livre : Anne Besson, Constellations. Des mondes fictionnels dans l’imaginaire contemporain, Paris : CNRS Éditions, 2015
L’origine des fictions
Nous présentons l’hypothèse des fonctions évolutionnaires sociales de la fiction. Après avoir présenté le cadre théorique dans lequel nous nous inscrivons, et la littérature existante sur cette question, nous décrivons les activités de produire et de consommer des fictions comme des activités intrinsèquement sociales. Les fictions exploitent très finement nos mécanismes cognitifs et les préférences sélectionnées au cours de l’évolution de notre e…
Exploratory preferences explain the cultural success of imaginary worlds in modern societies
Imaginary worlds are one of the hallmarks of modern culture. They are present in many of the most successful fictions, be it in novels (e.g., Harry Potter), films (e.g., Star Wars), video games (e.g., The Legend of Zelda), graphic novels (e.g., One piece) and TV series (e.g., Game of Thrones). This phenomenon is global (e.g., the worldwide success of Lord of the Ring, the emergence of xuanhuan and xanxia genres in China), and massive: people spen…
Why and How Did Narrative Fictions Evolve? Fictions as Entertainment Technologies
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, and play video games: they consume stories that they know to be false. Such behaviors are expanding at lightning speed in modern societies. Yet, the question of the origin of fictions has been an evolutionary puzzle for decades: Are fictions biological adaptations, or…
A Step-By-Step Method for Cultural Annotation by LLMs
Building on the growing body of research highlighting the capabilities of Large Language Models (LLMs) like Generative Pre-trained Transformers (GPT), this paper presents a structured pipeline for the annotation of cultural (big) data through such Large Language Models (LLMs), offering a detailed methodology for leveraging GPT’s advanced computational abilities. Our approach provides researchers across various fields with a method for efficient a…
Deep
Video game design and player engagement revolve around the concept of agency, which refers to the ability to influence and shape one’s environment through personal choices and actions. However, agency is far from being a unitary concept: different types of agency can be distinguished according to the nature of the agent’s goal. Recent models of voluntary action in cognitive science suggest that goals are organized hierarchically along two major g…
The Cognitive Foundations of Fictional Stories
Why is there so much diversity in fictional plots? Why are some fictional stories more popular in certain countries or during specific historical periods? In this paper, we propose an evolutionary psychological framework to address these questions. Fictional stories trigger a range of evolved psychological mechanisms—such as finding mates (romance fiction), exploring the world (adventure fiction), or avoiding threats (horror fiction). While these…
The psychological origins of science fiction
Charting the rise of imaginary worlds in history
Fictions with imaginary worlds such as Star Wars , Harry Potter , Game of Thrones or One Piece are achieving global success in industrialized societies. This paper investigates the historical trajectory and psychological underpinnings of this phenomenon. Study 1 ( N = 51,169 novels and 50,928 movies) documents a clear increase in the prevalence and centrality of imaginary worlds from antiquity to the modern era. Study 2 demonstrates a historical …
Did Teddy Bears Culturally Evolve to Be Cuter? A Preregistered Replication
This pre-registered replication study explores the impact of perceived cuteness on the evolution of cultural artifacts, testing whether neotenic traits – eye size, forehead height, and head roundness – have increased in teddy bears over time. In previous research, Hinde & Barden (1980) found an increase in teddy bear neoteny while Gould (1985) found that Mickey Mouse’s features became more neotenic with time. However, both studies lacked statisti…
Quantifying and explaining the rise of fiction
We present a comprehensive analysis of the rise of fictions across human narratives, using large-scale datasets that collectively span over 65,000 works across various media (movies, literary works), cultures (over 30 countries, Western and non-Western), and time periods (2000 BCE to 2020 CE). We measured fictiveness – defined as the degree of departure from reality – across three narrative dimensions: protagonists, events, and settings. We used …
Vulnerability and the computational logic of fear
Psychology (8 works) · Social Psychology (6 works) · Art (5 works) · Cognition (4 works) · Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation (4 works) · Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior (4 works) · Media Influence and Health (4 works) · Sociology (4 works) · Cognitive psychology (3 works) · Cognitive science (3 works)