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[SOLVED] Why do stories have such effect on us? (lemmy.ml)
submitted 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago) by to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml
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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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[–] 12 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago) (4 children)

Humans have brains and are social creatures. Brains love processing information. Learn from things that happen to people around you or even fictional ones. Are curious and want to connect information. Also we're built to empathize with others to be able to form groups/a society. We will even empathize with fictional characters and inanimate objects that have big eyes and a mouth.

Evolution gave that to us. We wouldn't have survived as a species if we had cared zero what happened to our neighbours. A story about Harry Potter is probably on the same level for our brains.

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  • [–] [S] 4 points 3 years ago (3 children)

    Beautiful explanation. I just learned something else. Our brain can't learn and listen to everything, so if you listen to stories from the point of view of a certain ideology or person, the more you feel justified to defend that person as long as that person is within rational limits of actions.

    You get what I am trying to say, I think this is a factor in why we are so polarized today. We are empathizing with and listening to people who have a particular bent of ideology more and more and since our brains don't really like contradictions, the more we listen to one kind of stories, we can't listen to the other kind of stories, what do you think?

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  • [–] 3 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago) (2 children)

    I'm not so sure with the contradictions. People love being hypocrites. I've seen otherwise very intelligent and educated people believe in hocus pocus like homeopathy but adhere to scientific results in other aspects and be happy with both. Religion is just contradictions on steroids...

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  • [–] 2 points 3 years ago

    But usually hypocrites don't see themselves as such. They think they are behaving rationally, and lie to themselves as to not see the contradiction.

    We'd rather discount new information than confront our biases.

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 3 years ago

    I agree with you completely here. Although I too am not sure about contradictions. I think I was going for the word coherence here.

    Religion is just contradictions on steroids…

    This is so true. I mean, for something which is holy, our fingerprints are all over it and it shows.

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