Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-nr4z6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-30T16:11:43.624Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Brave new world: Imaginative fictions offer simulated safety and actual benefits

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 November 2022

Jenny E. Nissel  and
Jacqueline D. Woolley Open the ORCID record for Jacqueline D. Woolley [Opens in a new window]
Jenny E. Nissel
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA jenny.nissel@utexas.edu, woolley@austin.utexas.eduhttps://labs.la.utexas.edu/woolley/
Jacqueline D. Woolley
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA jenny.nissel@utexas.edu, woolley@austin.utexas.eduhttps://labs.la.utexas.edu/woolley/
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Human engagement with imaginary worlds pervades history (e.g., Paleolithic cave paintings) and development (e.g., 18-month-olds pretend). In providing a safe environment, separate from the real world, fiction offers the opportunity for simulated exploration regardless of external circumstances. Thus, engagement with imaginary worlds in fiction may afford individuals opportunities to reap benefits and transfer these benefits back to the real world.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 45 , 2022 , e289
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aubert, M., Lebe, R.., Oktaviana, A., Tang, M., Buhran, B., Jusdi, A., … Brumm, A. (2019). Earliest hunting scene in prehistoric art. Nature, 576, 442– 445.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bloom, P. (2010). How pleasure works. W.W. Norton & Company.Google Scholar
Dias, M. G., & Harris, P. L. (1990). The influence of the imagination on reasoning by young children. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 8(4), 305–318.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
IMDbPro. (2021). Domestic box office for 2020. Box Office Mojo. https://www.boxofficemojo.com/year/2020/.Google Scholar
Gaiman, N. (2013). Why our future depends on libraries, reading, and daydreaming. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/oct/15/neil-gaiman-future-librariesreading-daydreaming.Google Scholar
Gendler, T. S. (2008). Alief in action (and reaction). Mind & Language, 23(5), 552–585.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gopnik, A. (2009). The philosophical baby: What children's minds tell us about truth, love, and the meaning of life. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.Google Scholar
Hartman, L. (2021). Breaking down 2020 bestsellers by publisher. Publishers Weekly. https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industrynews/bookselling/article/85330breaking-down-the-bestselling-books-of-2020.html.Google Scholar
Hopkins, E. J., & Lillard, A. S. (2021). The Magic School Bus dilemma: How fantasy affects children's learning from stories. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 210, 105212.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lillard, A. S., & Sobel, D. (1999). Lion kings or puppies: The influence of fantasy on children's understanding of pretense. Developmental Science, 2(1), 75–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Piaget, J. (1929). The child's conception of the world. Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Sanders, B. (1992). The imaginary companion experience in multiple personality disorder. Dissociation, 5, 159–162.Google Scholar
Taylor, M. (1999). Imaginary companions and the children who create them. University Press.Google Scholar
Taylor, M., Hulette, A. C., & Dishion, T. J. (2010). Longitudinal outcomes of young high-risk adolescents with imaginary companions. Developmental Psychology, 46(6), 1632.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weisberg, D. S., & Hopkins, E. J. (2020). Preschoolers’ extension and export of information from realistic and fantastical stories. Infant and Child Development, 29(4), e2182.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, R. E., & Carlson, S. M. (2016). What would Batman do? Self-distancing improves executive function in young children. Developmental Science, 19(3), 419–426.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Woolley, J. D. (1997). Thinking about fantasy: Are children fundamentally different thinkers and believers from adults? Child Development, 68(6), 991–1011.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Woolley, J. D., & Ghossainy, E., M. (2013). Revisiting the fantasy–reality distinction: Children as naïve skeptics. Child Development, 84(5), 1496–1510.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed