Stories, villains and evolutionary psychology

Here’s an interesting piece on the evolutionary importance of baddies in stories.

Far from being escapist titillation, Kjeldgaard-Christiansen thinks that creating these tales may in fact have an evolutionary purpose. Taking these short trips into the dark sides of our natures, and seeing good triumph over evil, helps us to reaffirm our altruistic tendencies, leading to better cooperation overall.

Reminds me of this piece from Jordan Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life, that we spoke about before. Also, here’s another post on the topic from BPS.

The article is on the British Psychological Society’s site, here.