Imaginary worlds are extremely successful. The most popular fictions produced in the last
few decades contain such a fictional world. They can be found in all fictional media, from …

Imaginary worlds are present and often central in many of the most culturally successful
modern narrative fictions, be it in novels (eg, Harry Potter), movies (eg, Star Wars), video …

Human musicality exhibits the necessary hallmarks for biological adaptations. Evolutionary
explanations focus on recurrent adaptive problems that human musicality possibly solved in …

While the ubiquity and importance of narratives for human adaptation is widely recognized,
there is no integrative framework for understanding the roles of narrative in human …

In addition to satisfying a predisposition for exploration, fiction with imaginary worlds may
also appeal to morbid curiosity, an adaptive motivation to seek out information about …

Fictionality and fictional experiences are ubiquitous in people's everyday lives in the forms of
movies, novels, video games, pretense and role playing, and digital technology use. Despite …

Science fiction has become very popular across all mediatic forms (eg, in short stories, in
novels, in movies, in TV series). The cultural success of this genre is both geographically …

We received several commentaries both challenging and supporting our hypothesis. We
thank the commentators for their thoughtful contributions, bringing together alternative …

Characterizing the cultural evolution of imaginary worlds as a hedonic but non-adaptive
exaptation from evolved exploratory tendencies, Dubourg and Baumard defend too narrow a …

Imaginary worlds allow us to safely develop, crystallize, and criticize our moral values—at
times even serving as catalysts for change in the real world. Fans of imaginary worlds …