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Imaginary worlds are attractive because they simulate multiple adaptive problems and encode real-world information

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 November 2022

Lawrence Sugiyama Open the ORCID record for Lawrence Sugiyama [Opens in a new window]
Lawrence Sugiyama*
Affiliation:
Anthropology Department, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403, USA sugiyama@uoregon.edu
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Abstract

Organisms don't explore for exploration's sake: exploratory psychology is regulated by inputs from multiple adaptations dedicated to processing information from different domains of ancestral adaptive relevance. As holistic representations of environments, imaginary worlds simulate multiple adaptive problems, solutions, and outcomes, thereby engaging numerous emotional systems and providing potentially useful information. Their popularity is thus best understood in terms of the full spectrum of information domains they comprise.

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Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 45 , 2022 , e301
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Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

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