By averaging estimates of ChatGPT 3, 4.5, I discover that in these years typical folks spent these hours per week consuming fiction and music:
(Sure, I’d like to get extra dependable estimates.) Observe the large enhance over time. As US adults now common ~21 hours every week at jobs, and ~14 at housekeeping, adults now spend considerably extra hours on each fiction and music than they do on both jobs or housekeeping. So it appears honest to marvel: is that this conduct adaptive?
Let’s deal with fiction on this submit. On common in fiction, protagonists discover themselves in worse than typical conditions, and make a higher than typical exhibiting of themselves there. The proximate trigger for our having fun with such tales is plausibly that we just like the fantasy of figuring out with protagonists who show themselves effectively in powerful conditions.
Now we do plausibly acquire some from eager about what to do in powerful conditions, seeing the world from the view of others, affirming shared norms, and exhibiting off fiction understanding skills. Getting out of our personal heads and troubles collectively might chill out us and bond. However the time prices are actually massive, as can also be the distortions in our expectations about actuality.
Clearly each tales and music are historic issues, robustly persistent in a variety of cultures. So clearly some quantity of them have to be adaptive. So the query is how a lot. Ballot respondents say virtually 2-1 that marginal fiction is adaptive, however I’ve doubts.
If the hour estimates from 1500 are remotely correct, and if conduct then was roughly adaptive, then we’d want the worth we get from fiction to be far bigger right now, to justify spending eight instances as many hours on it. Which appears onerous to imagine. And because the most believable direct purpose we devour fiction, having fun with the fantasy, doesn’t appear drained to adaption, that leans me towards guessing that we’ve got an excessive amount of fiction.
Now it does make sense to right here distinguish particular person from neighborhood adaptiveness. If everybody round you is enjoying fiction mastery signaling video games, it might make sense so that you can play these video games as effectively. However on the degree of a shared tradition, that tradition could be extra adaptive if it diverted such efforts to completely different signaling video games with extra adaptive unwanted effects.
I believe that this generalizes to different kinds of leisure as effectively. Even in instances of peace, well being, and lots, the place you don’t must work that many hours to remain secure, comfortable and fed, I anticipate that probably the most adaptive behaviors are fairly strongly aligned with extra clearly adaptive results. Like amassing expertise, wealth, allies, energy, youngsters, one thing. I discover it onerous to see how spending this a lot of our time principally stress-free and chilling may very well be max adaptive.
