Graphing Jane Austen: Palaeolithic Politics in British Novels of the 19 th Century

Website questionnaire on 2,000 characters from 202 British novels of the longer 19 th century 1,494 protocols completed Separate website for Thomas Hardy’s The Mayor of Casterbridge (124 protocols completed) 441 individual characters profiled and graphed Joseph Carroll, Jonathan Gottschall, John Johnson, Daniel Kruger

Research Design Content of characters: Sex Age Attractiveness Personality Motives Mate Selection Criteria Responses of readers: Emotional responses Do you want the character to succeed? Is the character’s success a main feature of the story? Role assignment: Is the character: a protagonist ? an antagonist ? a good minor character ? or a bad minor character ? Designs of the author Ethos of individual novels Ethos of a whole culture (end here) (start here)

Why?

FOUR REASONS

1. To demonstrate that major components of literary meaning can be reduced to the elements of human nature.

2. To test empirically the hypothesis that agonistic structure reflects the evolved dynamics of coalitional psychology.

1. To demonstrate that major components of literary meaning can be reduced to the elements of human nature. 2. To test empirically the hypothesis that agonistic structure reflects the evolved dynamics of coalitional psychology. 3. To bring empirical evidence to bear on the theoretical controversy over the adaptive function of literature.

1. To demonstrate that major components of literary meaning can be reduced to the elements of human nature. 2. To test empirically the hypothesis that agonistic structure reflects the evolved dynamics of coalitional psychology. 3. To bring empirical evidence to bear on the theoretical controversy over the adaptive function of literature. 4. To generate new empirical knowledge and begin a process of cumulative knowledge acquisition in literary study.

REASON ONE: To demonstrate that major components of literary meaning can be reduced to the elements of human nature derived from evolutionary psychology.

Original Motives Dominance Constructive EffortRomanceSubsistenceNurture Survival0.80 Routine work0.76 Short-term mating Long-term mating0.83 Wealth Power0.89 Prestige0.89 Help non-kin Education0.77 Make friends0.62 Building/Creating0.73 Help offspring/kin Motives Reduced to Five Motive Factors (loadings greater than.3 or -.3)

Extrinsic Attributes Intrinsic Qualities Physical Attractiveness Power0.89 Prestige0.91 Wealth0.88 Reliability0.85 Kindness0.85 Intelligence0.78 Physical Attractiveness0.98 Seven Long-Term Mate-Selection Criteria Reduced to Three Factors (loadings greater than.3 or -.3) Original Criteria

FIVE PERSONALITY FACTORS Extraversion ---- assertiveness and sociability Agreeableness ---- warmth and affiliative behavior Conscientiousness ---- organization and reliability Emotional Stability ---- calmness and evenness of temper Openness to Experience ---- curiosity or mental liveliness

10 Emotional Responses Reduced to Three Emotional Response Factors (loadings greater than.3 or -.3) Original EmotionsDislikeSorrowInterest Anger0.86 Disgust0.89 Contempt0.83 Fear of character0.72 Admiration Liking Fear for character0.77 Sadness0.83 Amusement Indifference-0.86

REASON TWO: To test empirically the contention that agonistic structure reflects an egalitarian ethos central to human evolutionary history.

REASON THREE: To bring empirical evidence to bear on a major theoretical controversy: THE ADAPTIVE FUNCTION OF LITERATURE.

We can draw inferences about adaptive function by working backwards from the observations of actual effects.

What actual psychological and social functions do these novels fulfill?

We can draw inferences about adaptive function by working backwards from the observations of actual effects. What actual psychological and social functions do these novels fulfill? What plausible connections can we draw between current psychological and social function and function within the EEA?

REASON FOUR: To generate empirical findings about the novels as a whole and about particular novels and novelists.

REASON FOUR: To generate empirical findings about the novels as a whole and about particular novels and novelists. We thus generate knowledge that is both new and cumulative.

Narrowing “possibility space” --limiting the range of possible explanation.

35 Topics on which we produced specific findings

1.The existence and function of agonistic structure 2. The relation of agonistic structure to the evolved political dispositions of human nature 3. The commanding power authors exercise in determining meaning and affect 4. The essentially positive character of the male-female relation in the novels 5. The broad overlap in readers’ attributions and responses to characters

6. The factors that distinguish agonistically ambiguous characters 7. The reduction in goal achievement for protagonists after The relatively low level of Interest in male protagonists 9. The use of basic emotions and basic motives in stipulating genres as natural kinds 10. The interaction of authorial point of view, basic emotions, and basic motives in modulating the kind of psychological work performed by novels

11. The correlation of male and female mate-selection strategies with fantasy modes in Romance and pornography 12. The age distribution of male and female characters 13. The configurations of age and attractiveness in agonistic structure 14. The identification of plot structures with basic elements in human life 15. The affiliative and culturally active character of protagonists

16. The isolation of dominance behavior within antagonistic characters 17. The convergence of female mating preferences and antagonistic dominance behavior in female antagonists 18. The assimilation of amoral male sexual preferences to the normative value structure of the novels 19. The norm of balance and moderation in protagonists 20. The scope and depth of personal identity themes, outside the range of sex, race, and class, available within the five-factor model of personality

21. The dominance of female psychological dispositions within the normative value structure of the novels 22. The massive subordination of Sex to Valence in the novels 23. The essentially non-agonistic character of male-female relations in the novels 24. The distorting pressure of coalitional psychology in the depiction of protagonistic male status striving in the novels 25. The neutrality of reader sex in the emotional responses of readers

26. The distorting influence of male authorial psychology on the depiction of female characters 27. The distorting influence of female authorial psychology on the depiction of male characters 28. The broad convergence of male and female authors in the depiction of male and female characters 29. The use of narrative to negotiate socio-sexual conflict 30. The influence of authorial sex on the ideology of gender

31. The feminization of protagonistic males in Austen’s novels 32. The elimination of Sorrow from Austen’s emotional register 33. The organization of personality, emotions, and motives in the tonal and thematic structures of Pride and Prejudice 34. The effect of problematic role assignments and authorial distance on the emotional responses of readers of The Mayor of Casterbridge 35. The basic elements of human social interaction that have been isolated and over-generalized in the three models of tragedy used to interpret The Mayor of Casterbridge

THE ONE MOST IMPORTANT FINDING:

Agonistic structure mirrors the basic political dynamic in egalitarian hunter-gatherer cultures.

This is an empirical finding, NOT a speculative, discursive observation.

From this empirical finding, we can draw an inference of large theoretical significance:

The novels serve as a medium for readers to participate in an egalitarian social ethos.

The novels help create the ethos that governs the society of its readers. That ethos enables people to cooperate as a social unit.

The novels serve as a medium for readers to participate in an egalitarian social ethos. The novels help create the ethos that governs the society of its readers. That ethos enables people to cooperate as a social unit. Modern readers of the novels participate vicariously in this same ethos.

Does the current psychological function of the novels parallel an adaptive function fictional narrative might have possessed in ancestral environments?

The egalitarian political dynamic uncovered by Boehm suggests that the answer is “yes.”

Does the current psychological function of the novels parallel an adaptive function fictional narrative might have possessed in ancestral environments? The egalitarian political dynamic uncovered by Boehm suggests that the answer is “yes.” The novels serve as prosthetic extensions of cultural practices that in oral cultures require face-to-face interaction.

The adaptive function of literature is centrally important to our understanding of the evolved and adapted character of human nature.

Thanks for your attention.

Graphing Jane Austen Joe Carroll, Jon Gottschall, John Johnson, Dan Kruger