Abstract
The question of whether human imagination knows no boundaries or is, alternatively, constrained by conscious or unconscious cognitive templates is a key issue in defining human mind. We try here to address this extremely large question by focusing on one particular element of imaginary creations, the specific case of human-animal hybrids. Human-animal hybrids are common inhabitants of human imaginary spaces, being regularly encountered across numerous mythologies, as well as in modern popular culture. If human imagination was unconstrained, it would be expected that such hybrid creatures would display roughly half human and half animalistic features. Using several different popular science fiction and fantasy settings, we conducted an analysis of the morphological traits of human-animal hybrids, both anatomical and phenotypic. Surprisingly, we observed extremely high conservation of human morphological traits in human-animal hybrids, with a contrasting high use of phenotypic (“cosmetic”) alterations, and with highly stereotyped patterns of morphological alterations. While these alterations were independent of the setting considered, shape alterations were setting-dependent and used as a way to increase internal coherence. Finally, important gender differences were observed, as female human-animal hybrids retained significantly more human traits than males did, suggesting that conservation of female appearance may bear essential evolutionary importance. Taken together, these results demonstrate the existence of strong cognitive templates which frame and limit the expression of the capacity of human imagination, and unveil some of the psychological mechanisms which constrain the emergence of imaginary spaces.
Highlights
IntroductionFrom mythologies and traditional folklores to modern science fiction and fantasy works, human dreams and fantasies seem to know neither limits nor boundaries
Human beings take great pride in the capacity of their imagination
Since our aim was to characterize the capacity of human imagination in a manner that was as unbiased as possible, we focused our sampling on the movies of the prequel trilogy with Episode I: The Phantom Menace, released on May 19, 1999; Episode II: Attack of the Clones, released on May 16, 2002; and Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, released on May 19, 2005, to avoid as much as possible the limitations related to the special effects technologies of the early 80s compared to the computer-assisted possibilities of the early 2000s
Summary
From mythologies and traditional folklores to modern science fiction and fantasy works, human dreams and fantasies seem to know neither limits nor boundaries. Do coherent imaginary spaces emerge only from random imaginary creation process, or from some hidden forms of cognitive determinants such as general psychological constraints of the human mind? Coherent imaginary universes encompass numerous components, and too many factors could be involved in their creation. While mythological systems and traditional folkloric tales are by definition highly culturally constrained, modern science fiction and fantasy settings are arguably more “free”, in the sense that their creators are supposed to be allowed to actively express their creativity to transcend, and often transgress, the limits of reality. We choose one particular element of imaginary universes—the specific case of human-animal hybrids—and investigated it quantitatively in order to unveil the putative existence of cognitive mechanisms underlying their genesis
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