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PhD student
Edgar Dubourg
I am doing my PhD in cognitive science at the Département d’études cognitives of the Ecole normale supérieure (ENS-PSL). I am working within the Evolution and Social Cognition Group at the Institut Jean Nicod, under the supervision of Nicolas Baumard.
Research questions
Fiction
Why are humans fascinated by fictions, such as novels, TV series, movies, and why do they differ in their tastes?
Entertainment
What drives the evolution of other entertainment devices, such as sport rules, music,
and video games?
Curiosity
What is the evolutionary origin of curiosity, and what explains the variability of curiosity across individuals?
Research
I use insights from both the natural sciences (behavioral ecology, evolutionary psychology, cognitive neuroscience) and the humanities (literary theory, literary history, cultural studies), and both computational and experimental methods, to explain the psychological foundations and the cultural evolution of fictions.
In all, I take an interdisciplinary evolutionary approach to the study of fictions. I am interested in how cognitive adaptations and adaptive sources of variability impact both the universality and the variability of cultural preferences for fictions.
Latest Publications
Pourquoi sommes-nous fascinés
par les fictions ?
TEDxMinesNancy
Comment expliquer notre fascination pour les mondes imaginaires ?
Conférence à l'École normale supérieure pour la Semaine du Cerveau
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