Seductive Storytelling: Geoffrey Miller’s Hypothesis on the Role of Sexual Selection in the Evolution of Narrative Creativity

Abstract

In this paper, I present and criticise Geoffrey Miller’s hypothesis concerning the decisive role of sexual selection in the evolution of narrative creativity. The paper is structured in three parts. In the first part, I present the theory of sexual selection and outline the reasons why Miller applies it beyond its original biological domain. I examine Darwin’s distinction between natural and sexual selection in more detail, showing how Miller reinterprets the latter as a process that shapes not only physical but also some mental characteristics of organisms. According to Miller, specifically human mental traits – such as language, artistic creation, morality, and creativity – evolved in the context of courtship as fitness indicators on the basis of which members of both sexes chose their partners for reproduction. In the second part, I show that these traits do not meet the criteria by which fitness indicators are usually recognised. Such indicators should develop fully only after sexual maturity, should be less developed in individuals whose general physical condition is poor, and, generally speaking, should not primarily contribute to the organism’s chances of survival but might even reduce them. None of these conditions, however, can be said to apply to the mental abilities that Miller considers. In the third part, I critically reexamine and reject Miller’s claim that narrative creativity evolved for the purpose of courtship. Narrative creation is an activity that can be used for sexual competition – just like many other types of behaviour – but Miller does not provide sufficiently strong reasons to believe that it evolved specifically for that purpose.