Science fiction has become very popular across all mediatic forms (e.g., in short stories, in novels, in movies, in TV series). The cultural success of this genre is both geographically widespread and rather recent in history. Although such observations seem consensual, many problems remain and are debated in science fiction study, notably (1) the defining characteristics of the genre, (2) the reasons for its late emergence, and (3) the interindividual variability of its appeal. Previous attempts to solve such puzzles focused on proximate How-questions (e.g., How did the genre emerge?). The article presents a contribution from cognitive and evolutionary sciences, which make it possible to ask Why-questions (e.g., Why did the genre emerge?). We hypothesize that science fiction, with its emphasis on new and innovative features (e.g., new civilizations, innovative technologies, futuristic worlds), appeals to the human desire for new abstract information. We review research in neuroscience, evolutionary psychology, and behavioral ecology, showing that some specialized biological mechanisms in human cognition prompt exploratory preferences for such information. We show that this hypothesis can explain (1) why science fiction works are perceived as homogenous and different from works of fiction of other genres, (2) why science fiction emerged and became culturally successful rather late in literary history, and (3) why the preference for science fiction varies across time, across space, and across individuals. We provide empirical testable predictions that should be tested in the future to confirm this hypothesis.

中文翻译：

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科幻小说的心理起源

科幻小说在所有媒体形式中都非常流行（例如，短篇小说、小说、电影、电视剧）。这一流派的文化成功不仅在地理上广泛存在，而且在历史上也是最近才出现的。尽管这些观察似乎是一致的，但科幻小说研究中仍然存在许多问题并存在争议，特别是（1）该类型的定义特征，（2）其较晚出现的原因，以及（3）其吸引力的个体差异。以前解决此类难题的尝试主要集中在近似的“如何”问题（例如，该流派是如何出现的？）。这篇文章介绍了认知科学和进化科学的贡献，这使得提出“为什么”问题成为可能（例如，为什么这种类型会出现？）。我们假设，科幻小说强调新的和创新的特征（例如，新文明、创新技术、未来世界），吸引了人类对新抽象信息的渴望。我们回顾了神经科学、进化心理学和行为生态学的研究，表明人类认知中的一些专门的生物机制促进了对此类信息的探索性偏好。我们表明，这一假设可以解释（1）为什么科幻小说作品被认为是同质的并且不同于其他类型的小说作品，（2）为什么科幻小说在文学史上出现并在文化上取得成功的时间相当晚，以及（3）为什么对科幻小说的偏好因时间、空间和个人而异。我们提供了可实证检验的预测，这些预测应该在未来进行测试以证实这一假设。