Steven Pinker -- How the Mind Works - Hampshire High Italian ...

540 J HOW THE MIND WORKSings, which preserve the illusion of a real world. There have to be somestories in which the murderer does catch up with the heroine in thebasement, or we would never feel suspense and relief in the stories inwhich she escapes. The economist Steven Landsburg observes thathappy endings predominate when no director is willing to sacrifice thepopularity of his or her film for the greater good of more suspense in themovies in general.But then how can we explain the tearjerker, aimed at a market ofmoviegoers who enjoy being defrauded into grief? The psychologist PaulRozin lumps tearjerkers with other examples of benign masochism likesmoking, riding on roller coasters, eating hot chili peppers, and sitting insaunas. Benign masochism, recall, is like the drive of Tom Wolfe's testpilots to push the outside of the envelope. It expands the range ofoptions in life by testing, in small increments, how closely one canapproach a brink of disaster without falling over it. Of course the theorywould be vacuous if it offered a glib explanation for every inexplicableact, and it would be false if it predicted that people would pay to haveneedles stuck under their fingernails. But the idea is more subtle. Benignmasochists must be confident that no serious harm will befall them.They must bring on the pain or fear in measured increments. And theymust have an opportunity to control and mitigate the damage. The technologyof tearjerkers seems to fit. Moviegoers know the whole time thatwhen they leave the theater they will find their loved ones unharmed.The heroine is done in by a progressive disease, not a heart attack or apiece of hot dog stuck in the throat, so we can prepare our emotions forthe tragedy. We only have to accept the abstract premise that the heroinewill die; we are excused from witnessing the disagreeable details. (GretaGarbo, Ali MacGraw, and Debra Winger all looked quite lovely as theywasted away from consumption and cancer.) And the viewer must identifywith the next of kin, empathize with their struggle to cope, and feelconfident that life will go on. Tearjerkers simulate a triumph overtragedy.Even following the foibles of ordinary virtual people as they live theirlives can press a pleasure button, the one labeled "gossip." Gossip is afavorite pastime in all human societies because knowledge is power.Knowing who needs a favor and who is in a position to offer one, who istrustworthy and who is a liar, who is available (or soon to become available)and who is under the protection of a jealous spouse or family—allgive obvious strategic advantages in the games of life. That is especially