Thursday, December 5

Our fascination with beasts informs us a lot about ourselves

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From snakes to zombie pathogens, there is science behind our love of beasts. It exposes a lot about who we are, states Natalie Lawrence

By Natalie Lawrence

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Elaine Knox

As frightening as beasts are, they have actually constantly mesmerized us. From chimeras and hydras to bunyips and golems, animals have actually emerged from our creativities throughout history and throughout cultures. Today, they take off onto our movie theater screens with amazing consistency. Provided how frightening beasts can be, it appears paradoxical that we keep making them. They are really extremely essential to us, and are deeply rooted in our evolutionary history and psychology.

Beasts are the fantastical descendants of our co-evolution with predatory animals: they are wired into our neurocircuitry. Snakes, for instance, were a few of our forefathers’ very first fatal …

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