Humans evolved to be social animals. One upshot of this is that we have a special ability to understand what other people are thinking. This is called "theory of mind" and it impacts everything from Shakespeare to jokes.
Our theory of mind is very special because not only can we understand what someone else is thinking; but we can understand that they think someone else is thinking something different. And so on.
This might sound rather complicated. Because it is. Humans can only understand a few of these "orders of intentionality." By understanding and exploiting this factor; perhaps you can craft the ideal Shakespearean drama. Or the best ever joke.
Evolution of intentionality
Being social is why humans are successful. By working together we achieve really cool stuff. Like producing surplus food so we don't all have to farm, allowing some of us to become scientists.
And these scientists identified that being social is so important it ( amongst other things) actually influenced the evolution of our brain. It turns out being social needs a lot of brain power. You have to remember all the latest gossip after all. So those with larger brains could be more social (and reap all those social benefits). Overtime this drove our brains to evolve bigger and bigger, more than tripling in size.
This allowed us to live in larger and larger groups, as we had the brain power to sustain more relationships. However, it also allowed us to have more complex interactions within those groups. We became able to predict what other people wanted and how that might influence their behaviour. And then use this to our advantage. If we know caveman Bob doesn't like snakes, we can pretend there are snakes around to scare him away and let us steal his food.
Now, this "theory of mind" isn't unique to humans. Apes have it to an extent. However, we are so much better than them. To the point that not only can we think about what other people might be thinking about, but what they think other people might be thinking about. This is called "orders of intentionality" and humans - with our big fancy social brains - can understand about seven levels of intentionality.
And this limit is what influences how complex we can make a joke.
Intentionality is no joke
So humans have this limit on thinking about what other people are thinking about other people. Or "intentionality." We can go about seven levels up this chain of intentionality.
- You know that I will eat the apple.
- I think that you know that I will eat the apple.
- You hope that I think that you know that I will eat the apple.
- And so forth
But this limit doesn't just influence apples; and all the drama associated with that.
The limit to our understanding of intentionality puts a hard limit on just about every social interaction. If you're telling a story with more than seven levels of intentionality it's just going to go straight over everyones head. Or if you're telling a joke that complex.
But when it comes to telling a good joke or story, the secret isn't just trying to make it as low level as possible either. Take a look at Shakespeare. In Othello:
- Shakespeare wants
- The audience to believe that...
- Iago wants...
- Othello to believe that...
- Desdemona loves Cassio...
- Who loves her right back.
As the greatest playwright ever discovered, people don't like it being too simple either. It turns out there is a sweet spot between our 7th level limit and a basic story that we really enjoy. It's in this spot that lie the best jokes, the best narratives, and the best plays.
And researchers have identified that this hovers around the same place as Othello; between five and six levels of intentionality.
So next time you write a book, tell a story, or come up with a joke be sure to make it complex. Involve lots of people thinking about other people thinking about other stuff.
Up to a point.
tl;dr
Evolution has shaped our brain; making us understand levels of intentionality - to a point. The best jokes, plays, narratives, and more all hover around 5 - 6 levels of intentionality.
References
Dunbar, R.I. and Shultz, S., 2007. Evolution in the social brain. science, 317(5843), pp.1344-1347.
Dunbar, R.I.M., Launay, J. and Curry, O., 2015. The Complexity of Jokes Is Limited by Cognitive Constraints on Mentalizing. Human Nature, pp.1-11.
