Fairy Tales in War and Conflict: The Role of Early Narratives in Mass Psychology of Political Violence

Abstract

This paper proposes early exposure to fairy tales as an important factor of mass psychology that can help understand and predict broad public tendencies and reactions, especially in times of uncertainty and change such as wars and political unrest. Early childhood’s transition to self-awareness, and the resulting realization of one’s shortcomings, lead to the original loss of significance, with the consequences of seeking a way to restore the feeling of being important and special. In the resulting quest to restore lost significance, fairy tales play a prominent role. Fairy tales’ moral lessons are learned through modeling and operant conditioning, with characters’ rewards becoming intrinsic rewards for the child who identifies with the characters. These early moral models pave the way for significance quests of later life, especially when one’s choices are made under stress and uncertainty, which make the use of heuristics more likely than deliberation, enabling the early moral lessons from fairy tales to influence adult judgments and behaviors.