Mimetic Contagion and Social Bonds: an Approach from Biological Naturalism
Keywords:
Mimetic contagion, biological naturalism, fiction, empathyCopyright (c) 2025 Elena Yrigoyen
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Abstract
Mimetic contagion continues to instill fear in contemporary democratic societies, resulting in a rejection of mimesis as a producer of social bonds. However, from the perspective of biological naturalism, mimesis is recognized as an evolutionary phenome-non intrinsic to our species and many others, facilitating a more nuanced understanding of its relationship with affect. This paper advocates for the necessity of training our mimetic skills to paradoxically enhance our ability to resist the effects of mimetic contagion and to expand the horizons of typical social bonds.
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