The psychological foundations of the hero-ogre story

Human Nature • Vol/Iss. 12 • Published In • Pages: 247-272 •
By Jobling, Ian

Abstract

This article investigates the universality of the hero-ogre narrative. The author examines 20 hero-ogre stories from different cultures and proposes that the story reflects a human tendency to show a positive bias towards the self and a negative bias towards the out-group. The author also finds that a hero-ogre narrative occurs in 31 of the 44 (70 percent) cultures in the Probability Sample Files with information on folklore.

Samples

Sample Used Coded Data Comment
Probability Sample Files (PSF)
Documents and Hypotheses Filed By: Kate Cummings  Megan Farrer