This article analyzes the psychological and neurological underpinnings

of crime fiction and discusses the interrelation between cultural and

biological-evolutionary determinants of fictions of detection. It argues that

although crime fiction is a product of modern life conditions, it is also centrally

fueled in the minds of viewers and readers by the mammalian dopamine

seeking/wanting system developed for seeking out resources by foraging and

hunting and important for focused mental and physical goal-directed activities.

The article describes the way the working of the seeking system explains

how crime fiction activates strong salience (in some respects similar to the effect

of dopamine-drugs like cocaine, Ritalin, and amphetamine) and discusses

the role of social intelligence in crime fiction. It further contrasts the unempathic

classical detector fictions with two subtypes of crime fiction that blend

seeking with other emotions: the hardboiled crime fiction that blends detection

with action and hot emotions like anger and bonding, and the moral

crime fiction that strongly evokes moral disgust and contempt, often in conjunction

with detectors that perform hard to fake signals of moral commitment

that make them role models for modern work ethics. The article is part

of bio-cultural research that describes how biology and culture interact as argued

in Grodal’s Embodied Visions.

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