"There’s another quality to ancient storytelling that’s still massively evident in tales we enjoy for pleasure. Studies of gossip in contemporary hunter-gatherer tribes find that, just like stories in our most advanced cities, they are dominated by tales of moral infractions by high status people. We don’t like people who are more powerful. We fear and resent them. We’re much more likely to extend our empathy to characters who are low in the hierarchy – vulnerable, reluctant, trembling in the shadow of evil Goliath."