Why are books & movies more interesting when they're "based on a true story"?

Question

Here's an example: The movie "Alive." Airplane transporting a soccer team crashes in the Andes. The survivors are stuck in the mountains for months with no food...so they eat the dead. It really happened, so it's fascinating. But if this was completely fictional, it wouldn't be as interesting. Why are true stories inherently more appealing? In other words: why are we interested in things we wouldn't otherwise be interested in -- for example, cannibalistic soccer team -- when we know they really happened?

The real question is, WHY is the truth fascinating? And can't people relate to fiction? (For example, what 16-year-old girl in love can't relate to Juliet?)

Answer 1

Perhaps it is because we can put ourselves in their shoes, thinking "wow, that really happened to them. what would I do in that situation?"

also because we are so used to seeing amazing things on movies, we are impressed when something amazing is for real.

Answer 2

we can relate to the experience of fictional characters but there's a big difference between that and the realisation that those people are real, they actual existed and in the case of Alive some at least are still out there coping with a real experience. We can easily dismissed the actions of Juliet as something Shakespeare made up, but we can't dismiss what we know took place. It can happen and therefore it could have happened to us, and how then, would we have coped? Would we have eaten our dead friends? Probably yes.

Answer 3

Because the human mind works by percentages, it is obsessed with probability...any percentage of factual information increases human interest.

Answer 4

Because, it is the tragedy of someone else and not you that makes it more interesting. It is based on reality.

Answer 5

youre so right i agree with you they are more interesting and you can relate to them more x

Answer 6

cannibalisem is a fact of life.