Davies, J. (2022). The foundations of compellingness. Journal of Mind and Behavior. 43(2), 143--169.

• The peer-reviewed journal article that articulates the theory in the popular science book Riveted: The Science of Why Jokes Make Us Laugh, Movies Make Us Cry, and Religion Makes Us Feel One with the Universe.
• There are similar psychological reasons we find all things compelling, including sports, religion, jokes, art, conspiracy theories, and urban legends.

BibTex Entry:

@Article{Davies, 
  author = 	 {Davies, Jim}, 
  title = 	 {The Foundations of Compellingness}, 
  journal = 	 {Journal of Mind and Behavior}, 
  year = 	 {2022}, 
  key = 	 {}, 
  volume = 	 {43}, 
  number = 	 {2}, 
  pages = 	 {143--169}
}

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You can see other work related to this topic here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JyK6rLdSP9m3Ng8zHKyUX8lU8EBa9lnuJSGpkSwQlUM/edit?usp=sharing

Abstract

Some things in this world are compelling, such as beautiful scenery, scary stories, and sports. They might give us pleasure, or make us feel they are important, or motivate us to pay attention, or inspire curiosity. Other things, such as patterns of raindrops or lists of random numbers, are not compelling. To date there is no cross-domain framework that attempts to explain the underlying psychological reasons why some things are compel- ling and other things are not. I present the compellingness foundations framework, which attempts to show that the same underlying psychological reasons explain why things are compelling to human beings, including religion, arts, and sports. The foundations include the desire for social information, the presence of detectable patterns, incongruous infor- mation, and the generation of strong emotions.