Suicidal Tendencies

One definition of "storytelling" that I found online states that contemporary storytelling includes cultural preservation, instillation of moral values, history, personal narrative, political commentary, and evolving cultural norms. This supports Gottschall's theory when he says "There is a yawning canyon between what is desirable in life and what is desirable in fiction." The moral values that are taught in stories change between the various cultures, but the results are always the same. What is desirable in life is very different than what is desirable in our stories. One study contradicted this theory by saying that stories are so much more than that. It said that readers have to be socially, psychologically, morally, emotionally, and cognitively involved in a story in order for it to affect them in any significant way. Not only that, but it says that across many different cultures, all stories will affect people in the same way.
Again, in Gottschall's section of the book called "A Mirror of Life?", he indicates that stories of wish fullfillment don't tempt us nearly as much as stories of people that have actually lived exciting lives. Another study I read stated the opposite. It examined the various myths from Norway, Iceland, and Finland that said as soon as the lives of the protagonist got difficult, they ended their lives in various methods of suicide (sometimes before the adventure or excitement even got started)! The conductors of this study also said that suicide provided the protagonist an escape from any excitement. This directly contradicts what Gottschall was saying in his book.