Human being, as the wisest of all creatures, has been challenged by artificial intelligence. In order to tackle the challenge, we need to identify and enhance the unique capacity of human being as the wisest of all creatures. According to Yuval Noah Harari's viewpoint presented in Sapiens:A Brief History of Humankind, the capacity to believe in things purely existing in the fiction is the key to moving up in the food chain. Two decision scenarios are therefore developed to explore whether the two elements of fiction ("fiction reading comprehension" and "future coming true") can serve as a behavioral marker to distinguish qualified from unqualified homo sapiens. The result reveals significant differences in terms of responses to the scenarios between the criterion populations of unqualified homo sapiens, such as lawbreakers and drug addicts, and qualified homo sapiens (normal control). The findings support the notion that capacity of fiction can serve as a candidate behavioral marker for distinguishing qualified from unqualified homo sapiens. Furthermore, the findings provide pilot evidence for the viewpoint that the cognitive capacity of fiction is the unique capacity of homo sapiens.

fiction  /  fiction reading comprehension  /  future coming true  /  behavioral marker  /  intertemporal choice