Darwinian Hero's Journey in Aladdin
How Joseph Campbell intersects with evolutionary psychology in this classic Disney movie
Aladdin is a straightforward illustration of Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey.1
In his 1949 book The Hero With a Thousand Faces, Campbell initially outlined the key idea of the recurring story he recognized in myths and legend he’d examined across time (e.g., in Arthurian tales, Greek mythology, indigenous folktales). Surface details differed, with stories of knights, gods, sorcerers, and so on depending on the time and culture. But Campbell noticed the same structural template.2 A hero, male or female, rich or poor, is shaken out of their everyday reality and must endure the process of change. The hero’s existing knowledge and skills are insufficient. To find a solution, the hero must exit their familiar world and venture into the unknown. They then encounter trials that are foreign and bewildering and acquire new knowledge and skills to overcome each challenge. The heroes are often required to do things they do not know how to do, or are reluctant to do, or are unsure they can do. Through this process, they undergo a personal transformation (symbolic death and rebirth).
More recently, the cognitive scientists Edgar Dubourg and Nicholas Baumard point out:
“Humans are drawn to plots that play on evolutionary themes: competition for resources or mates, romance...character archetypes remain; the hero, the ingénue, etc...regardless of the setting, humans seek the same stories, variations on essential themes.”
The stages in Aladdin (1992):
1. Ordinary world. Joseph Campbell in his book Pathways to Bliss: Mythology and Personal Transformation:
"The basic story of the hero journey involves giving up where you are, going into the realm of adventure, coming to some kind of symbolically rendered realization, and then returning to the field of normal life."
Aladdin (in the Disney version) is a poor orphaned “street rat” living on the streets of Agrabah with his pet monkey—animal helpers are prominent in Campbell’s mythological framework. This is one reason they appear a lot in Disney movies (Mushu in Mulan is the best/funniest, and was apparently absent in the live-action version which is probably one reason among many why it reportedly failed).
2. Call to adventure. Aladdin sees a girl in trouble in the marketplace. Jasmine momentarily forgets that she is in disguise and unrecognizable as a princess. For taking food without paying and giving it to a hungry child, she is about to have her hand chopped off. Aladdin springs into action to save her.
3. Refusal of the call. After saving Jasmine, Aladdin believes he has no shot with her and retreats with Abu back to their gloomy dwelling, gazing at the grand royal palace.
4. Meeting the mentor. One twist here is that Aladdin meets an old man in prison (evil Jafar in disguise) who tells him about the Cave of Wonders. Maybe if he retrieves the treasure, he can win Jasmine’s affections. Later, Genie also takes on a mentor role.
5. Crossing the threshold. Aladdin enters the Cave of Wonders to retrieve the magical lamp.
In his 1949 book The Origins and History of Consciousness, the psychoanalyst Erich Neumann wrote that the hero’s myth is “variously represented as the entry into the cave...here the swallowing of the hero by the dragon—night, sea, underworld—corresponds to the sun's nocturnal journey, from which it emerges victoriously after conquering the darkness.”
6. Tests, Allies, Enemies. Campbell wrote that the hero will encounter supernatural aid along his path. Aladdin is betrayed by the old man, who only wanted the lamp. Fortunately, Aladdin’s animal helper (Abu) pocketed it. Aladdin meets new magical helpers—the magic carpet and, of course, Genie, who performs a grand song introducing himself as a magical helper (“Friend Like Me”).
7. Approach to the inmost cave. I suppose the Cave of Wonders counts (it’s right in the name). But once Aladdin returns to Agrabah and wishes to be a prince, he goes to an equally important “cave”—the Sultan’s palace. This is roughly the midway point where the hero’s life appears to be just about perfect. He got everything he wanted.
8. Ordeal/Crisis. Campbell wrote that this is, essentially, the hero’s darkest hour. This stage often involves death and rebirth (either literally or metaphorically). Jafar obtains the lamp, and Aladdin has to face him without Genie’s help. Jafar has the guards tie Aladdin up and throw him in the sea. He nearly drowns to death before his magical helper (Genie is one of Robin Williams’ best roles, btw) bends the rules a bit to help him.
9. Reward (seizing the sword). Aladdin triumphs over Jafar by using his wits to trick him.
10. The road back. They wind up at the Sultan’s palace. Aladdin is then confronted with one last difficult decision—whether to wish to regain his royal title as prince or wish for Genie’s freedom. Aladdin’s external enemy was Jafar but his internal enemy was himself and the lies he told Jasmine and her father.
Erich Neumann wrote that the archetypal story of the hero battling the dragon is symbolic of the internal struggle against the unconscious and the external struggle against the chaos of the world. Slaying the dragon is a demonstration of the hero (who represents humanity) attaining mastery of his mind/ego.
Arthur Brooks has written, "The end of the true hero’s journey is coming home and finding a battle to be waged not with an external enemy, but with one’s own demons. Win that final battle—the hardest one of all—and true victory is yours."
11. Resurrection. After spending most of the movie deceiving everyone, Aladdin returns to his roots and discloses who he really is. And when confronted with the chance to wish to become a prince and be with Jasmine, Aladdin instead wishes for Genie’s freedom.
12. Return with the elixir. The Sultan (perhaps moved by Aladdin’s moral character and heroism) remembers that he holds ultimate power and just decides that Jasmine can marry Aladdin despite not being royalty.
So that’s the hero’s journey read of the movie.
There’s also a superb illustration of mating psychology within the Aladdin story.
In Aladdin’s grand introduction to the Sultan and Jasmine, Genie sings “Prince Ali” which hits just about every important quality in female partner choice: High status, strong, kind, attractive, and honest.
Social Status
“Genuflect, show some respect, down on one knee!”
Throughout the song, Genie stresses Aladdin’s position as Prince Ali. He references his immense wealth and “world-class menagerie” of “exotic-type mammals.”
Women, on average, are attracted to high-status men. In one large study of 21,973 men in the U.S., researchers found that the higher a man’s socioeconomic status, the higher his chances of getting married.
Furthermore, research has found that women who are themselves financially successful assign even more important to attracting mates who are financially well-off, educated, and intelligent.
Prosperous women tend to have a strong preference to partner with accomplished men. Genie, aware of Jasmine’s royal position, exaggerates Aladdin’s high social standing.
Strength
“Strong as ten regular men, definitely!”
Muscularity is a huge predictor of romantic appeal. One study of more than 7,000 men found that muscle mass was associated with more sexual partners in the last year and more sexual partners overall.
A study on males aged 18 to 59 found that muscularity is significantly positively associated with the number of total sexual partners and partners in the last year.
In another study, researchers asked two different groups of women to look at photos of different men and rate how strong the men looked. Results showed that the rated strength of a male body accounts for 70 percent of the variance in attractiveness (this is a massive effect size). From the paper: “None of the women produced a preference for weaker men…in both samples, the strongest men were the most attractive, the weakest men were the least attractive.”
Handgrip strength is correlated with self-assessed happiness, health, social confidence, overall physical attractiveness, and overall number of sexual partners.
How tough a guy looks to men appears to be a much stronger predictor of mating success than how attractive he is to women.
At one point, Genie shoots his magical finger at Aladdin, allowing Aladdin to lift a group of men above his head. “He faced the galloping hordes, a hundred bad guys with swords,” he croons.
Generosity/Kindness
“He’s got ninety-five white Persian monkeys, and to view them he charges no fee (he’s generous, so generous).”
Aladdin unloads armfuls of golden coins to the denizens of Agrabah as the Genie and his entourage belt out these lyrics.
The evolutionary psychologist Geoffrey Miller has suggested that moral virtues such as kindness, generosity, and heroism may have evolved in part through mate choice.
The idea is that our ancestors sharpened our moral features by selecting kind-hearted mates. A classic study from David Buss found that across 37 cultures, kindness is, on average, the most desirable trait in a romantic partner.
Relatedly (and unsurprisingly), men are more likely to donate to charity when they are being observed by women. A cynical view is that they are just trying to get laid. A more positive view is that mate choice is a powerful tool to select for kindness and exerting pressure on people to be kind.
Goodness serves as a costly fitness indicator. As Miller puts it, “if a signal is so costly that only high health, high status, high condition animals can afford to produce it, the signal can remain evolutionarily reliable.” A wealthy man, confident in his deep pockets, can afford to give vast riches away.
Attractiveness
“Prince Ali! Handsome is he, Ali Ababwa”
Genie stresses Aladdin’s good looks, while Aladdin gives the crowd a twinkling smile.
Appearance is a cue for good health. For women in the ancestral environment, mating with someone who was unhealthy would have posed potentially serious risks, such as being unable to provide resources, protection, and help with raising children.
Women judge symmetrical faces and masculine faces to be more attractive. Other studies have found that when women are asked them to pick out the “healthiest” looking men, their responses were indistinguishable from their judgments of “the most attractive” men.
The sexy son hypothesis is also relevant. The idea is that females choose males who are attractive to other females because if they have a child, the child is likely to be attractive too. The child will then be an attractive adult and will be more likely to attract partners have have children. Richard Dawkins in The Selfish Gene has written, “The result of this is that one of the most desirable qualities a male can have in the eyes of a female is, quite simply, sexual attractiveness itself.”
Honesty
“Tell. Her. The truth!”
This isn’t from the song, but from a scene later in the movie. Aladdin doesn’t want Jasmine to learn that he is not actually a prince but a “street rat.” Genie (archetype: mentor) advises him to be honest with her.
A 2019 study titled “Be yourself: Authenticity as a long-term mating strategy” found that honesty is associated with desirable relationship outcomes.
The researchers administered the Authenticity in Relationships Scale which asked study participants how much they agreed with statements such as “I share my deepest thoughts with my partner even if there’s a chance he/she won’t understand them” and “I am basically the same person with my partner as I am with other people I care about.”
Authenticity was strongly associated with high relationship commitment, high relationship satisfaction, and low sociosexual orientation (i.e., relatively little interest in casual sex, romantic affairs, etc.). People high on authenticity also scored relatively low on the Dark Triad personality traits (narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism).
The study also found that authentic people tend to mate with other authentic people, whereas deceptive individuals tend to attract deceptive partners. This is consistent with other research indicating that people with personality disorders—narcissistic, psychopathic, passive-aggressive, avoidant, sadistic, and so on—tend to enter relationships with one another.
The authenticity researchers conclude that authenticity requires taking emotional risks, which is a costly signal of commitment and interest. It is a reliable cue that such a person is worthy as a long-term partner.
In the end, Aladdin comes clean with Jasmine. They fall in love and get married, thus, in an indirect way, fulfilling Aladdin’s original wish of becoming a prince. An implicit message is that there are no shortcuts in the hero’s journey. Aladdin didn’t really become a prince when he first wished for it—that artificial title was quickly stripped from him. Genie went on and on in his song introducing “Prince Ali,” telling lies about how great Aladdin was.
When Jasmine learned it was all a ruse, she was repulsed. This is consistent with the idea that the qualities that lead to wealth and status are perhaps more important than the the wealth and status themselves, because if those things are stripped from someone, certain intrinsic qualities indicate that they can potentially obtain them once again.
As Nassim Taleb wrote in Fooled by Randomness:
“That which came with the help of luck could be taken away by luck (and often rapidly and unexpectedly at that). The flipside, which deserves to be considered as well (in fact it is even more of our concern), is that things that come with little help from luck are more resistant to randomness.”
Compared with a lottery winning millionaire, women will find a man who earned his wealth by working hard, making wise business decisions, and forming trusted relationships to be more impressive and attractive. Only when Aladdin undertook immense risks and nearly died in order to defeat Jafar (the Shadow) and rescue those he cared about did he actually become worthy in the eyes of the Sultan (a playful Disney version of the all-powerful king archetype) and Jasmine (symbolic of female sexual selection, the Goddess archetype, and mother nature).
Erich Neumann in The Origins and History of Consciousness:
“The three basic elements of the hero myth are the hero, the dragon, and the treasure...Only in this struggle does the hero show himself a hero and change his nature; for whether he is the doer who redeems or the conquerer who liberates; what he transforms transforms him too.”
I recently spent the holidays visiting family and friends in California. As I waited for my rental car at the worst airport in the country (LAX), my mood lifted slightly when I overheard two Enterprise employees in a heated argument about Disney movies. The older Millennial employee argued that the older movies were better and the younger Zoomer contended that the newer ones are superior. I haven’t seen any new ones. But I remember the old ones. I’m partial to Aladdin in part because it can be enjoyed in several ways.
Happy New Year to Rob and to all.
Happy new year :)