It wasn't part of the conversation I had.

However, I have heard or read something in the last few months that suggested it might be, but I would have no idea where it was. I can barely remember what it was, although I remember the suggested result was nebulous as it came out of a quite different study. I think it also surprised the researchers.

I've seen people argue that it's not genetic but there's something in 'what we are' that makes us tend to be like that. Perhaps it's something to do with sapience. Or perhaps our desire to tell stories. Jack Cohen and Ian Stewart (co-authors of the Science of Discworld books) seem to think so and make some good arguments for this. It seems to be part of our ability to think at different levels of abstraction, such as how we can use a knife without having to think about how the edge of the blade can cut the meat. But they way they explain it, we use this at a considerably more sophisticated level to convey knowledge in a method they call 'lies-to-'. A really good example is Newtonian physics which are good enough for a lot of engineering, but are actually not the whole story. And when the story breaks down, we have Relativity or Quantum Physics to explain things.

This story-telling desire, coupled with a human desire to find out what makes things tick can not only encourage hard science, but also many other things, such as creative accounting or a better breakfast cereal. Or theology.

Wade.