What you're saying sounds a lot like the thesis in this paper: "Conscious Thought Is for Facilitating Social and Cultural Interactions: How Mental Simulations S

What you're saying sounds a lot like the thesis in this paper: "Conscious Thought Is for Facilitating Social and Cultural Interactions: How Mental Simulations Serve the Animal–Culture Interface" http://users.wfu.edu/masicaej/BaumeisterMasicampo2010PsychRev.pdf http://users.wfu.edu/masicaej/BaumeisterMasicampo2010PsychRe...