The evolutionary social psychology of religious beliefs

2004 ◽  
Vol 27 (6) ◽  
pp. 741-741 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lee A. Kirkpatrick

Atran & Norenzayan (A&N) are correct that religion is an evolutionary by-product, not an adaptation, but they do not go far enough. Once supernatural beliefs are enabled by processes they describe, numerous social-cognitive mechanisms related to attachment, social exchange, coalitional psychology, status and dominance, and kinship are crucial for explaining the specific forms religion takes and individual and cultural differences therein.

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Lucidi ◽  
A. Zelli ◽  
L. Mallia ◽  
C. Grano ◽  
C. Violani

2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 215-244
Author(s):  
Virginia A. Periss ◽  
David F. Bjorklund

Adherence to religious belief may serve to promote group cohesion and cooperation by decreasing the costs associated with social exchange. Consistent with this, organized religious ideologies, unlike secular or spiritual based ideologies, have been argued to facilitate cooperation among individuals living in large-scale societies. In the current study, we examined whether hypothetical adults’ explanations of natural events focused on religious ideologies were more effective at eliciting positive-affect compared to spiritual or natural explanations. Results revealed that religious cues were more effective than spiritual cues in eliciting perceptions of positive-affect, but only when participant religiosity was taken into account. Participants high in religiosity favored the religious cues over the spiritual and natural cues, whereas participants high in spirituality showed no preferences. Conversely, participants low in religious belief demonstrated not only a positive bias towards the natural explanations, but also rated the adults expressing the supernatural explanations, in particular the religious explanations, as having greater negative-affect. From an evolutionary perspective, we interpreted the results as providing support that some forms of supernatural thinking, typical of organized religion, are more effective at eliciting feelings of positive and negative affect compared to supernatural beliefs not rooted in organized religion.


Author(s):  
Rhyse Bendell ◽  
Jessica Williams ◽  
Stephen M. Fiore ◽  
Florian Jentsch

Artificial intelligence has been developed to perform all manner of tasks but has not gained capabilities to support social cognition. We suggest that teams comprised of both humans and artificially intelligent agents cannot achieve optimal team performance unless all teammates have the capacity to employ social-cognitive mechanisms. These form the foundation for generating inferences about their counterparts and enable execution of informed, appropriate behaviors. Social intelligence and its utilization are known to be vital components of human-human teaming processes due to their importance in guiding the recognition, interpretation, and use of the signals that humans naturally use to shape their exchanges. Although modern sensors and algorithms could allow AI to observe most social cues, signals, and other indicators, the approximation of human-to-human social interaction -based upon aggregation and modeling of such cues is currently beyond the capacity of potential AI teammates. Partially, this is because humans are notoriously variable. We describe an approach for measuring social-cognitive features to produce the raw information needed to create human agent profiles that can be operated upon by artificial intelligences.


Author(s):  
Joseph Abiodun Bello

The literature of small group dynamics is replete with studies emanating from small group experimentalists interested in the subject matter of trust. Trust and trusting relationships have been explored more notably by researchers utilizing small group network communications paradigm (Mackenzie, 1978). Because of the salience of trust to interpersonal and intergroup functioning activities aimed at realizing social group objectives, network communication researchers have focused on a set of variables. There are notions of personalities that are prone to easily trusting others. Self-esteem, self-concept, and self-efficacy do matter (Homans, 1974). There are individual attributes predisposing persons to cautious trusting. The situation or transaction linking parties in a social exchange may also condition the structure of trust manifest from such parties. Experiences gained by social intimates in working together have been known to constrain the texture of trust between them. There exists a natural tendency for a party once trusted to a positive avail, to be readily accorded more trust in future (Frey & Feld, 2002). There exists a social cost to trusting ventures, when a social transaction involving trust has a material cost impact, questions of how such cost is shared will arise. And pose challenges to fair exchange. In business transactions, parties expecting certain considerations from a contracted deal may often insist that all reasonable effort should be exerted to avert disappointment. In formal business relationships, individuals occupying organizational positions as agents will often have to relate to other agents in the regular course of business. The persons and parties engaging in trusting situations are not doing so in a cultural vacuum. Social mutual awareness, perceptual variations, historical antecedents, social learning, and episodes of intellectual experiences dove-tail into social cognitions of trust.


2022 ◽  
pp. 27-54
Author(s):  
Zeynep Merve Ünal

The aim of the chapter is to advance the framework of meaningful work under the new normal of COVID-19. The conceptualization of meaningful work is defined by the extensive literature review and current research findings. Future of work and its meaning are shaped by the crucial internal and external triggers as human resource practices, job-demand resources model, leadership, job crafting, playful work design, strengths used by individuals, and self-leadership. The meaning at distance work is reinforced by the fulfillment of individual needs. Within this context, new conceptualization of needs for meaning-based person job fit has emerged. The understanding of the relationship between variables and new meaningful work were enlightened by the theoretical framework of self-determination theory, social exchange theory, job-demand resources theory, work identity theory, social learning theory, social cognitive theory, and self-leadership theory. The chapter explores the possible outcomes of COVID-19 and its possible opportunities for employees, organizations, and education sectors.


1977 ◽  
Vol 6 (6) ◽  
pp. 646 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harry C. Bredemeir ◽  
J. K. Chadwick-Jones ◽  
Peter P. Ekeh ◽  
Anthony Heath ◽  
Alfred Kuhn ◽  
...  

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (5) ◽  
pp. 396-418 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nora Parren

Abstract Cross-culturally, misfortune is often attributed to witchcraft despite the high human and social costs of these beliefs. The evolved cognitive features that are often used to explain religion more broadly, in combination with threat perception and coalitional psychology, may help explain why these particular supernatural beliefs are so prevalent. Witches are minimally counter intuitive, agentic, and build upon intuitive understandings of ritual efficacy. Witchcraft beliefs may gain traction in threatening contexts and because they are threatening themselves, while simultaneously activating coalitional reasoning systems that make rejection of the idea costly. This article draws possible connections between these cognitive and environmental features with an eye toward future empirical examination.


2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 113-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Grace N. Rivera ◽  
Andrew G. Christy ◽  
Jinhyung Kim ◽  
Matthew Vess ◽  
Joshua A. Hicks ◽  
...  

A central tenet of many prominent philosophical and psychological traditions is that personal authenticity facilitates psychological well-being. This idea, however, is at odds with numerous perspectives arguing that it is difficult, if not impossible, to really know one's self, or the true self may not even exist. Moreover, empirical findings suggest that reports of authenticity are often contaminated by positively valenced behavior, further potentially undermining the validity of authenticity measures. Despite these concerns, we argue that subjective feelings of authenticity do uniquely contribute to well-being. Specifically, we argue that the relationship between perceived authenticity and well-being may be understood from a social-cognitive lay theory perspective that we label “true-self-as-guide,” that suggests people use these feelings of authenticity as a cue to evaluate whether they are living up to a shared cultural value of what it means to live a good life. We end with a call for future research on the antecedents of perceived authenticity, boundary conditions for the consequences of personal authenticity, and discuss cultural differences in true-self-as-guide lay theories.


2009 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 114-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda Macht Jantzer ◽  
Dimitrios J. Stalides ◽  
Patrick J. Rottinghaus

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