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The Evolution of Religion: How Cognitive By-Products, Adaptive Learning Heuristics, Ritual Displays, and Group Competition Generate Deep Commitments to Prosocial Religio

Author

Listed:
  • Scott Atran

    (IJN - Institut Jean-Nicod - DEC - Département d'Etudes Cognitives - ENS Paris - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - CdF (institution) - Collège de France - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - Département de Philosophie - ENS Paris - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres)

  • Joseph Henrich

    (Dept of Economics & Dept of Psychology - UBC - University of British Columbia)

Abstract

Understanding religion requires explaining why supernatural beliefs, devotions, and rituals are both universal and variable across cultures, and why religion is so often associated with both large-scale cooperation and enduring group conflict. Emerging lines of research suggest that these oppositions result from the convergence of three processes. First, the interaction of certain reliably developing cognitive processes, such as our ability to infer the presence of intentional agents, favors—as an evolutionary by-product—the spread of certain kinds of counterintuitive concepts. Second, participation in rituals and devotions involving costly displays exploits various aspects of our evolved psychology to deepen people's commitment to both supernatural agents and religious communities. Third, competition among societies and organizations with different faith-based beliefs and practices has increasingly connected religion with both within-group prosociality and between-group enmity. This connection has strengthened dramatically in recent millennia, as part of the evolution of complex societies, and is important to understanding cooperation and conflict in today's world.

Suggested Citation

  • Scott Atran & Joseph Henrich, 2010. "The Evolution of Religion: How Cognitive By-Products, Adaptive Learning Heuristics, Ritual Displays, and Group Competition Generate Deep Commitments to Prosocial Religio," Post-Print ijn_00505193, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:ijn_00505193
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/ijn_00505193
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Nick Obradovich & Ömer Özak & Ignacio Martín & Ignacio Ortuño-Ortín & Edmond Awad & Manuel Cebrián & Rubén Cuevas & Klaus Desmet & Iyad Rahwan & Ángel Cuevas, 2020. "Expanding the Measurement of Culture with a Sample of Two Billion Humans," NBER Working Papers 27827, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Philip E. Tetlock & Barbara A. Mellers & J. Peter Scoblic, 2017. "Sacred versus Pseudo-sacred Values: How People Cope with Taboo Trade-Offs," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(5), pages 96-99, May.
    3. Lane, Tom, 2021. "The effects of Jesus and God on pro-sociality and discrimination," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    4. Du Laing Bart, 2011. "Bio-Legal History, Dual Inheritance Theory and Naturalistic Comparative Law: On Content and Context Biases in Legal Evolution," Review of Law & Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 7(3), pages 685-709, December.
    5. Henning, Karla & Vollan, Björn & Balafoutas, Loukas, 2022. "Religious worship and discrimination," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 197(C), pages 91-102.
    6. Kim, Tami & Sezer, Ovul & Schroeder, Juliana & Risen, Jane & Gino, Francesca & Norton, Michael I., 2021. "Work group rituals enhance the meaning of work," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 197-212.
    7. Daniel J Hruschka & Joseph Henrich, 2013. "Institutions, Parasites and the Persistence of In-group Preferences," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(5), pages 1-9, May.
    8. repec:cup:judgdm:v:7:y:2012:i:2:p:110-118 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Gershman, Boris, 2016. "Witchcraft beliefs and the erosion of social capital: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa and beyond," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 182-208.
    10. repec:cup:judgdm:v:10:y:2015:i:6:p:593-596 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Michael Hoffman, 2020. "Religion and Tolerance of Minority Sects in the Arab World," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 64(2-3), pages 432-458, February.
    12. Tom Lane, 2019. "The differential effects of Jesus and God on distributive behaviour," Discussion Papers 2019-05, The Centre for Decision Research and Experimental Economics, School of Economics, University of Nottingham.
    13. Brooks, Alison Wood & Schroeder, Juliana & Risen, Jane L. & Gino, Francesca & Galinsky, Adam D. & Norton, Michael I. & Schweitzer, Maurice E., 2016. "Don’t stop believing: Rituals improve performance by decreasing anxiety," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 71-85.
    14. Hammad Sheikh & Jeremy Ginges & Alin Coman & Scott Atran, 2012. "Religion, group threat and sacred values," Judgment and Decision Making, Society for Judgment and Decision Making, vol. 7(2), pages 110-118, March.
    15. Erik P. Duhaime, 2015. "Is the call to prayer a call to cooperate? A field experiment on the impact of religious salience on prosocial behavior," Judgment and Decision Making, Society for Judgment and Decision Making, vol. 10(6), pages 593-596, November.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    by-product hypothesis; credibility enhancing displays; cultural 40 transmission; cooperation; group competition; high gods; min;
    All these keywords.

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