****Official RGT Article Thread****
07-05-2017
, 03:54 PM
12-10-2018
, 05:02 PM
02-17-2021
, 03:35 PM
"The Origins of Religious Disbelief: A Dual Inheritance Approach"
-Will Gervais, Maxine Najle, Nava Caluori (PsyArXiv Preprint, January 2021)
This study tests three different evolutionary explanations for why people don't believe in a god.
1. Secularization theory. This view says that religion, with an accompanying belief in god, has useful social functions, but that modern secular societies have substituted secular institutions for religious ones with a similar function, and thus the utility or practical necessity of religion has declined, with a corresponding decrease in the belief in god. This theory suggests that apatheism is the primary route to disbelief, where belief in god is no longer deemed important.
2. Cognitive Byproduct. This view says that while belief in god is not itself useful, it is a byproduct of other useful cognitive adaptations. For instance, it is claimed that human minds have adapted to have many false positive and few false negatives in interpreting natural phenomena as being caused by agency rather than chance. That is, the potential cost of mistaking a rustle in the brush as a predator is low, while the potential cost of mistaking it as wind is high. This theory says that belief in god is thus a kind of natural, default state, and atheism requires cognitive effort. This view would suggest that atheism is most associated with more analytic cognitive style and lower mentalizing ability.
3. Dual Inheritance. This view says that belief/disbelief in god depends on both genetic selection effects and cultural evolution. It claims that belief in god results from cognitive biases towards certain kinds of belief (such as in the cognitive byproduct theory) and cultural biases towards accepting beliefs based on contextual factors like prestige, how common they are in your society, and how much credibility their proponents have (eg from costly signaling). This theory suggests that atheism is associated with a lack of exposure to credible religious behavior or exposure to credible atheist behavior.
The paper tested each theory by seeing how much atheism correlated with:
1. Feeling of existential security (secularization theory)
2. Reflective vs intuitive cognitive style & mentalizing ability (cognitive byproduct)
2. Exposure to credible cues of religiosity (dual inheritance)
-Will Gervais, Maxine Najle, Nava Caluori (PsyArXiv Preprint, January 2021)
Quote:
Abstract:
Widespread religious disbelief represents a key testing ground for theories of religion. We evaluated the predictions of three prominent theoretical approaches – secularization, cognitive byproduct, and dual inheritance – in a nationally representative (USA, N = 1417) dataset with preregistered analyses, and found considerable support for the dual inheritance perspective. Of key predictors of religious disbelief, witnessing fewer credible cultural cues of religious commitment was the most potent, β = 0.28, followed distantly by reflective cognitive style, β = 0.13, and less advanced mentalizing, β = 0.05. Low cultural exposure predicted about 90% higher odds of atheism than did peak cognitive reflection, and cognitive reflection only predicted disbelief among those relatively low in cultural exposure to religion. This highlights the utility of considering both evolved intuitions and transmitted culture, and emphasizes the dual roles of content- and context-biased social learning in the cultural transmission of disbelief.
Widespread religious disbelief represents a key testing ground for theories of religion. We evaluated the predictions of three prominent theoretical approaches – secularization, cognitive byproduct, and dual inheritance – in a nationally representative (USA, N = 1417) dataset with preregistered analyses, and found considerable support for the dual inheritance perspective. Of key predictors of religious disbelief, witnessing fewer credible cultural cues of religious commitment was the most potent, β = 0.28, followed distantly by reflective cognitive style, β = 0.13, and less advanced mentalizing, β = 0.05. Low cultural exposure predicted about 90% higher odds of atheism than did peak cognitive reflection, and cognitive reflection only predicted disbelief among those relatively low in cultural exposure to religion. This highlights the utility of considering both evolved intuitions and transmitted culture, and emphasizes the dual roles of content- and context-biased social learning in the cultural transmission of disbelief.
1. Secularization theory. This view says that religion, with an accompanying belief in god, has useful social functions, but that modern secular societies have substituted secular institutions for religious ones with a similar function, and thus the utility or practical necessity of religion has declined, with a corresponding decrease in the belief in god. This theory suggests that apatheism is the primary route to disbelief, where belief in god is no longer deemed important.
2. Cognitive Byproduct. This view says that while belief in god is not itself useful, it is a byproduct of other useful cognitive adaptations. For instance, it is claimed that human minds have adapted to have many false positive and few false negatives in interpreting natural phenomena as being caused by agency rather than chance. That is, the potential cost of mistaking a rustle in the brush as a predator is low, while the potential cost of mistaking it as wind is high. This theory says that belief in god is thus a kind of natural, default state, and atheism requires cognitive effort. This view would suggest that atheism is most associated with more analytic cognitive style and lower mentalizing ability.
3. Dual Inheritance. This view says that belief/disbelief in god depends on both genetic selection effects and cultural evolution. It claims that belief in god results from cognitive biases towards certain kinds of belief (such as in the cognitive byproduct theory) and cultural biases towards accepting beliefs based on contextual factors like prestige, how common they are in your society, and how much credibility their proponents have (eg from costly signaling). This theory suggests that atheism is associated with a lack of exposure to credible religious behavior or exposure to credible atheist behavior.
The paper tested each theory by seeing how much atheism correlated with:
1. Feeling of existential security (secularization theory)
2. Reflective vs intuitive cognitive style & mentalizing ability (cognitive byproduct)
2. Exposure to credible cues of religiosity (dual inheritance)
Last edited by Original Position; 02-17-2021 at 03:57 PM.
Reason: accuracy