Transcript Three Classes of Cultural Variation in Cognition

Why We Believe
Ara Norenzayan
Department of Psychology
University of British Columbia
The Secularization Hypothesis
 Ernest Renan’s (1851)
prediction “Islam last religious
creation of humanity”
 Rise of science, technology, &
wealthy societies = erosion of
religions
10,000 religions in the world
2-3 religions per day
 Religious folk enjoy higher fertility rates
 2/3 of world is religious
Surveys of Religion show that
Americans Believe in…
 God
 Heaven
 Hell
 Psychic and spiritual healing
 ESP or extrasensory perception
 Haunted houses
 Possession by the devil
 Ghosts of dead people returning
 Clairvoyance
Gallup Poll, 1994, 2001
% Believe
90-96%
93%
85%
54%
50%
50%
41%
38%
32%
Surveys of Religion show that Canadians
Believe in…
% Believe
 God
The Atlantic highest
 BC lowest
 Resurrection of Jesus
 Religious faith important in life
 The devil
Angus-Reid, 2002
84%
(93%)
(75%)
69%
67%
48%
Across Cultures
How Important is God in your life?
% saying “very important”







West Africa
Latin America
North America
Western Europe
Eastern Europe
East Asia
Total Average
97%
87%
83%
49%
49%
47%
63%
Gallup International Millenium Survey (60 countries)
Can science explain religion?
•Religion as natural
phenomenon
•Not about
defending or
criticizing
•Not about religion
being true or false
Outline
Elements of Religion
Relief from Existential Anxiety
Cooperation in Large Groups
Gods, spirits
Ritual
Costly Commitment
Existential Concerns
(Atran & Norenzayan, BBS, 2004)
Counterintuition
Communion
Commitment
Compassion
(Atran & Norenzayan, BBS, 2004)
Religion’s Functions
(Norenzayan & Shariff, 2008, Science)
Supernatural Agents
Existential Anxieties
Cooperation in Large Groups
Supernatural Belief and Awareness of Death
(Norenzayan, Hansen, 2006)
“Religion is like a fire extinguisher. You never know
when you are going to need it. So it’s best to have one
handy.”
-- Al Franken, Oh, the Things I Know!
Supernatural Belief and Awareness of Death
(Norenzayan, Hansen, 2006)
“Tragedy of cognition”
Humans have survival instinct
Yet aware of the inevitability of death
Is supernatural belief buffer against death?
Freud, Feuerbach, Malinowski, Kierkegaard, Burkert,
Becker
Religiosity and Belief in God
(Norenzayan, Hansen, 2006)
Control
Degree of Belief
Mortaility
Salient
Religiosity
Belief in God
Belief in Supernatural Control
Kay & Laurin, 2010
Belief in Controlling God
Negative: awful, slimy,...
Random: random,
chance,...
Negative
Random
No, no, that’s not a sin either. My goodness, you must have
worried yourself to death.”
Puzzle: Big Cooperative Groups
Solution: Big Gods
Puzzle of Cooperation in Large Groups
Kin Altruism
(inclusive fitness)
Cooperation
among Kin
Reciprocal Altruism
(reputation-driven)
Limited Cooperation
among Dyads
Cooperation in large groups
Big Groups, Big Gods?
Society Size:
High Gods:
1) Community
2) Small chiefdom
3) Large chiefdom
4) State
5) Large state
1) absent
2) present but inactive in
human affairs
3) present but active
4) present + active +
supportive of human morality
% Belief in Moralizing Gods
Big Groups, Big Gods
Roes & Raymond, EvolHumBeh, 2003
Comm.
Chief.
Large
Chief.
State
Large
State
Controls: inequality*, missionary*, pop. density, region
Kendall’s Tao = .29, p = 10-4 (SCCS, N=186)
Pressure From Above
Shariff & Norenzayan, 2007; Norenzayan & Shariff, 2008
Supernatural monitoring
Primed thoughts of God
Generosity in the Dictator Game
Implicit Primes
Prime: unscrambled sentences (Srull & Wyer, 1979)
divine dessert the was
Felt she spirit the
= the desert was divine
= she felt the spirit
 5/10 sentences had target words: God, divine,
spirit, prophet, sacred
Secular condition: police, jury, court, contract,
civic
Self-reported Belief in God
10.0
9.0
8.0
7.0
6.0
5.0
Non-Believers
Believers
4.0
3.0
2.0
1.0
0.0
bott om half
top half
median split by belief in God
Difference is ns at p=.75. n=50.
Study 2: Community Sample
Cash Offered
Shariff & Norenzayan, 2007
Neutral
Prime
Secular
Prime
Religious
Prime
The God Effect
Braille Tatoo
Bio-degradable coffins
Smog eating cement
Suing God
Religiosity in Trust Games
(Tan & Vogel, J Econ Psy, in press)
Proposer
Decision 1
Responder
$10
$10 X 3 = $30
$30
Decision 2
$15 $15
Religion and Trust
(Tan & Vogel, J Econ Psy, 2008)
1.5
DPASSPROP
1
0.5
Low Religiosity Group
0
High Religiosity Group
1
2
3
4
5
Total
-0.5
-1
-1.5
RELI
Mean deviation of offer from baseline to Responders of each
religiosity level by Proposers of different religiosity
Does Religion Enhance Group Longevity
when Group Survival is threatened?
Analysis of 19th century utopian communities
in America
19th Century Commune Survival Rates N=200
Sosis, CrCultRes, 2000
Controls:
Commune type
Year founded
Year dissolved
Log Rank T statistic = 40.14, df = 1, p < .00001
Bin Laden vs. Gandhi paradox
vs.
Pew Global Attitudes Project (2007)
www.psych.ubc.ca/~ara