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27 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Common Themes Across Religions |
1) Belief in supernatural deity (god figure) 2) Reincarnation and the Afterlife 3) Deities appearing in Human Form 4) Sacred Texts & Objects |
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Cognitive Science of Religion |
scientific approach to the study of religion that appeals to methods and theories from cognitive developmental, & evolutionary psychology |
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Evolutionary Function & Religion: Darwin's Theory of Evolution |
1) Mutations results in adaptive traits that are beneficial in terms of survival and fitness 2) more likely to be spread to further generations 3) Long period of time, across several generations, mutations result in formation of new species |
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Evolutionary Fcuntion & Religion: No Function View |
Religion is the by-product of cognitive modules that have a function in other domains, but it has no function itself |
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Evolutionary Function & Religion: Function View |
Individual level, religion is the by-product of misfiring cognitive modules. But religion was selected for as advantageous at group level |
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No Function View: Sam Harris |
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No Function View: Spandrel |
A non-adaptive / not selected for trait that is the by-product of an adaptive selected for trait eg. heaviness of a polar bear fur |
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No Function View: Two Stages |
1) Cognitive modules evolved for other purpose misfire & appropriated for religion 2) cultural transmission and emetic reproduction |
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Hyper-active agency detection device (HADD) |
cognitive module designed to detect agent in natural events and objects eg. detecting presence of an agent eg. detect presence of an agency or purposiveness in an event |
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Agency Detection: False Positive |
Detecting something there that isn't |
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Agency Detection: Miss |
Failing to detect something there that is |
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Agency Detection: Pareidolia |
Detecting faces in random places, often related to religious imagery |
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Agency Detection: Anthropomorphism of Animate Objects |
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Agency Detection: Purposeiveness |
Natural phenomena have often been explained by appeal to actions of gods eg. weather god of greek mythology |
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Agency Detection: Purposiveness |
Tendency to offer purposive explanations for natural occurrences may recur across cultures, reduced through education |
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Minimal Counterintuitiveness Effect |
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No Function View: Stage 2 |
Model of religious ideas as viruses are not beneficial for host organism, but successful at spreading and transmission. Religious ideas are like "meme" - an idea, behaviour, or style that spreads from person to person within a culture |
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No Function View: Durkheimian View |
looking at religion at the individual level misses te point of religion religion > unite groups into moral community |
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Function View: Haidt - Group Level Adaptation |
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Function View: Evolutionary Advantage? |
1) religious folk as a survival & reproductive advatnage
2) co-operation without kinship 3) encourage prosocial behaviour |
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Prosocial Behaviour: Method of measurement |
Self-report measures along different dimensions eg. volunteering, helping behaviour, agreeable personality, forgiveness, valueing |
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Prosocial Behaviour: Generativity |
Sense of accomplished and productivity - explained needs to pass on things to the future generations |
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Prosocial Behaviour: Pichon et. Al. |
People more likely to tke charitable pamphlets for distribution when |
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Prosocial Behavior: Shariff & Norenzayan |
participants gave significantly more money when primed with religious words |
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Mind the Gaze |
Beliefs in spirits or all-seeing gods rewards for cooperative behaviour and vice versa, rather than the concept of being watched |
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Mind the Gaze: Ernest- Jones |
People half as likely to litter when posters of eyes present - Gaze detection brain machinery |
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Mind the Gaze: Burnham & Hare |
People make more cooperative choices in economic computer games when they are being watched |
