The Cognitive Psychology of Belief in the Supernatural

[Frangible]

I thought this article in the latest issue of "American Scientist" I picked up was pretty interesting. Here's an abstract:

http://www.americanscientist.org/template/AssetDetail/assetid/49627;jsessionid=aaahPc2VjT00Uw

The Cognitive Psychology of Belief in the Supernatural
Belief in a deity or an afterlife could be an evolutionarily advantageous by-product of people's ability to reason about the minds of others
Jesse M. Bering

click for full image and caption
Figure 8. In an experiment designed to determine...

Although many psychologists have studied evolution's imprint on the human mind, scant attention has been given to one particularly remarkable human trait—our widespread belief in the supernatural. Could a belief in a deity or an afterlife be evolutionarily advantageous? Or are these beliefs a by-product of our ability to reason about the minds of others? The author and his colleagues have studied children to determine at what age they will believe that a spirit is trying to send them a message, or assert that a deceased agent (i.e., in the "afterlife") has attributes such as anger or thirst. The author argues that, despite the social quagmire surrounding all things religious, the rigorous study of supernatural beliefs by psychological science can be important for a complete understanding of human cognitive development.

You have to be a subscriber to read the full article (or just read it at your local Barnes and Nobles... or be a nerd like me and subscribe).

Anyway, basically the conclusion of this and other research lately is that belief in an afterlife is innate to humans, even young children not exposed to religious ideas (it would be neat to also do a study on apes and dolphins), though it's only after age 10 or so that they begin to link natural events to a supernatural actor (younger children reason with physics). The argument made from the research is that however rational or irrational these beliefs may be, they served an important role in human evolution and history; it united communities and tribes, reduced crime (on an individual basis, at least; see the article for the data on this), decreased grief when someone dies, and decreases depression by imparting a sense of "purpose" to its believers.

Thus, it's quite possible that if at some point this trait (belief) wasn't innate to all humans, it was selected for as it was an evolutionary advantage. So perhaps that even without proof outside of current scientific data, the advantages of certain belief structures to an individual and society, as well as for human survival historically, make that belief actually quite rational after all.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

1. Maybe someday, the supernatural will be seen as simply the

everyday manifestation of the science we are only beginning to fathom.

www.Whatthebleep.com

[JuniperLea]

2. I believe you are correct

I've always thought this myself.

It's only "supernatural" because we don't yet understand. If you put it into historical context, it was an outrageous assertion that the Earth was round and that it revolved around the Sun. So much so that mentioning such things nearly brought execution to Copernicus and Galileo!

That's why I feel it's important to keep a very open mind. Even at the risk of losing something we hold dear, like Christianity, for example.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

4. Well.... I have never seen a more convincing explanation of what

Christ was trying to convey to his peers than I did in this movie... NEVER.

www.WhatTheBleep.com

[BlueEyedSon]

5. what the bleep is a load of bleep

http://skepdic.com/channel.html

[HysteryDiagnosis]

7. I'm sure part of it was.... but are you sure that everything they

said was total bunk??

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1561708259/104-6381053-3439159?v=glance&n=283155

Two of science’s preeminent scholars unite for this fascinating look at quantum physics and its impact on spirituality. Physicist, scholar, and author Amit Goswami, Ph.D., joins Deepak Chopra, M.D., to discuss the age-old questions that have bewildered humanity for centuries.

In this program, Goswami speaks extensively on such topics as the quantum physics of reincarnation, what the soul might be, where memory resides, and who we really are. Chopra compares the scientific findings with the wisdom traditions of Vedanta. The two agree that science is on its way to proving that our universe consists of nothing but pure consciousness, past experiences, and memories—in other words, the mind of God, a realm of infinite possibilities.

[Frangible]

9. Yep, that's one view

An interesting sci-fi series that elaborated on it was Peter Hamilton's "The Reality Dysfunction" (warning: addictive as crack) Spirituality and the afterlife doesn't necessarily violate any laws of physics, but it's not something that has been definitively proven either.

[BlueEyedSon]

3. Or maybe someday, the supernatural will be seen for what it is, mostly:

a consensual delusion based on wish fulfillment.

Almost all of what is accepted as "supernatural fact" is just bunk.

[JuniperLea]

6. That's a pretty broad brush you paint with there

Much of what we know now was considered a bunch of hooey too, so there ya go;)

[BlueEyedSon]

10. Let's talk concrete examples, ok? I'll entertain any and all of your

suggestions.....

[JuniperLea]

13. Haha! Don't get me started!

Psychokinesis

http://www.pbs.org/saf/1107/segments/1107-5.htm


School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences at the University of Edinburgh

Snip

"Parapsychology has several characteristics that create problems for it and that must be addressed if we are to become more than at best an intriguing protoscience. Parapsychology has been linked to metaphysical and occult traditions in the past. Acceptance of psychic phenomena (psi) has been exploited by charlatans. Acceptance of psi can easily contribute to delusional systems. Parapsychology threatens the precision and tidiness of traditional scientific methodology. It forces us to re-examine concepts such as consciousness and volition that have been largely ignored within science. It challenges fixed ideas, both materialist and non-materialist, about how the world works. Ethical considerations arise when designing research programmes. Parapsychology involves the study of complex, open systems. It has difficulty in generating and testing theory-based hypotheses. For these and other reasons, parapsychology has often been labelled a pseudoscience by philosophers and sociologists of science. At the Koestler Parapsychology Unit, we attempt to address these issues by setting our research within the wider context of society as a whole, by developing models for understanding how we can be deceived by ourselves and others into exaggerating the role that psi may play in our daily lives, and by pursuing the best forms of evidence for psychic functioning. We seek to enhance its availability under methodologically sound yet ecologically valid conditions, through several lines of research. In this way we try as best we can to confront the problems raised earlier, with some success but with much room for improvement.”

http://moebius.psy.ed.ac.uk/


ESP

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extra-sensory_perception



http://moebius.psy.ed.ac.uk/~paul/zener.html


Here are just a couple fun things... I'm a member of the American Mensa Parapsychology SIG... I could go on like this for days;)

[BlueEyedSon]

14. Bend any spoons lately?

[JuniperLea]

15. So typical

You put the crack pots in with the serious research and you dumb down the entire area of research. Much like three years ago when I said I smelled a rat when Bush pulled Hans Blix out of Iraq then proceeded to bomb the shit out of a bunch of innocent people. I was called a conspiracy theorist for even suggesting Bush had ulterior motives. Cripes.

[BlueEyedSon]

16. So, your explanation is to compare common sense with ESP?

[JuniperLea]

18. That is not what I was doing...

I was comparing your response (spoons), which is utterly ridiculous. And besides, common sense is subjective. It used to be that common sense dictated that the Earth was flat. All I'm saying is that what we know now is a handful of sand compared to what we don't know, which is all the sand on all the beaches and in all the oceans of the world. To assume we know more is not only arrogant, but exceedingly dangerous.

[Frangible]

8. Not wish fulfillment

The article I quoted above makes the argument it is probably empathy and the ability to reason about the minds of others that causes people to attribute events to supernatural sentient actors, which is why small children do not readily do it, as they have not fully developed those cognitive abilities.

While it's true that the events can usually quite readily be disproven as supernatural in nature, that is only one aspect of many religions and belief systems, so I wouldn't say it invalidates them.

[treegiver]

11. I got all excited for a minute

I misread the title as "Cognitive Psychology is Belief in the Supernatural".

"I accuse cognitive scientists of relaxing standards of definition and logical thinking and releasing a flood of speculation characteristic of metaphysics, literature, and daily intercourse, speculation perhaps suitable enough in such arenas but inimical to science." B.F. Skinner

[beam me up scottie]

12. ROFLMAO!!!

Welcome to DU!:D

[TallahasseeGrannie]

17. If evolution really exists

and I believe it does, then not only would there be an evolutionary advantage for the species to contain believers, but non-believers would also have evolved from a purpose.

What do you think that might have been?

[JuniperLea]

21. Good question!

I think it's to keep each other on their toes. We don't know jack about nuthin compared to what there is to know! It takes an open mind for new ideas to come in and a closed one to argue with the other guy.

[Eileen]

19. Out of the mouths of babes!

Anyway, basically the conclusion of this and other research lately is that belief in an afterlife is innate to humans, even young children not exposed to religious ideas (it would be neat to also do a study on apes and dolphins), though it's only after age 10 or so that they begin to link natural events to a supernatural actor (younger children reason with physics).

As Danny Kaye, in interpreting Hans Christian Anderson said:

- All except one little boy.
You see he hadn't heard about the king's invisible suit of clothes, so when the king went by he exclaimed:

LOOK AT THE KING, look at the king, look at the king, the king, the king!

The king is in the altogether,
Hes all together,
Yes altogether,
He's altogether as naked as the day that he was born.

Your "study" seems to be attesting to the fact that children must be sufficiently indoctrinated before they can properly employ "magic thinking"n as their adult contemporaries do.

You aren't seriously asking us to accept a work authored by the equivelant of Indian Snake Oil Salesman Deepak Chopra as having some actual scientific value are you? "His <[i>The OP referenced author Jesse M. Bering]research interests include intuitive perceptions of the afterlife, folk psychologies of souls, and the concepts of meaning and destiny." I have this metaphysical bridge......


Eileen

[JuniperLea]

20. You know...

I really don't know where to begin, with your condescension with regard to personal belief systems, your utter lack of tact, lack of knowledge or your arrogance in thinking that you know it all. I disagree with the statement about children and can site many studies that prove, or suggest, otherwise. But blatant oneupmanship is ugly.

If every scientist ever born were as closed-minded, we would all be walking around in fear of falling off the edge.


Almost all science is purely theory; very little science is absolute.

[Eileen]

24. Hmmmmm

Your ad personams are duly noted and shall be given the attention they deserve.

When you have acquired the ability to actually reason and have something more than meaningless platitudes to display your ingorance of science and the scientific method you might try answering again. Until then .......

Eileen

[beam me up scottie]

22. The emperor has no clothes.

Sounds an awful lot like "I see four lights".

:thumbsup:

[Eileen]

25. Perhaps -

Yet we might also ask William:

But what is truth?
Is truth a changing law?
We both have truths.
Are mine the same as yours? (JC Superstar)

;)


Eileen

[NMMNG]

23. ......

Figure 8. In an experiment designed to determine whether children will see supernatural messages in everyday events, children were told that a magic, invisible princess would somehow tell them if they chose the box that did not contain the ball (a). Once the children selected a box (b), the princess's picture was made to fall off the wall. Only the oldest children in the study interpreted the picture falling as a message from the princess and changed their selection of boxes as a result (c)

So through experimentation they determined there's a minimum age for the onset of superstitious beliefs? :shrug: