Social Cognitive Origins and Aspects of Supernatural Beliefs PDF

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Social Cognitive Origins and Aspects of Supernatural Beliefs...

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Social Cognitive Origins and Aspects of Supernatural Beliefs Coursework Information      

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100% of the module – no exam Aim – encourage students to engage constructively and creatively with social psychological theory and research Demonstrate your understanding of key perspectives and research and apply it to tackle a practical, real-world problem 4 options, each focused on different topics, but can draw on all social psychological knowledge Format – creative component + research compendium (or essay format for those who are feeling less creative) Option 1 – campaign/advert for animal interest group aimed at behavioural/attitude change o Creative component – leaflet, video pledge, pledge or donation campaign, blog, advert, webpage, story board, children’s book o Examples of online campaigns – online o Choose an animal interest group (charity etc) o Aim – what behaviour I would like to change o Practical (creative) piece  1000 words for written text (website/leaflet) or 3 minutes for minute  You can describe what you campaign/advert would entail if you’re not feeling creative o Research compendium to your campaign/advert (1500 words)  What behaviour are you attempting to change?  How have you applied theory and perspectives from social psychology?  Identify key barriers to change and how your strategy addresses these barriers o E.g., vegan advocacy – meat consumption/leather/animal testing/dairy milk o How we categorise animals – we treat some as pet’s others as foods, cultural aspects, ask a question, dinner party where dog/cat served as food – violation of category and how we normally think about dogs – arbitrary categorisation of animals – what has changed/your perception Option 2 – constructing your own religion o What are the fundamental aspects of religious beliefs and practice? o What makes a religion successful? How are religious beliefs transmitted/communities preserved? o Must have:

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 Name, historical background (purely creative bit)  Structure/organisation (creative bit)  Rituals and practices  Behaviours expected from adherents  Beliefs endorsed o Argue why your religion will or will not flourish – support claims with arguments/evidence from psychological science  Reference list needed (2500 words)  Be creative, leaflet/video and 1500-word research compendium Option 3 – design a smartphone application o Creative component (1000 words)  Design an app which collects data for research purposes  Describe sources of data your smartphone applications will collect  Consider data protection, ethics, and technical barriers o Research compendium (1500 words)  E.g., app to promote healthy eating  Describe how your application will improve assessment of your chosen theory  What are the limitations? – eating disorders  Behaviour change theory being applied to change behaviour through the app – how will the app do that? Apply social psychology Option 4 – developing a bystander intervention training module to promote bystander intervention in cases of sexual harassment o Creative component (1000 words)  Design something (leaflet/video) that will consumed by participants in a training module – violence reduction training course  Applying 5 recommendations from Levine, Philpot & Kovalenko (2020) literature review o Research compendium (1500) words  Address how your training product addresses some or all 5 recommendations in the above literature review

What is Religion?  

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There isn’t a universal definition of religion, but theorists have overlapping ideas Emile Durkheim (1915/1965) – dated definition o “A religion is a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden—beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community called a Church, all those who adhere to them” o Culturally specific – church in Greek = a group of people (community) Hogg, Adelman, & Blagg (2010) – social psychologists o “A social group defined by a shared ideology and worldview that invokes the sacred in addressing not only the nature of existence but also daily moral practices and wider behaviours, customs, and rituals” Yuval Noah Harari (2016) – historian

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o “Religion is an all-encompassing story that confers superhuman legitimacy on human laws, norms and values. It legitimizes social structures by arguing that they reflect superhuman laws.” (Narrative component) Two main components of religion: o Belief in the sacred/supernatural – not of this world day-to-day, transcendent o Social aspect – social binding of religion, ideas unite people into communities, and they organise communities around these narratives – legitimises the behaviours they engage in

Supernatural Agents   

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Most religions have a supernatural agent and have stories about them, and how they attract the world and people in the world Beings that challenge the laws of nature in some manner (i.e., possess “counterintuitive” features, e.g., invisible, powerful, may have powers) Some supernatural agents have religious associations (e.g., God), but others do not (e.g., Santa, ghosts, tooth fairy), not all that different – so what makes religious supernatural agents different from non-religious fantastical agents? o Religious – purpose – bettering themselves, ways of life etc People endorse some supernatural agents but not others due to: o Biased social transmission process:  Absorb ideas from people around us/familiar to us/those we trust  The religion you follow may be due to those who grew up around  Tendency to trust in the testimony of those in your group, those with prestige/expertise  “It is a telling fact that, the world over, the vast majority of children follow the religion of their parents rather than any of the other available religions.” (Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion) o Individual causal reasoning:  More cognitively interesting to us – make sense of aspects of the world which do not make sense to us otherwise  Some supernatural agents may provide better causal explanations for phenomena  “Theologians and religious leaders cannot simply teach any ideas they want and expect those ideas to be remembered, spread, and believed; rather, the way human minds operate gradually selects only those with the best fit to become widespread.” (Justin Barrett, 2004) Dawkins: “If children understand that beliefs should be substantiated with evidence, as opposed to tradition, authority or faith, they will automatically work out for themselves that they are atheists.” – is Dawkin’s right? o If children are sceptical, will they use their evidence to deduce that they are atheists o Children are taught to value evidence and child o Power of social transmission o Children will naturally use what they are taught to make a conclusion about religion

o Children use their powers of reason in their thinking about supernatural agents and belief as well as science – so no they may not deduce that they are an atheist

Distinguishing Fantasy and Reality 

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Sharon & Woolley (2004) investigated if children can distinguish fantasy from reality using children aged 3 to 5 o Children can find it challenging to figure out if these fantastical beings like Santa are not real due to cultural endorsement o Cultural endorsement of these beings like Santa – parents go through a lot of effort to make their child believe, e.g., Santa visits, writing letters, presents, mince pie on Christmas eve Asked children which are “real” and which are “pretend”? Real: o Child, Michael Jordan, Knight, Clown, Dinosaur o The children may not have direct experience with all of these Fantastical: o Easter bunny, Santa, monster, Superman, dragon o Have counterintuitive features, may have some experience (e.g., books, TV), and some culturally endorsed (Harris et al., 1991) A lot of children said they weren’t sure – showed it was a difficult thing for children to comprehend with different entities which they have a belief about as we do not have directly have contact with (e.g., cannot see) o They will be more likely to believe it is real if experts tell them they are o E.g., we know coronavirus is real due to scientists telling us and seeing people around us becoming ill, and even some dying

Harris et al. (2006) – study 3 o Children’s own confidence in existence (5–6-year-olds) o Slightly older than in Sharon & Woolley’s study o Children were asked “How do you know there really is/are….) o 3 categories:  Culturally endorsed (e.g., God, Santa Claus)  Scientific entities which are culturally endorsed (e.g., germs, oxygen)  Equivocal – fantastical but not culturally endorsed (e.g., witches, monsters)

o These categories are similar – invisible but constantly overhear people refer to them o Culturally endorsed beliefs were the highest – either scientific or fantastical o Individual causal reasoning when children asked, “how do you know?”:  Children appeal to causal explanations for explaining the existence of endorsed beings and scientific entities  E.g., “I believe in the tooth fairy because I got money under my pillow” “God answered my prayer” “I didn’t wash my hands and got sick” o Generalisation (causal reasoning) was the highest in endorsed and scientific o Encounter (direct experience) was highest in equivocal o Encounter and source (testimony of others) was lowest in endorsed and scientific o Causal reasoning/explanation underlined their belief or lack of belief in these entities (both endorsed, scientific, or equivocal)

Forms of Social Transmission 

Harris (2012) o Professions of belief:  “I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth”  Does not take God’s existence for granted – you are professing that you believe  Conclusion  some people may not believe o Warnings  Scientific entities use warnings – which do take the existence of these entities for granted  “Wear a mask! Go wash your hands, there are germs”  Takes existence for granted  Conclusion  all prudent people believe

Who to Trust? What to Believe?   

Corriveau & Harris (2009) Whom to trust – e.g., familiarity bias – trust those you know from a very early age o Prefer to learn from someone familiar to us What to believe – if a familiar adult is clearly inaccurate, then distrust (by age 4-5) o Children can over-rise these social transmission biases (Corriveau & Harris, 2009)  If an adult gives an inaccurate response, by age 4-5 a child will learn to distrust this adult  Child uses deduction and knowledge skills

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o This works well when the claim is easily disconfirmed Children and adults are having to balance these two forces, who to trust and what to believe?

Religious Beliefs as Causal Explanations  

Causal explanations make religions appear more ‘real’ Legare, Evans et al. (2012) o Tend to invoke a hidden or unobservable causal agent to explain an event (e.g., God healed my daughter) o Tend to be associated with strong emotion (e.g., was worried, the outcome was surprising) o Embedded in specific cultural practices and narratives that predate current scientific thinking (e.g., Judeo-Christian narrative filled with stories of miracles) o These 3 factors help to reinforce belief

Different Sorts of Religious Beliefs  

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2 classes of religious belief Intuitive belief – not necessarily orthodox o “I reveal myself to God through prayer”  Need to convey thoughts to God, as opposed to them already knowing everything o “God gets sad when I disobey them” o “I talk with God as one Person”  Based on automatic, online thinking  Tend to be more universal, emerge spontaneously, involve anthropomorphism (see God as one specific person)  How people usually think Official doctrine- reflective or “theologically correct beliefs” o God knows all o God is unchanging  Based in reflective, doctrinal thinking  Locally distinctive, often counter-intuitive, require faithful transmission to preserve (e.g., scripture)  How people are supposed to think o Could argue that you do not need to pray to God as they know everything already

Successful Supernatural Agents  

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Barrett, 2000; Barrett & Nyhoff, 2001; Boyer, 1996, 2001 Supernatural agents are successful when they are minimally counterintuitive ideas/agents o They need to be a natural concept + a counter-intuitive feature o E.g., a person who cannot die They violate at least one category assumption, but no more Have an advantage in attention and memory (e.g., excites interest)

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This helps explain which ideas get paid attention to and transmitted Ghosts = minimally counterintuitive o Natural ontological category = person  Normal psychology and biology o Counterintuitive property = pass through walls  Violation of intuitive physics o 34% of British believe in ghosts; 39% believe a house can be haunted (YouGov, 2014) Supernatural stimuli (counterintuitive features) o Violations or transfers of intuitive ontology

Discussion    

Minimally counter-intuitive (MCIs) are memorable in supportive contexts (e.g., reading a sacred text; Upal et al., 2007) Helps explain why some representational content are attentionally salient and memorable, and thus get widely transmitted But does not explain why people believe in them or commit their lives to them – something more is needed You can notice or recall something without having deep belief in it...