PSYC 307 Lecture Notes - Lecture 18: Teleology, Anthropomorphism
Document Summary
Supernatural punishment: belief that sna punish cheaters/moral norm violators. Supernatural monitoring: belief that sna are watching (know all, see all) Boyer (2001) the subset of all the information that activates the mental systems tat regulate social interaction (p. 152) Muslim god doesn"t allow you to eat pork, it"s a sin to do so. Sna work as punishers because they have access to this information. Evidence: reminders of sna punishment reduces cheating, increases awareness of own social actions. Believers tend to be more likely to use costly punishment. Systems that regulate social interaction includes theory of mind must be able to imagine a mind (sna) you can"t see, infer what they know, predict their actions. People with autism are less likely to be believers. Cognitive science of religion: belief as natural by-product of tom. Anthropomorphism: seeing human traits in non-human things (rustling of a bush, inferring that there is a danger around you, inferring humans when there are no humans around)
