The moralization bias of gods' minds: a cross-cultural test

被引：25

作者：

Purzycki, Benjamin Grant ^{[1
]}

Willard, Aiyana K. ^{[2
]}

Klocova, Eva Kundtova ^{[3
]}

Apicella, Coren ^{[4
]}

Atkinson, Quentin ^{[5
,6
]}

Bolyanatz, Alexander ^{[7
]}

Cohen, Emma ^{[8
]}

Handley, Carla ^{[9
]}

Henrich, Joseph ^{[10
]}

Lang, Martin ^{[3
]}

Lesorogol, Carolyn ^{[11
]}

Mathew, Sarah ^{[9
]}

McNamara, Rita A. ^{[12
]}

Moya, Cristina ^{[13
]}

Norenzayan, Ara ^{[14
]}

Placek, Caitlyn ^{[15
]}

Soler, Montserrat ^{[16
]}

Vardy, Tom ^{[17
]}

Weigel, Jonathan ^{[18
]}

Xygalatas, Dimitris ^{[19
,20
]}

Ross, Cody T. ^{[21
]}

机构：

[1] Aarhus Univ, Dept Study Relig, Aarhus, Denmark

[2] Brunel Univ, Ctr Culture & Evolut, Uxbridge, Middx, England

[3] Masaryk Univ, LEVYNA, Brno, Czech Republic

[4] Univ Penn, Dept Psychol, 3815 Walnut St, Philadelphia, PA 19104 USA

[5] Univ Auckland, Dept Psychol, Auckland, New Zealand

[6] Max Planck Inst Sci Human Hist, Jena, Germany

[7] Coll DuPage, Chicago, IL USA

[8] Univ Oxford, Wadham Coll, Inst Human Sci, Oxford, England

[9] Arizona State Univ, Sch Human Evolut & Social Change, Tempe, AZ USA

[10] Harvard Univ, Dept Human Evolutionary Biol, Cambridge, MA 02138 USA

[11] Washington Univ, Dept Anthropol, St Louis, MI USA

[12] Victoria Univ Wellington, Sch Psychol, Wellington, New Zealand

[13] Univ Calif Davis, Dept Anthropol, Davis, CA 95616 USA

[14] Univ British Columbia, Psychol, Vancouver, BC, Canada

[15] Ball State Univ, Dept Anthropol, Muncie, IN 47306 USA

[16] Cleveland Clin, Ob Gyn & Womens Hlth Inst, Cleveland, OH 44106 USA

[17] London Sch Econ, Dept Int Dev, London, England

[18] Univ Auckland, Sch Psychol, Auckland, New Zealand

[19] Univ Connecticut, Dept Anthropol, Storrs, CT USA

[20] Univ Connecticut, Dept Psychol Sci, Storrs, CT USA

[21] Max Planck Inst Evolutionary Anthropol, Leipzig, Germany

来源：

RELIGION BRAIN & BEHAVIOR | 2022年 / 12卷 / 1-2期

关键词：

Supernatural punishment; morality; gods' minds; cognitive science of religion; SUPERNATURAL PUNISHMENT; PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOR; ASPERGER-SYNDROME; SIGNALING THEORY; RELIGION; BELIEF; COOPERATION; AUTISM; ADULTS; CUES;

D O I：

10.1080/2153599X.2021.2006291

中图分类号：

B9 [宗教];

学科分类号：

010107 ;

摘要：

There are compelling reasons to expect that cognitively representing any active, powerful deity motivates cooperative behavior. One mechanism underlying this association could be a cognitive bias toward generally attributing moral concern to anthropomorphic agents. If humans cognitively represent the minds of deities and humans in the same way, and if human agents are generally conceptualized as having moral concern, a broad tendency to attribute moral concern-a "moralization bias"-to supernatural deities follows. Using data from 2,228 individuals in 15 different field sites, we test for the existence of such a bias. We find that people are indeed more likely than chance to indicate that local deities care about punishing theft, murder, and deceit. This effect is stable even after holding beliefs about explicitly moralistic deities constant. Additionally, we take a close look at data collected among Hadza foragers and find two of their deities to be morally interested. There is no evidence to suggest that this effect is due to direct missionary contact. We posit that the "moralization bias of gods' minds" is part of a widespread but variable religious phenotype, and a candidate mechanism that contributes to the well-recognized association between religion and cooperation.

引用

页码：38 / 60

页数：23