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The Religious System as Adaptive: Cognitive Flexibility, Public Displays, and Acceptance

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The Biological Evolution of Religious Mind and Behavior

Part of the book series: The Frontiers Collection ((FRONTCOLL))

Abstract

Religion is often conceived as a conservative social force that sustains traditional cultural beliefs and behaviors. Religion, however, also exhibits predictable socioecological variation and facilitates adaptive response patterns in the diverse environments that humans inhabit. Here we examine how the religious system, which is composed of a number of interacting components, generates adaptive response patterns. We argue that the religious system accomplishes this by: (1) employing highly flexible cognitive mechanisms, (2) evoking emotional responses that provide reliable information concerning individual physical and psychological states, (3) supporting specialists who introduce religious ideas that endorse and sustain the social order, and (4) encouraging collective acceptance of these ideas with public displays, typically in the form of rituals, badges, and taboos. These interacting components of the religious system ultimately promote prosocial behavior under diverse conditions.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Candace Alcorta, Susie DiVietro, Jessica McCutcheon, and John Shaver for helpful comments and the Russell Sage Foundation and John Templeton Foundation for generous funding of this research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology, University of Connecticut, 354 Mansfield Road, Storrs, CT, USA

    Benjamin Grant Purzycki & Richard Sosis

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  1. Benjamin Grant Purzycki
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  2. Richard Sosis
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Zentrum für Philosophie und, Universität Gießen, Otto-Behaghel-Str. 10, Gießen, 35394, Germany

    Eckart Voland

  2. MPI für Ornithologie, Von-der-Tann-Str. 3, Andechs, 82346, Germany

    Wulf Schiefenhövel

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Purzycki, B.G., Sosis, R. (2009). The Religious System as Adaptive: Cognitive Flexibility, Public Displays, and Acceptance. In: Voland, E., Schiefenhövel, W. (eds) The Biological Evolution of Religious Mind and Behavior. The Frontiers Collection. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-00128-4_17

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