Journal Article10.1558/jcsr.23578
Religion Devolving?
TL;DR: Religion Evolving book offers a clear operationalization of religion and emphasizes interdisciplinary approaches. It also makes strides in overcoming polarizing debates and argues for the importance of attending to the conditions under which religion can become maladaptive.
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Abstract: This article highlights several of the valuable contributions in Religion Evolving by Benjamin Purzycki and Richard Sosis (2022) and offers some material and methodological reflections that are intended to complement their efforts. Their book offers a clear and useful operationalization of religion, emphasizes the importance of interdisciplinary approaches to the phenomena in question, and makes great strides in overcoming the polarizing debate between proponents of the “by-product” and “adaptationist” camps in the cognitive and evolutionary science of religion. The bulk of the current article argues for the importance of building on their efforts by also attending to the conditions under which – and the mechanisms by which – religion can become “maladaptive” in contemporary contexts.
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References
The Relation Between Intelligence and Religiosity: A Meta-Analysis and Some Proposed Explanations
TL;DR: A meta-analysis of 63 studies showed a significant negative association between intelligence and religiosity, stronger for college students and the general population than for participants younger than college age; it was also stronger for religious beliefs than religious behavior.
The evolution of religion and morality: a synthesis of ethnographic and experimental evidence from eight societies
Benjamin Grant Purzycki,Joseph Henrich,Coren L. Apicella,Quentin D. Atkinson,Adam Baimel,Emma Cohen,Rita Anne McNamara,Aiyana K. Willard,Dimitris Xygalatas,Ara Norenzayan +9 more
TL;DR: This article used an experimental economic game to test whether or not individually held mental models of moralistic, punishing, and knowledgeable gods curb biases in favor of the self and the local community, and increase impartiality toward geographically distant anonymous co-religionists.
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The behavioral ecology of religion: the benefits and costs of one evolutionary approach
Richard Sosis,Joseph Bulbulia +1 more
TL;DR: It is argued that despite its limitations, behavioral ecology can offer important benefits to religious scholarship by providing a coherent and powerful framework for generating, testing and discarding hypotheses about specific aspects of religious behaviors and cultures.
75
Sexual prejudice, sexism, and religion.
Chana Etengoff,Tyler G Lefevor +1 more
TL;DR: The contributing factors to this relationship, such as authoritarianism and fundamentalism, are described, which interact at the dynamic nexus of individual and social development.
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