Religion & Morality Flashcards
Why are atheists distrusted?
That they are viewed being untrustworthy because they lack
guiding moral rules from God
What is the cognitive science of religion (CSR)?
Religious belief and behavior are fundamentally reducible to
misfires of various cognitive modules = adaptive to
our survival
Cognitive modules are thought as “if then” statements
Importantly, some of these cognitive modules are tuned to
be oversensitive to maximize survival
• Agency detection (detecting potential agentic threats)
• “Hyper-active” agency detection (we are super-social mammals)
The cognitive byproduct theory of religion: When the cause of som
What is the cognitive byproduct theory of religion?
When the cause of something cannot be easily determined, we tend to assume that something invisible was behind the event
Through shared experiences and interpersonal communication, we come to agree on the existence of the same invisible agents (ancestral spirits, ghosts, gods)
Over time and across several generations, beliefs about these agents become ritualized and formalized into cultural belief systems and religions.
Are watched people good people?
What is the supernatural monitoring hypothesis?
Yes people’s prosociality is impacted by
face-related stimuli → Ex) eyes pasted on communal drinks
————————————————————————————
Believing there is an all seeing, all-knowing God out there judging you and deciding whether to send you to heaven or hell, leads to more moral actions, even when nobody is around
Children cheat less when there is a supernatural agent is said to be in the room ex) princess alice
Are religious people more pro social?
Religious (compared to non-religious) people report donating more money and time to both religious and non-religious causes
Behaviour and census data suggest that religious people actually behave more prosocially (smaller effect than self-reported prosociality)
What is religious priming?
Situationist approach
The “Sunday effect”: if you approach someone just after a visit to church on Sundays, they are more likely to agree to donate their time and money
Meta-analyses show that these experimental God priming effects are quite reliable
***THIS IS EVEN SEEN IN NON RELIGOUS PEOPLE
The relationship b/w religion and “_______” tends to be “______” to moderate
Why is this?
Crime; small
Methodological difficulties:
- predominate correlational studies
- relationship reduced when considering other factors
- relationship is most apparent in victimless activities (drug use)
True or false. Religion does not predict less non-marital sex
False
Frequent church goers reported less extramarital activities than non-attenders
Difference is highest for “very happy” married individuals, religion had no effect for “pretty happy” or “not too happy” people
What is the relationship b/w religion and abuse?
Understandings of what constitutes ’abuse’ makes studying the
relationship between religion and abuse difficult
Church attendance does predict less violence against one’s partner (similar with child abuse)
Some doctrines may dictate punishment, which may now be understood as abuse
What are the 3 deeds of the big gods?
Supernatural watchers that…
(a) demand passionate commitment,
(b) meddle in people’s affairs
(c) reward/punish good/bad deeds
How is anonymity a threat to large groups?
Free loader problem
Social monitoring —> social order
What are the 8 principles of the big gods?
- Watched people
are nice people - Religion is more
in the situation
than in the person - Hell is stronger
than heaven - Trust people
who trust in God - Religious actions
speak louder than
words - Unworshipped
Gods are impotent
Gods - Big Gods for big
groups - Religious groups
cooperate in order
to compete
How is religion more in the situation than in the person?
Religion is generally more impactful situationally vs. dispositionally
Ex) Good Samaritan study
- when our priorities are at need we will be more selfish
- time, not type of talk mattered
Self-report vs. Behavioral
Primes
What do Buddhist primes tend to do?
Tend to increase compassion for a variety of outgroups
Buddhists and non-Buddhists as participants
How is hell stronger than heaven?
Supernatural punishment hypothesis:
Punishing aspects of supernatural agents and the threats of
divine punishment keep believers from acting immorally in
anonymous situations, not the loving/compassionate traits associated with the agent
Data from an international database also supports this idea
***NEED THIS FEAR TO ACT MORALLY