Religiosity and evolutionary psychiatry.

Question 1

Some see religion as group-level cultural adaptation for cooperation.

Answer 1

adaptation that has persisted because religious groups are better able to cooperate

Question 2

best definition?

Answer 2

religiosity involves belief in the importance of acting in harmony with purposeful higher power(s).

Question 3

‘Existential theory of mind’

Answer 3

ToM towards the universe instead of other people.

Question 4

see religiosity as a by-product of adaptations for social cognition (e.g. theory of mind, agency detection):

Answer 4

As hyper social organisms we constantly ‘mind-read’, and attribute agency and intention.

Question 5

Barrett (2004) sees religiosity as a product of ‘hyperactive agency detection’.
(HADD)

Answer 5

Interpreting a radon bad event as divine punishment is often common in the causes of natural disasters.

Question 6

Literal hyperactive agency detection

Answer 6

seeing actual religious agents in everyday objects.
Hyperactive agency detection is often non-religious too (e.g. pareidolia) - seeing faces in everyday objects.

This by-product view may ultimately prove to be the best evolutionary explanation for religiosity.
We can’t help but try and explain the universe in terms of some sort of intentional source.

Question 7

Religiosity could also be adaptive:

Answer 7

There is a well established link between religiosity and ‘well-being’.
mental/physical health, survival.

Question 8

Possible explanation for religiosity-health correlation:

Answer 8

Organised religion offers benefits of social support.
It is well established that social support is good for health (Hawkley & Cacioppo, 2010).
Religious people have good access to social support via attendance to religious services.
Religious attendance is positively related to health (Powell et al., 2003).

Question 9

If so, then attendance at an ‘atheist church’ should also relate to positive wellbeing.

Answer 9

This prediction was supported in the ‘Sunday Assembly’ study (Price and Launay, 2018).
Results suggest that although religious social support entails health benefits, support needs not be ‘religious’ to be beneficial.

Even if religious attendance has no unique benefits, what about religious belief?
Some claim that ‘scientific faith’ is as healthy as religious faith (Farias et al., 2013).

Question 10

Price and Johnson suggest that religious belief does entail unique benefits.

Answer 10

Religiosity as Biocultural Adaptive Motivational System (BAMS).
Output: ‘motivating outlooks’ i.e. optimism and sense of purpose.
These outlooks:
Promote motivated goal striving, especially under stress/uncertainty.
Core components of mental/physical well-being.

Question 11

Key motivational component of modern religio-spiritual systems: Price.

Answer 11

Belief in teleological benevolence (BTB).
BTB - belief that that life ultimately follows a benevolent plan of dominant religious power. (God, Karma, the universe).
‘Ultimately benevolent’ = consistent with one’s own long-term well-being.

Question 12

Why is BTB motivating?

Answer 12

Teleological aspect: purpose in life and the purpose of life - higher purpose.
Ultimate benevolence: optimism, setbacks are only temporary (everything happens for a reason).
Psychologists see sense of purpose and optimism as motivation mechanisms (Carver and Scheier, 2014).
Make your goals seem more achievable, worth striving for.

Question 13

All three predictions which were supported?

Answer 13

BAMS: Self-described religiosity > BTB > Motivating outlooks. - explained more.

Alternative 1: Self-described religiosity > Religious social support > Motivating outlooks.

Alternative 2: Scientific belief > Motivating outlooks.

Question 14

Nesse (2015) asks why we are so vulnerable to psychological disorders.
He gives 6 reasons:

Answer 14

Mismatch
Infection, parasites.
Trade-offs
Constraints
Selection is for reproductive success, not health.
Defenses.

Question 15

Mismatch -

Answer 15

Some addictions and OCD-type disorders may represent ‘diseases of civilization’.
Novelty of drugs and alcohol.
Abundance of calories; other dietary issues.
Prevalence of opportunities for gambling.
Novel difficulties in risk-assessment (gerns).

Novel social structure (another form of mismatch):
More severe inequality.
More social isolation: loneliness is a serious public health problem.

Question 16

Infection, Parasites:

Answer 16

Infection may lead to a surprisingly wide variety of disease, including psychological dysfunction.
Toxoplasmosis infection has been linked to depression, anxiety, OCD…
Some parasites may take control of hosts (e.g. rabies).

STI’s - in theory could help spread itself by increasing sexual activity in the host (Nesse and Foxman 2011).
May explain why STIs are especially likely to reduce fertility (Apari et al., 2014).
If you have low fertility, you may be more likely to have sex and keep trying to get pregnant, therefore the STI is more likely to spread.

Question 17

Trade-offs:

Answer 17

You cannot have an organism that is optimally designed in terms of every single adaptation that composes it.
The ‘perfect’ design is impossible.
Human infants could be born less helpless, with a bigger brain, but at the cost of a smaller brain or a less mobile mother.
Zero anxiety could reduce stress, but at what cost?

Question 18

Constraints:

Answer 18

Evolution must work with available materials (bones break, but evolution cannot make bones out of titanium).
Evolution is also a blind watchmaker, designs can be sub-optimal because it has to work with materials that are available organically.

Question 19

Selection for reproductive success, not health.

Answer 19

Thus, we get some of our least valued characteristics such as bitter competition, envy, gree and sexual jealousy.
Often at the expense of longevity and mental well-being.

Question 20

Defences:

Answer 20

Cough, fever, pain, diarrhoea.
Many negative emotions can be conceptualised as defences (e.g. disgust, fear, anger, anxiety, greif).
Greif is important to reduce threat.
Positive emotions can be fatal in dangerous situations.

Congenital Insensitivity to Pain (CIP; congenital analgesia).
Caused by mutation in a single gene.
Chronic pain is terrible, but so is CIP (constantly harm yourself) because you can’t feel pain).
Makes functionality of pain very clear.
- ILLNESSES AS BY-PRODUCTS.

Question 21

Watson and Andrews (2002) regard depression as an adaptation with two functions:

Answer 21

functions:
Rumination - work out solutions to problems - overthink.
Social motivation - obtain social support and concessions from other people in your social env.
Symptoms may be problem specific design features, such as pessimism (rumination) vs crying (social).

Question 22

Postpartum depression has been explained in terms of parental investment (Hagen 2002)

Answer 22

• social motivation link.
  Mechanism for eliciting investment and support from others, like going on strike.

However, Nettle (2004) argues that depression is not an adaptation.
It has high heritability.
Often triggered inappropriately; sparse evidence of good design.
Causes poor social outcomes; people who lack it dont seem to suffer reduced fitness.

Nettle proposes that depression is instead a by-product of normal distribution of genes for low mood.

Similar explanation for schizophrenia (Nettle and Clegg, 2006).
1% incidence cross-culturally; heritable and debilitating.
In small doses, the genes that cause schizo might be functional and enhance creativity.

Question 23

Anxiety and phobias -

Answer 23

Nesse (2015) describes ‘smoke detector principle’ in relation to anxiety and similar defences.
This means that it is better to have a false alarm than no alarm to a real threat; anxiety responses protect us against costly, but rare, harms.
E.g. you might mistake a stick for a snake.

Question 24

What about hypophobia (lack of normal fear)?

Answer 24

Poulton et al (1998): fear of heights (extreme form = acrophobia) early experience of a fall? Correlational study:
In the control group (no early fall), 18% of adults had this fear.
In the early fall group, 3% had it.
Opposite of prediction - reduced fear is linked to increased risk.
Lack of fear in these areas are considered dangerous.

However, some fears are learned (via evolved mechanisms).
E.g. Rhesus monkeys learn fear of snakes by watching videos of other monkeys being afraid, but not flowers in these same conditions.

Question 25

Drug use and addiction:

Answer 25

Most common exp is mismatch: novel chemical substances ‘hijack’ the brain’s reward systems (stimulate the production of dopamine and serotonin).

Question 26

Others suggest that drug use is adaptive (Hagen and Tushingham, 2019).

Answer 26

Drugs like nicotine, cocaine, THC and opiates are plant neurotoxins that evolved to deter herbivores.
Humans mights have evolved to counter-exploit plant neurotoxins to fight pathogens.
E.g. heavier cannabis smokers among Aka have fewer ‘worms’ (helminths) (Roulette et al., 2015).

Question 27

ADHD (attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder).

Answer 27

Trouble focusing in regimented environments.
5x more common in males - may be relates to hunting, reacting to danger, ‘response readiness’ (Nesse 2015). - mismatch?
DRD4 gene is ADHD associated - linked to better health in nomadic (male) populations, worse health in settled (male) pops (Eisenberg et al., 2008). - Trade-off?

Question 28

SeXual disorders (Troisi, 2008).

Answer 28

Reflects sex diffs in mating preferences - (e.g. sociosexuality) more generally.
Paraphilia (sexual arousal to atypical objects, situations or indivs) more common in males.
Sexyal dysfunction (lack of sexual interest) is more common in females.
That is, ‘over-arousal’ is more of a problem for males, and ‘under-arousal’ is more of a problem for females.

Question 29

Theory of mind and ‘mentalizing’ -

Answer 29

Autism = lack of ToM = extreme ‘male brain’ (Baron-Cohen 2002).
Psychosis and schizo = excessing ToM = perceiving hidden intentions leads to paranoia and delusions = extreme ‘female brain’ (Badcock and Crespi, 2008).

Psychopathy and Ant-social behaviour disorder (ASBD).
Also related to low ToM and empathy.
Several times more common in males (Troisi, 2008).

Some illnesses could plausibly be understood as adaptations -
Pp depression, morning sickness - protect foetus from toxins during first trimester.