Religious Costs as Adaptations that Signal Altruistic Intention

Abstract

Most cognitive psychologists explain supernatural understandings as cognitive by-products acquired in specific but fairly common cultural circumstances. This paper uses evolutionary game theory and the biology of animal signalling to promote a contrary view. It explains religious cognition as an exquisite adaptation that enhances individual reproductive success by facilitating reciprocal altruism. The key to understanding the design innovation of religious altruism lies in the specific costs that religious thought and practice impose on the believing organism. These costs play a strategic role in displaying authentic commitment to policies of social exchange, applying critical safeguards to defection from co-operative ventures. The following account explains a suite of otherwise anomalous cognitive features associated with religious thought, such as strong emotional responses to unseen persons and forces; belief in supernatural punishments and reward; illusions about the moral goodness of co-religionists and the vices of heretics; and dispositions to invest in expensive and wasteful ritual displays. The paper offers some testable predictions about the psychological architecture that generates religious thought and suggests some new horizons for psychological exploration.