Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-01T09:09:02.645Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Ideology as cooperative affordance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 January 2010

Joseph Bulbulia  and
Richard Sosis
Joseph Bulbulia
Affiliation:
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Victoria University, Wellington, New [email protected]/religion/staff/joseph_bulbulia/
Richard Sosis
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, U-2176, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269-2176. [email protected]/faculty/sosis/
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

McKay & Dennett (M&D) observe that beliefs need not be true in order to evolve. We connect this insight with Schelling's work on cooperative commitment to suggest that some beliefs – ideologies – are best approached as social goals. We explain why a social-interactive perspective is important to explaining the dynamics of belief formation and revision among situated partners.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 32 , Issue 6 , December 2009 , pp. 515 - 516
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alcorta, C. S. & Sosis, R. (2005) Ritual, emotion, and sacred symbos. Human Nature 16(4):323–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baumgartner, T., Lutz, K., Schmidt, C. F. & Jäncke, L. (2006) The emotional power of music: How music enhances the feeling of affective pictures. Brain Research 1075(1):151–64.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bulbulia, J. (2004a) Religious costs as adaptations that signal altruistic intention. Evolution and Cognition 10(1):19–38.Google Scholar
Bulbulia, J. (2009) Religiosity as mental time travel: Cognitive adaptations for religious behavior. In: The believing primate: Scientific, philosophical and theological perspectives on the evolution of religion, ed. Schloss, J. & Murray, M., pp. 44–75. Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bulbulia, J., (in press) Coordination by sacred cues :|. Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature, Culture.Google Scholar
Bulbulia, J. & Mahoney, A. (2008) Religious solidarity: The hand grenade experiment. Journal of Cognition and Culture 8:295–320.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deeley, P. Q., Identity, D. & Identity, R. P. (2003) Social, cognitive, and neural constraints on subjectivity and agency: Implications. Project Muse 10(2):161–67. Available at: muse.jhu.eduGoogle Scholar
Dennett, D. (1991) Consciousness explained. Little, Brown.Google Scholar
Festinger, L., Reicken, H. & Schachter, S. (1956) When prophecy fails. New York Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hove, M. & Risen, L. (in press) The in-synch effect: Interpersonal synchrony increases affiliation. Social Cognition.Google Scholar
Irons, W. (2008) Why people believe (what other people see as) crazy ideas. In: The evolution of religion: Studies, theories, and critiques, ed. Bulbulia, J., Sosis, R., Genet, R., Harris, E., Wyman, K. & Genet, C., pp. 51–60. Collins Foundation Press.Google Scholar
McKay, R. & Cipolotti, L. (2007) Attributional style in a case of Cotard delusion. Consciousness and Cognition 16(2):349–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schelling, T. (1960) The strategy of conflict. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Schjødt, U., Stødkilde-Jørgensen, H., Geertz, A. & Roepstorff, A. (submitted) The power of charisma: Perceived charisma inhibits the attentional and excecutive systems of believers in intercessory prayer.Google Scholar
Sosis, R. (2000) Religion and intragroup cooperation: Preliminary results of a comparative analysis of utopian communities. Cross-Cultural Research 34(1):77–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sosis, R. (2003) Why aren't we all Hutterites? Human Nature 14(2):91–127.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sosis, R. (2005) Does religion promote trust? The role of signaling, reputation, and punishment. Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion 1(1):1–30.Google Scholar
Taves, A. (2009) Religious experience reconsidered: A building block approach to the study of religion and other special things. Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wiltermuth, S. S. & Heath, C. (2008) Synchrony and cooperation. Psychological Science 20:1–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar