Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T18:23:39.504Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The motivational underpinnings of religion

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 June 2005

Mark Jordan Landau*
Affiliation:
Psychology Department, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ85721-0068
Jeff Greenberg*
Affiliation:
Psychology Department, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ85721-0068
Sheldon Solomon*
Affiliation:
Psychology Department, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY12866

Abstract:

Terror management theory and research can rectify shortcomings in Atran & Norenzayan's (A&N's) analysis of religion. (1) Religious and secular worldviews are much more similar than the target article supposes; (2) a propensity for embracing supernatural beliefs is likely to have conferred an adaptive advantage over the course of evolution; and (3) the claim that supernatural agent beliefs serve a terror management function independent of worldview bolstering is not empirically supported.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2004

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.)