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Rituals are rational for the imperfect experimentalist

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 February 2007

M. D. Rutherford
M. D. Rutherford*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4K1, Canada www.science.mcmaster.ca/psychology/rutherford
*
[email protected]
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Abstract

Humans are, by design, imperfect experimentalists. The cost of testing each step of a process exceeds the benefit of knowing which steps can be eliminated. To an outsider who knows which steps are superfluous, the actors appear superstitious, even ridiculous. Nonetheless, the exact duplication of all steps is rational for the imperfect experimentalist. The case of ritual in autism illustrates this point.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 29 , Issue 6 , December 2006 , pp. 628 - 629
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

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