From individual to social counterintuitiveness: how layers of innovation weave together to form multilayered tapestries of human cultures

Upal, M. Afzal

doi:10.1007/s11299-011-0083-8

Cited by 6 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 37 publications

(29 reference statements)

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“…However, other studies suggest a more complex picture, showing that context might play a more important role in the memorability of individual concepts [30], [31], [32], [33], [34].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Experimental studies have suggested that the presence of mild violations of intuitive ontological expectations in either concept form or narrative material is optimal for human attention and memory, and thus beneficial for the transmission of those concepts [1] , [2] , [5] , [29] . However, other studies suggest a more complex picture, showing that context might play a more important role in the memorability of individual concepts [30] , [31] , [32] , [33] , [34] .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Memory for Expectation-Violating Concepts: The Effects of Agents and Cultural Familiarity

et al. 2014

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Previous research has shown that ideas which violate our expectations, such as schema-inconsistent concepts, enjoy privileged status in terms of memorability. In our study, memory for concepts that violate cultural (cultural schema-level) expectations (e.g., “illiterate teacher”, “wooden bottle”, or “thorny grass”) versus domain-level (ontological) expectations (e.g., “speaking cat”, “jumping maple”, or “melting teacher”) was examined. Concepts that violate cultural expectations, or counter-schematic, were remembered to a greater extent compared with concepts that violate ontological expectations and with intuitive concepts (e.g., “galloping pony”, “drying orchid”, or “convertible car”), in both immediate recall, and delayed recognition tests. Importantly, concepts related to agents showed a memory advantage over concepts not pertaining to agents, but this was true only for expectation-violating concepts. Our results imply that intuitive, everyday concepts are equally attractive and memorable regardless of the presence or absence of agents. However, concepts that violate our expectations (cultural-schema or domain-level) are more memorable when pertaining to agents (humans and animals) than to non-agents (plants or objects/artifacts). We conclude that due to their evolutionary salience, cultural ideas which combine expectancy violations and the involvement of an agent are especially memorable and thus have an enhanced probability of being successfully propagated.

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“…However, other studies suggest a more complex picture, showing that context might play a more important role in the memorability of individual concepts [30], [31], [32], [33], [34].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Memory for Expectation-Violating Concepts: The Effects of Agents and Cultural Familiarity

et al. 2014

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“…It has been suggested that what makes the social transmission of religious concepts successful is that they endorse attention-grabbing ontological violations (Boyer, 1994;Boyer & Walker, 2000). Such violations take place through the inclusion of minimally counterintuitive properties (Boyer, 1994;Norenzayan et al, 2006;Sperber, 1996;Upal, 2011) as the backdrop to a main ontological category. Such a category may be the human being, for example, which fits a Western Christian environment.…”

Section: Ontological Categories Of the Divine In Childhoodmentioning

confidence: 99%

Children’s God Representations: Are Anthropomorphic God Figures Only Human?

Dessart

2023

When Children Draw Gods

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In many religious traditions, anthropomorphism plays a central role in visual representations of the divine. As suggested by the notion of minimally counterintuitive properties (e.g., Boyer, Mapping the mind: Domain specificity in cognition and culture, New York, pp. 391–411, 1994), some peculiar ontological arrangements (e.g., ontological violations) tend to characterize religious representations. In the case of human-like God figures, such ontological peculiarities may consist of either: a combination of humanness and non-humanness (e.g., a human figure with wings), or a lack of central characteristics presenting qualities that are central to the human category (e.g., a face). The former corresponds to Guthrie’s (Faces in the clouds: A new theory of religion, New York, 1993) observation of the recurrent sameness-otherness combination with the human being to depict the divine. Such conceptual arrangements may change across a child’s development. However, research on children’s God representations has systematically considered anthropomorphic figures as distinct from non-anthropomorphic ones. The current work proposes a revised developmental model that accounts for domain-specific properties used by children to signify the special position of God as compared to human beings. That model is particularly appropriate to consider God representations as depicted in children’s drawings.

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Semantic network mapping of religious material: testing multi-agent computer models of social theories against real-world data

Lane

2015

Cogn Process

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Agent-based modeling allows researchers to investigate theories of complex social phenomena and subsequently use the model to generate new hypotheses that can then be compared to real-world data. However, computer modeling has been underutilized in regard to the understanding of religious systems, which often require very complex theories with multiple interacting variables (Braxton et al. in Method Theory Study Relig 24(3):267-290, 2012. doi: 10.1163/157006812X635709 ; Lane in J Cogn Sci Relig 1(2):161-180, 2013). This paper presents an example of how computer modeling can be used to explore, test, and further understand religious systems, specifically looking at one prominent theory of religious ritual. The process is continuous: theory building, hypothesis generation, testing against real-world data, and improving the model. In this example, the output of an agent-based model of religious behavior is compared against real-world religious sermons and texts using semantic network analysis. It finds that most religious materials exhibit unique scale-free small-world properties and that a concept's centrality in a religious schema best predicts its frequency of presentation. These results reveal that there adjustments need to be made to existing models of religious ritual systems and provide parameters for future models. The paper ends with a discussion of implications for a new multi-agent model of doctrinal ritual behaviors as well as propositions for further interdisciplinary research concerning the multi-agent modeling of religious ritual behaviors.

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From individual to social counterintuitiveness: how layers of innovation weave together to form multilayered tapestries of human cultures

Abstract: Cognition and culture, Cognitive science of religion, Memory, Counterintuitive concepts,

Cited by 6 publications

References 37 publications

Memory for Expectation-Violating Concepts: The Effects of Agents and Cultural Familiarity

Memory for Expectation-Violating Concepts: The Effects of Agents and Cultural Familiarity

Children’s God Representations: Are Anthropomorphic God Figures Only Human?

Semantic network mapping of religious material: testing multi-agent computer models of social theories against real-world data

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