Charismatic Signalling

Authors

  • Joseph Bulbulia Victoria University of Wellington

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/jsrnc.v3i4.518

Keywords:

affordance, automaticity, convention, culture, evolution, mirroring, morality, priming, religion, signaling, synchrony, stag hunt, Theory of Mind

Abstract

The following describes an evolutionary model for religious cooperation called “synchronous-signaling.” The core motivation for synchronous signaling comes from an appreciation that large-scale cooperation requires a widespread predictability in the cooperative responses of anonymous cohort. The model is based on evidence that elements of religious culture - including its music, dance, postures, prayers, and other regimes – reliably automate cooperation. This automation aligns affective, motivational, and intentional dispositions of anonymous exchange partners toward common cooperative goals. The model also explains why old religions are especially effective at securing cooperative outcomes, among unfamiliar partners.

Author Biography

  • Joseph Bulbulia, Victoria University of Wellington
    Victoria University of Wellington

References

Alcorta, C., and R. Sosis. 2005. ‘Ritual, Emotion, and Sacred Symbols: The Evolution of Religion as an Adaptive Complex’, Human Nature 16.4: 323-59. doi:10.1007/s12110-005-1014-3.

Alvard, M.S., and D.A. Nolin. 2002. ‘Rousseau’s Whale Hunt? Coordination among Big-Game Hunters’, Current Anthropology 43.4: 533-59. doi:10.1086/341653.

Atran, S. 2002. In Gods We Trust: The Evolutionary Landscape of Religion (Oxford: Oxford University Press).

Atran, S., and R. Axelrod. 2008. ‘Reframing Sacred Values’, Negotiation Journal 24.3: 221-46. doi:10.1111/j.1571-9979.2008.00182.x.

Atran, S., R. Axelrod, and R. Davis. 2007. ‘Sacred Barriers to Con_ict Resolution’, Science 317: 1039-140. doi:10.1126/science.1144241.

Baldwin, M.W., S.E. Carrell, and F. Lopez. 1990. ‘Priming Relationship Schemas: My Advisor and the Pope are Watching me from the Back of my Mind’, Social Psychology 26: 235-54.

Bargh, J.A. 1997. ‘The Automaticity of Everyday Life’, Advances in Social Cognition 10: 1-48.

Bargh, J.A., M. Green, and C. Fitzsimons. 2008. ‘The Sel_sh Goal: Unintended Consequences of Intended Goal Pursuits’, Social Cognition 26.5: 534-54. doi:10.1521/soco.2008.26.5.534.

Bateson, M., D. Nettle, and G. Roberts. 2006. ‘Cues of being Watched Enhance Cooperation in a Real-world Setting’, Biology Letters 2: 412-14. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2006.0509.

Baumgartner, T., K. Lutz, C.F. Schmidt, and L. Jäncke. 2006. ‘The Emotional Power of Music: How Music Enhances the Feeling of Affective Pictures’, Brain Research 1075.1: 151-64. doi:10.1016/j.brainres.2005.12.065.

Baumgartner, T., M. Heinrichs, and A. Vonlanthen. 2008. ‘Oxytocin Shapes the Neural Circuitry of Trust and Trust Adaptation in Humans’, Neuron 58: 639-50. doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2008.04.009.

Bering, J.M. 2006. ‘The Folk Psychology of Souls’, Behavioral and Brain Sciences 29: 453-98. doi:10.1017/S0140525X06009101.

Bering, J.M., K. McLeod, and T.K. Shackelforth. 2005. ‘Reasoning about Dead Agents Reveals Possible Adaptive Trends’, Human Nature 16: 360-81. doi:10.1007/s12110-005-1015-2.

Bicchieri, C. 2006. The Grammar of Society: The Nature and Dynamics of Social Norms (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

Boyer, P. 1994. The Naturalness of Religious Ideas: A Cognitive Theory of Religion (Berkeley: University of California Press).

———. 2001. Religion Explained: The Evolutionary Origins of Religious Thought (New York: Basic Books).

Boyer, P., and P. Lienard. 2006. ‘Why Ritualized Behaviour? Precaution Systems and Action Parsing in Developmental, Pathological and Cultural Rituals’, Behavioral and Brain Sciences 29.6: 595-613. doi:10.1017/S0140525X06009332.

Bulbulia, J. 2004a. ‘Religious Costs as Adaptations that Signal Altruistic Intention’, Evolution and Cognition 10.1: 19-38.

———. 2004b. ‘The Cognitive and Evolutionary Psychology of Religion’, Biology and Philosophy 18.5: 655-86. doi:10.1007/s10539-005-5568-6.

Bulbulia, J., and A. Mahoney. 2008. ‘Religious Solidarity: The Hand Grenade Experiment’, Journal of Cognition and Culture 8: 295-320.

Bulbulia, J., R. Sosis, E. Harris, R. Genet, C. Genet, and K. Wyman (eds.). 2008. The Evolution of Religion: Studies, Theories, and Critiques (Santa Margarita, CA: Collins Foundation Press).

Caildini, R., C. Kallgren, and R. Reno. 1990. ‘A Focus Theory of Normative Conduct: A Theoretical Refinement and Reevaluation of the Role of Norms in Human Behavior’. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology 24: 201-34.

Chen, D. 2007. ‘Islamic Resurgence and Social Violence during the Indonesian Financial Crisis’, in M. Gradstein and K.A. Konrad (eds.), Institutions and Norms in Economic Development (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press): 179-234.

Cronk, L. 1994. ‘Evolutionary Theories of Morality and the Manipulative use of Signals’, Zygon 29.1: 81-101. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9744.1994.tb00651.x.

Day, M. 2004. ‘Religion, Off-Line Cognition and the Extended Mind’, Journal of Cognition and Culture 4.1: 101-21. doi:10.1163/156853704323074778.

Decoster, J., and H.M. Claypool. 2004. ‘A Meta-Analysis of Priming Effects on Impression Formation Supporting a General Model of Informational Biases’, Personality and Social Psychology Review 8.1: 2-27. doi:10.1207/S15327957PSPR0801_1.

Deeley, P.Q. 2003. ‘Social, Cognitive, and Neural Constraints on Subjectivity and Agency: Implications’, PPP 10.2: 161-67.

Dubreuil, B. 2008. ‘Strong Reciprocity and the Emergence of Large-Scale Societies’, Philosophy of the Social Sciences 38.2: 192-210. doi:10.1177/0048393108315509.

Dunbar, R.I. 2003. ‘The Social Brain: Mind, Language and Society in Evolutionary Perspective’, Annual Review of Anthropology 32: 163-81. doi:10.1146/annurev.anthro.32.061002.093158.

Dworkin, R. 1993. Life’s Dominion: An Argument about Abortion and Euthanasia (London: HarperCollins).

Eliade, M. 1969. The Quest: History and Meaning in Religion (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).

Fehr, E., and U. Fischbacher. 2003. ‘The Nature of Human Altruism’, Nature 425: 785-91. doi:10.1038/nature02043.

Fiske, A.P., and P.E. Tetlock. 1997. ‘Taboo Trade-offs: Reactions to Transactions that Transgress the Spheres of Justice’, Political Psychology 18.2: 255-97. doi:10.1111/0162-895X.00058.

Forsythe, R., J.L. Horowitz, N.E. Savin, and M. Sefton. 1994. ‘Fairness in Simple Bargaining Experiments’, Games and Economic Behaviour 6: 347-69. doi:10.1006/game.1994.1021.

Foster, K.R., and H. Kokko. 2009. ‘The Evolution of Superstitious and Superstitionlike Behaviour’, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 276: 31-37. doi:10.1098/rspb.2008.0981.

Frith, C., and U. Frith. 2008. ‘Implicit and Explicit Processes in Social Cognition’, Neuron 60: 503-10. doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2008.10.032.

Frith, C., and T. Singer. 2008. ‘The Role of Social Cognition in Decision Making’, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 363.1511: 3875-86. doi:10.1098/rstb.2008.0156.

Gachter, S., and A. Falk. 2002. ‘Reputation and Reciprocity: Consequences for the Labour Relation’, Scandinavian Journal of Economics 104: 1-26. doi:10.1111/1467-9442.00269.

Gauthier, D. 1975. ‘Coordination’, Dialogue 14: 195-221.

Ginges, J., S. Atran, D. Medin, and K. Shikaki. 2007. ‘Sacred Bounds on Rational Resolution of Violent Political Con_ict’, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 104.18: 7357-60. doi:10.1073/pnas.0701768104.

Haley, K.J., and D.M.T. Fessler. 2005. ‘Nobody’s Watching? Subtle Cues Affect Generosity in an Anonymous Economic Game’, Evolution and Human Behaviour 26.3: 245-56. doi:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2005.01.002.

Harsanyi, J., and R. Selton. 1988. A General Theory of Equilibrium Selection in Games (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press).

Hat_eld, E., J.T. Cacioppo, and R.L. Rapson. 1993. ‘Emotional Contagion’, Current Directions in Psychological Science 2.3: 96-99. doi:10.1111/1467-8721.ep10770953.

Henrich, J. 2009. ‘The Evolution of Costly Displays, Cooperation, and Religion: Credibility Enhancing Displays and their Implications for Cultural Evolution’, Evolution and Human Behavior 30: 244-60. doi:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2009.03.005.

Hume, D. 1739. A Treatise of Human Nature (London: John Noon).

Iannaccone, L.R. 1992. ‘Sacri_ce and Stigma: Reducing Free-Riding in Cults, Communes, and Other Collectives’, Journal of Political Economy 100: 271-91. doi:10.1086/261818.

Irons, W. 1996. ‘Morality, Religion, and Evolution’, in W.M. Richardson (ed.), Religion and Science: History, Method, and Dialogue (New York: Routledge): 375-99.

———. 2001. ‘Religion as Hard-to-Fake Sign of Commitment’, in R. Nesse (ed.), Evolution and the Capacity for Commitment (New York: Russell Sage Foundation): 292-309.

Jensen, J. 2004. The Study of Religion in a New Key (Aarhus: Aarhus University Press).

Johnson, D., and J. Bering. 2009. ‘Hand of God, Mind of Man: Punishment and Cognition in the Evolution of Cooperation’, in J. Schloss and A. Plantinga (eds.), The ‘Nature’ of Belief: Scienti_c and Philosophical Perspectives on the Evolution of Religion (Oxford: Oxford University Press): 26-43.

Johnson, D.D.P. 2005. ‘God’s Punishment and Public Goods: A Test of the Supernatural Punishment Hypothesis in 186 World Cultures’, Human Nature 16.4: 410- 46. doi:10.1007/s12110-005-1017-0.

Johnson, D.D.P., and O. Kruger. 2004. ‘The Good of Wrath: Supernatural Punishment and the Evolution of Cooperation’, Political Theology 5.2: 159-76. doi:10.1558/poth.2004.5.2.159.

Keizer, K., S. Lindenberg, and L. Steg. 2008. ‘The Spreading of Disorder’, Science 322: 1681-85. doi:10.1126/science.1161405.

Krull, D.S., C.R. Seger, and D.H. Silvera. 2001. ‘On the Pro_ts and Perils of Guessing Right: Effects of Situational Expectations for Emotions on the Correspondence of Inferences’, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 37: 413-18. doi:10.1006/jesp.2000.1472.

Lee, Y.T., and V. Ottati. 1995. ‘Perceived In-Group Homogeneity as a Function of Group Membership Salience and Stereotype Threat’, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 21: 610-19. doi:10.1177/0146167295216007.

Mackie, D., T. Devos, and E.A. Smith. 2000. ‘Intergroup Emotions: Explaining Offensive Action Tendencies in an Intergroup Context’, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 79.4: 602-16. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.79.4.602.

Mahoney, A. 2008. ‘Theological Expressions as Costly Signals of Religious Commitment’, in Bulbulia et al. 2008: 161-66.

Norenzayan, A., and A. Shariff. 2008. ‘The Origin and Evolution of Religious Prosociality’, Science 322.58: 58-62. doi:10.1126/science.1158757.

Norris, P., and R. Inglehart. 2004. Sacred and Secular: Religion and Politics Worldwide (New York: Cambridge University Press).

Nowak, M. 2006. ‘Five Rules for the Evolution of Cooperation’, Science 314: 1560-63. doi:10.1126/science.1133755.

Petrovic, P., R. Kalisch, T. Singer, and R.J. Dolan. 2008. ‘Oxytocin Attenuates Affective Evaluations of Conditioned Faces and Amygdala Activity’, Journal of Neuroscience 28.26: 6607-15. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4572-07.2008.

Rilling, J.K., J.E. Dagenais, D.R. Goldsmith, A.L. Glenn, and G. Pagnoni. 2008. ‘Social Cognitive Neural Networks during In-group and Out-group Interactions’, Neuroimage 41: 1447-61. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2008.03.044.

Roes, F.L., and M. Raymond. 2003. ‘Belief in Moralizing Gods’, Evolution and Human Behaviour 24: 126-35. doi:10.1016/S1090-5138(02)00134-4.

Rousseau, J. 1984 [1754]. A Discourse on Inequality (trans. M. Cranston; New York: Penguin Books).

Schelling, T. 1960. The Strategy of Con_ict (New York: Oxford University Press).

Schjødt, U., A. Geertz, H. Stødkild-Jørgensen, and A. Roepstorff. 2009. ‘Highly Religious Participants Recruit Areas of Social Cognition in Personal Prayer’, Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience 4.2: 199-207. doi:10.1093/scan/nsn050.

Schjødt, U., H. Stødkilde-Jørgensen, A.W. Geertz, and A. Roepstorff. 2008. ‘Rewarding Prayers’, Neuroscience Letters 443.3: 165-68. doi:10.1016/j.neulet. 2008.07.068.

Schloss, J. 2008. ‘He Who Laughs Best: Involuntary Religious Affect as a Solution to Recursive Cooperative Defection’, in Bulbulia et al. 2008: 197-207.

Schmidt, R. 2007. ‘Apprehending the Absent Present’, Journal of Anthropological Psychology 18: 33-36.

Seger, C.R., E.A. Smith, and D. Mackie. 2008. ‘Subtle Activation of a Social Categorisation Triggers Group-level Emotions’, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 45.3: 460-67. doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2008.12.004.

Shariff, A.F., and A. Norenzayan. 2007. ‘God is Watching You: Priming God Concepts Increases Prosocial Behaviour in an Anonymous Economic Game’, Psychological Science 18.9: 803-809. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.01983.x.

Skyrms, B. 2004. The Stag Hunt and the Evolution of Social Structure (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

Soler, M. 2008. ‘Commitment Costs and Cooperation: Evidence from Candomble, and Afro-Brazilian Religion’, in Bulbulia et al. 2008: 167-74.

Sosis, R. 2000. ‘Religion and Intragroup Cooperation: Preliminary Results of a Comparative Analysis of Utopian Communities’, Cross-Cultural Research 34.1: 77-88. doi:10.1177/106939710003400105.

———. 2003. ‘Why aren’t we all Hutterites?’, Human Nature 14.2: 91-127. doi:10.1007/s12110-003-1000-6.

Sosis, R., H. Kress, and J. Boster. 2007. ‘Scars for War’, Evolution and Human Behaviour 28: 234-47. doi:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2007.02.007.

Sosis, R., and B. Ruf_e. 2003. ‘Religious Ritual and Cooperation: Testing for a Relationship on Israeli Religious and Secular Kibbutzim’, Current Anthropology 44.5: 713-22. doi:10.1086/379260.

———. 2004. ‘Ideology, Religion, and the Evolution of Cooperation: Field Experiments on Israeli Kibbutzim’, Research in Economic Anthropology 23: 89-117.

Sperber, D. 1975. Rethinking Symbolism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

Sugden, R. 1995. ‘A Theory of Focal Points’, Economic Journal—London 105: 533-50.

———. 2003. ‘The Logic of Team Reasoning’, Philosophical Explorations 6: 165-81. doi:10.1080/10002003098538748.

Taves, A. 2009. Religious Experience Reconsidered: A Building Block Approach to the Study of Religion and Other Special Things (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press).

Tetlock, P.E., and M. Oppenheimer. 2008. ‘The Boundaries of the Thinkable’, Daedalus 137.2: 59-70. doi:10.1162/daed.2008.137.2.59.

Thagard, P. 2005. ‘The Emotional Coherence of Religion’, Journal of Cognition and Culture 5: 58-74. doi:10.1163/1568537054068642.

Thomas, M.G., T. Par_tt, D.A. Weiss, and K. Skorecki. 2000. ‘Y Chromosomes Traveling South: The Cohen Modal Haplotype and the Origins of the Lemba— the “Black Jews of Southern Africa”’, The American Journal of Human Genetics 66: 674-86. doi:10.1086/302749.

Trivers, R. 2002. ‘Self Deception in Service of Deceit: Selected Papers of Robert Trivers’, in R. Trivers (ed.), Natural Selection and Social Theory (New York: Oxford University Press): 255-93.

Van Huyck, J.B., R.C. Battalio, and R.O. Beil. 1990. ‘Tacit Coordination Games, Strategic Uncertainty, and Coordination Failure’, American Economic Review 80.1: 234-48.

Whitehouse, H. 2004. Modes of Religiosity: A Cognitive Theory of Religious Transmission (Lanham, MD: AltaMira Press).

Wild, B., M. Erb, and M. Bartels. 2001. ‘Are Emotions Contagious? Evoked Emotions while Viewing Emotionally Expressive Faces: Quality, Quantity, Time Course, and Gender Differences’, Psychiatry Research 102.2: 109-24. doi:10.1016/S0165-1781(01)00225-6.

Wild, B., M. Erb, M. Eyb, M. Bartels, and W. Grodd. 2003. ‘Why are Smiles Contagious? An fMRI Study of the Interaction between Perception of Facial Affect and Facial Movements’, Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging 123.1: 17-36. doi:10.1016/S0925-4927(03)00006-4.

Wiltermuth, S.S., and C. Heath. 2008. ‘Synchrony and Cooperation’, Psychological Science 20: 1-5. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02253.x.

Young, H.P. 1993. ‘The Evolution of Conventions’, Econometrica 61.1: 57-84. doi:10.2307/2951778.

Zak, P., A. Stanton, S. Ahmadi, and S. Brosnan. 2007. ‘Oxytocin Increases Generosity in Humans’, PLoS ONE 2.11: e1128.

Published

2010-02-08

How to Cite

Bulbulia, J. (2010). Charismatic Signalling. Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, 3(4), 518-551. https://doi.org/10.1558/jsrnc.v3i4.518

Most read articles by the same author(s)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 > >>