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HandWiki. Evolutionary Psychology of Religion. Encyclopedia. Available online: https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/35415 (accessed on 20 September 2026).
HandWiki. Evolutionary Psychology of Religion. Encyclopedia. Available at: https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/35415. Accessed September 20, 2026.
HandWiki. "Evolutionary Psychology of Religion" Encyclopedia, https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/35415 (accessed September 20, 2026).
HandWiki. (2022, November 21). Evolutionary Psychology of Religion. In Encyclopedia. https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/35415
HandWiki. "Evolutionary Psychology of Religion." Encyclopedia. Web. 21 November, 2022.
Evolutionary Psychology of Religion
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The evolutionary psychology of religion is the study of religious belief using evolutionary psychology principles. It is one approach to the psychology of religion. As with all other organs and organ functions, the brain's functional structure is argued to have a genetic basis, and is therefore subject to the effects of natural selection and evolution. Evolutionary psychologists seek to understand cognitive processes, religion in this case, by understanding the survival and reproductive functions they might serve.

religious belief evolutionary psychology religion

References

  1. Turner, Léon P. (2014). "9: Neither Friends nor Enemies: The Complex Relationship between Cognitive and Humanistic Accounts of Religious Belief". in Watts, Fraser; Turner, Léon P.. Evolution, Religion, and Cognitive Science: Critical and Constructive Essays. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 162. ISBN 9780199688081. https://books.google.com/books?id=HVX1AgAAQBAJ. Retrieved 26 July 2019. "It seems therefore, for Barrett at least, that universal sociocultural factors do have some role to play in the origins of all proto-god concepts [...]." 
  2. Compare for example: Griffin, Daniel F. (2008). "The Existence and General Characteristics of Our Universe". Greater Than Can Be Conceived: The Rationality of Belief in a God Beyond Comprehension. p. 75. https://books.google.com/books?id=UVoI8TurGrYC. Retrieved 26 July 2019. "As it is currently defined, proto-god has the potential to cause the existence of our universe, but as of yet we have no reason for thinking that it actually would." 
  3. Sosis, R.; Alcorta, C. (2003). "Signaling, solidarity, and the sacred: the evolution of religious behavior". Evolutionary Anthropology 12 (6): 264–274. doi:10.1002/evan.10120.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1002%2Fevan.10120
  4. Watts, Joseph; Greenhill, Simon J.; Atkinson, Quentin D.; Currie, Thomas E.; Bulbulia, Joseph; Gray, Russell D. (2015-04-07). "Broad supernatural punishment but not moralizing high gods precede the evolution of political complexity in Austronesia". Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences 282 (1804): 20142556. doi:10.1098/rspb.2014.2556. PMID 25740888.  http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=4375858
  5. Dávid-Barrett, Tamás; Carney, James (2015-08-14). "The deification of historical figures and the emergence of priesthoods as a solution to a network coordination problem". Religion, Brain & Behavior 6 (4): 307–317. doi:10.1080/2153599X.2015.1063001. ISSN 2153-599X.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1080%2F2153599X.2015.1063001
  6. Lindenfors, Patrik; Svensson, Jonas (2021-04-20). "Evolutionary explanations for religion: An interdisciplinary critical review" (in en). Research Ideas and Outcomes 7: e66132. doi:10.3897/rio.7.e66132. ISSN 2367-7163. https://riojournal.com/article/66132/. 
  7. The Oxford Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology, edited by Robin Dunbar and Louise Barret, Oxford University Press, 2007, Chapter 44: "The Evolution of Religion" by Joseph A. Bulbulia
  8. Sosis, Richard (2000). "Religion and Intragroup Cooperation: Preliminary Results of a Comparative Analysis of Utopian Communities". Cross-Cultural Research (SAGE Publishing) 34 (1): 70–87. doi:10.1177/106939710003400105.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1177%2F106939710003400105
  9. Sosis, Richard; Bressler, Eric R. (2003). "Cooperation and Commune Longevity: A Test of the Costly Signaling Theory of Religion". Cross-Cultural Research (SAGE Publishing) 37 (2): 211–239. doi:10.1177/1069397103037002003.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1177%2F1069397103037002003
  10. Haidt, Jonathan (2012). The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion. New York: Vintage Books. pp. 298–299. ISBN 978-0307455772. 
  11. [12][13][14][15]
  12. Nesse, Randolph M. (2009). "10. Social Selection and the Origins of Culture". in Schaller, Mark; Heine, Steven J.; Norenzayan, Ara et al.. Evolution, Culture, and the Human Mind. Philadelphia: Taylor & Francis. pp. 137–50. ISBN 978-0805859119. 
  13. Wilson, Edward O. (2007). The Social Conquest of Earth. Liveright. ISBN 978-0871403636. 
  14. Sosis, R.; Kress, H. C.; Boster, J. S. (2007). "Scars for war: evaluating alternative signaling explanations for cross-cultural variance in ritual costs". Evolution and Human Behavior 28 (4): 234–247. doi:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2007.02.007.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1016%2Fj.evolhumbehav.2007.02.007
  15. Koenig, Harold G.; Cohen, Harvey J. (2001). The Link between Religion and Health: Psychoneuroimmunology and the Faith Factor. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-514360-4. 
  16. Hagerty, Barbara (2009). "Can Positive Thoughts Help Heal Another Person?". National Public Radio. https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104351710. "Ironson says over time, those who turned to God after their diagnosis had a much lower viral load and maintained those powerful immune cells at a much higher rate than those who turned away from God." 
  17. Duenwald, Mary (May 7, 2002). "Religion and Health: New Research Revives an Old Debate". New York Times. https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E04E0DE1730F934A35756C0A9649C8B63. 
  18. "How Religion Can Improve Health". http://longevity.about.com/od/longevityboosters/a/religion_life.htm. 
  19. Gould, S. J. (1991). "Exaptation: a crucial tool for an evolutionary psychology". Journal of Social Issues 47 (3): 43–65. doi:10.1111/j.1540-4560.1991.tb01822.x.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1111%2Fj.1540-4560.1991.tb01822.x
  20. Atran, S; Norenzayan, A (2004). "Religion's evolutionary landscape: counterintuition, commitment, compassion, communion". The Behavioral and Brain Sciences (Behavioral and Brain Sciences) 27 (6): 713–30; discussion 730–70. doi:10.1017/s0140525x04000172. PMID 16035401. https://jeannicod.ccsd.cnrs.fr/ijn_00000596/file/ijn_00000596_02.pdf. 
  21. Lienard, P.; Boyer, P. (2006). "Whence collective rituals? A cultural selection model of ritualized behavior". American Anthropologist 108 (4): 824–827. doi:10.1525/aa.2006.108.4.814.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1525%2Faa.2006.108.4.814
  22. Barrett, Justin L. (2004). "3". Why Would Anyone Believe in God. ISBN 0-7591-0667-3. 
  23. Landau, M. J.; Solomon, S.; Pyszczynski, T.; Greenberg, J. (2007). "On the compatibility of terror management theory and perspectives on human evolution". Evolutionary Psychology 5 (3): 476–519. doi:10.1177/147470490700500303.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1177%2F147470490700500303
  24. Guthrie, Stewart Elliot (1995). Faces in the Clouds: A New Theory of Religion. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-506901-3. 
  25. Boyer, Pascal. "Functional Origins of Religious concepts". http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/anthro/bec/papers/boyer_religious_concepts.htm. 
  26. Boyer, Pascal (2001). Religion Explained: The Evolutionary Origins of Religious Thought. Basic Books. ISBN 0-465-00695-7. https://archive.org/details/religionexplaine00boye. 
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