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Religious thought and behaviour as
by-products of brain function
Pascal Boyer
Departments of Anthropology and Psychology, Washington University in St Louis, MO 63130, St Louis, USA
Religious concepts activate various functionally distinct made in the description of these different systems and
mental systems, present also in non-religious contexts, their contribution to the naturalness of religious beliefs.
and tweak the usual inferences of these systems. They
A limited catalogue of the supernatural
deal with detection and representation of animacy and
Religious notions are products of the supernatural
agency, social exchange, moral intuitions, precaution
against natural hazards and understanding of misfor- imagination. To some extent, they owe their salience
(likelihood of activation) and transmission potential to
tune. Each of these activates distinct neural resources
or families of networks. What makes notions of super- features that they share with other supernatural concepts,
such as found in dreams, fantasy, folktales and legends.
natural agency intuitively plausible? This article reviews
This might be why one finds recurrent templates in
evidence suggesting that it is the joint, coordinated
religion despite many variations between cultures (see
activation of these diverse systems, a supposition that
Table 1 on misleading notions about cultural similarities
opens up the prospect of a cognitive neuroscience of
and differences). Imagination in general is strongly
religious beliefs.
constrained [10]. Supernatural concepts are informed by
very general assumptions from domain concepts such as
Religious beliefs and practices are found in all human
person, living thing, man-made object [11,12]. A spirit is a
groups. What makes religion so natural ? A common
special kind of person, a magic wand a special kind of
temptation is to search for the origin of religion in general
artefact, a talking tree a special kind of plant. Such notions
human urges, for instance in people s wish to escape
are salient and inferentially productive because they
misfortune or mortality or their desire to understand the
combine (i) specific features that violate some default
universe. However, these accounts are often based on
expectations for the domain with (ii) expectations held by
incorrect views about religion (see Table 1) and the
default as true of the entire domain [9] (see Fig. 1).
psychological urges are often merely postulated [1,2].
Recent findings in psychology, anthropology and neuro- For example, the familiar concept of a ghost combines
(i) socially transmitted information about a physically
science offer a more empirical approach, focused on the
counter-intuitive person (disembodied, can go through
mental machinery activated in acquiring and representing
walls, etc.), and (ii) spontaneous inferences afforded by the
religious concepts [1,3 7]. This approach suggests three
crucial changes to common views of religion:
(1) Most of the relevant mental machinery is not
consciously accessible. People s explicitly held, con-
Ghost entered room
sciously accessible beliefs, as in other domains of
through the wall !!!!!
cognition, only represent a fragment of the relevant
Person
processes. Experimental tests show that people s
+ counter-intuitive physics
actual religious concepts often diverge from what
they believe they believe [8]. This is why theologies,
Spirits never die !!!!!
explicit dogmas, scholarly interpretations of religion
Person
cannot be taken as a reliable description of either the
+ counter-intuitive biology
contents or the causes of people s beliefs [9];
(2) What makes religious thoughts natural might be the
This statue will listen
to your prayers !!!!!
operation of a whole collection of distinct mental
systems rather than a unique, specific process;
Artefact
+ animacy, psychology
(3) In each of these systems religious thoughts are not a
dramatic departure from, but a predictable by-
product of, ordinary cognitive function. TRENDS in Cognitive Sciences
In the past five years, substantial progress has been Fig. 1. Culturally widespread supernatural concepts (only the most frequent are
represented here) correspond to a small number of templates that combine [a]
activation of a domain concept with its default assumptions and [b] culturally
Corresponding author: Pascal Boyer (pboyer@artsci.wustl.edu). transmitted, limited violations of expectations for that domain.
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Table 1. Do s and dont s in the study of religion
Do not say& But say&
Religion answers people s metaphysical questions Religious thoughts are typically activated when people deal with concrete
situations (this crop, that disease, this new birth, this dead body, etc.)
Religion is about a transcendent God It is about a variety of agents: ghouls, ghosts, spirits, ancestors, gods, etc., in
direct interaction with people
Religion allays anxiety It generates as much anxiety as it allays: vengeful ghosts, nasty spirits and
aggressive gods are as common as protective deities
Religion was created at time t in human history There is no reason to think that the various kinds of thoughts we call religious all
appeared in human cultures at the same time
Religion is about explaining natural phenomena Most religious explanations of natural phenomena actually explain little but
produce salient mysteries
Religion is about explaining mental phenomena (dreams, In places where religion is not invoked to explain them, such phenomena are not
visions) seen as intrinsically mystical or supernatural
Religion is about mortality and the salvation of the soul The notion of salvation is particular to a few doctrines (Christianity and doctrinal
religions of Asia and the Middle-East) and unheard of in most other traditions
Religion creates social cohesion Religious commitment can (under some conditions) be used as signal of
coalitional affiliation; but coalitions create social fission (secession) as often as
group integration
Religious claims are irrefutable. That is why people believe There are many irrefutable statements that no-one believes; what makes some of
them them plausible to some people is what we need to explain
Religion is irrational/superstitious (therefore not worthy of Commitment to imagined agents does not really relax or suspend ordinary
study) mechanisms of belief-formation; indeed it can provide important evidence for
their functioning (and therefore should be studied attentively)
general person concept (the ghost perceives what happens, inference systems involved in the representation of
recalls what he or she perceived, forms beliefs on the basis ordinary agents.
As an illustration, concepts of gods and ancestors with
of such perceptions, and intentions on the basis of beliefs)
whom you can interact require a minor but consequen-
[13]. These combinations of explicit violation and tacit
tial tweaking of standard theory of mind. Normal adults
inferences are culturally widespread and may constitute a
pass standard false-belief tests because they assume a
memory optimum [11]. Associations of this type are
principle of imperfect information : that a situation s is
recalled better than more standard associations but also
the case does not entail that all agents represent s
better than oddities that do not include domain-concept
[19 21]. Social intelligence requires that we gauge other
violations [14,15]. The effect obtains regardless of exposure
agents true and false beliefs about the situation at hand.
to a particular kind of supernatural beliefs, and it has been
But supernatural agents are represented as simpler
replicated in different cultures in Africa and Asia [14].
intentional agents. They are tacitly construed as
perfect-access intentional agents [22] (if s is the case,
Informed agents and moral intuitions
then the god or spirit knows s).
A subset of the supernatural repertoire consists in
Another illustration is the way supernatural agents are
religious concepts proper, which are taken by many people
involved in moral judgments. Moral intuitions bind a
as, firstly, quite plausibly real and secondly, of great social
particular type of social interaction with a specific feeling
and personal importance. Religion is largely about inten-
[23,24], according to principles developed early in life [25].
tional agents [3] that one does not physically encounter.
The principles are implicit so that people often have
Far from being intrinsically irrational or delusive, the
definite moral intuitions that they cannot entirely explain.
capacity to imagine non-physically present agents and run
This explanatory background can be provided by religious
off-line social interaction with them can be said to be
concepts. Gods and ancestors are sometimes represented
characteristic of human cognition [16,17]. A good deal of
as legislators or moral exemplars but the most wide-
spontaneous reflection in humans focuses on past or future
spread connection with morality is that they are inter-
social interaction and on counterfactual scenarios. This
ested parties in moral judgments [6]. The ancestors know,
capacity to run off-line social interaction is already
for instance, what you are up to, know you feel bad about it,
present in young children [18]. Thinking about super-
and know that it is bad; the spirits know that you are
natural agents certainly activates such off-line capacities,
generous, know how proud you feel and know that that is
although in a particular way because most information
praiseworthy. A default assumption in such inferences is
about such agents is socially transmitted and they are seen
that gods and ancestors empathise with one s own moral
as quite real.
intuitions. One s own moral feelings are made easier to
What psychological processes create this intuition of
represent when construed as resulting from another
actual presence? Some psychologists of religion emphasize
agent s judgments, because of our intuitive capacity for
the role of salient personal experience, such as a vision or
emotional empathy [26].
trance (see Box 1). However, most religious people find
supernatural agents plausible without the benefit of such
Misfortune and death
experience. A possible explanation is that the represen-
A popular explanation of religion is that people create gods
tation of supernatural agents activates and modifies
and spirits to explain misfortune, accidents and disease in
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Box 1. Trance vs. doctrine: does salient experience shape ordinary practice?
In many different places around the world, rituals induce what are called
altered states of consciousness : trance, possession, meditation, and so
on (Fig. I). The techniques include self-stimulation, visual fixation,
verbal satiation, hyper-ventilation, mood-enhancing or hallucinogenic
drugs, sensory deprivation, and music [67]. How do such techniques
contribute to the creation, spread and intuitive plausibility of religious
notions?
Psychologists of religion have often suggested that the specific
phenomenology of such states inform religious notions [68], and
propose the following causal links:
(1) specific brain events in a particular person lead to specific
experience of supernatural entities or agents;
(2) a mystic s specific experience leads to that person s specific
concepts;
(3) the mystic s concepts lead to the group s religious tradition.
This is the path taken in the modern study of altered states of
consciousness, including the very few experimental studies of their
neural underpinnings [66].
Such studies might one day be able to document causal links 1 and 2
Fig. I. Two contrasted aspects of religious practice: (a) exceptional experience
above. But what about link 3? As anthropologists point out, most
(here darwish Muslim mystic) and (b) routinized worship (Christians in the
religious concepts in most minds at most times in most cultures are built
Philippines).
on the basis of other people s statements (e.g. the gods are awesome ),
sometimes completed by some personal experience (e.g. feeling awed
McCauley and E.T. Lawson call the high sensory pageantry of rituals
at the thought of the gods), and very seldom accompanied by any
that create exceptional emotional states, from elation to terror and from
mystical experience (e.g. of feeling the presence of the god). So it is
intense pleasure to excruciating pain [70]. By contrast, many rituals are
difficult to say whether extraordinary experience really has much impact
based on repetitive lessons. Why this difference? For McCauley and
on religious concepts. Many anthropologists argue that the phenom- E.T. Lawson, high sensory rituals have supernatural agents acting; low
enology of altered states is intrinsically indeterminate. Culturally sensory rituals are those in which they are being acted upon. The two
transmitted concepts are required to give the experience any content ritual modes perhaps also use two distinct resources of human
at all [69]. memory: salient perceptually encoded autobiographical events versus
The production of exceptional experience could be part of what R.N. conceptually integrated scripts [71].
particular, and that people need such explanations expected frequencies (e.g. this is the third time my
because they misunderstand probability. Psychologists house has been hit by lightning ).
have often described folk understandings of chance as This could explain why such events are remarkable but
irrational [27] although this is in fact mostly confined to not why agents are thought to be involved. A possible
situations where people represent the probability of a explanation is that many cases of misfortune are repre-
single event (versus judging the relative frequencies of sented in terms of social interaction in the first place,
multiple occurrences) [28]. Interestingly, many of the whether the person is religious or not. This might be a by-
events for which supernatural causes are invoked are product of the hypertrophy of social intelligence in
either represented as single events (e.g. death of a relative) humans, itself a reflection of how much human beings
or repeated misfortune that deviates strongly from depend on each other for survival [16]. Two facts seem to
Box 2. Magic, pollution, ritual and other obsessions
Magic and ritual the world over obsessively rehash the same themes, in contagion [73]. Rituals are often performed with a sense of urgency, an
particular concerns about pollution and purity [& ] contact avoidance; intuition that great danger would be incurred by not performing them.
special ways of touching; fears about immanent, serious sanctions for This particular emotional tenor of rituals might derive from their
rule violations; a focus on boundaries and thresholds [72]. These association with neural systems dedicated to the detection and
themes are also characteristic of obsessive compulsive disorder avoidance of invisible hazards.
(OCD). Indeed, the domains of magical ritual and personal obsessions Further light is shed on this question by the study of OCD pathology.
do not just share similar themes but also similar principles characteristic Neuroimaging studies generally show a significant increase of activity
of magical thinking [55]: in the caudate nucleus in response to stimuli perceived as dangerous.
(1) dangerous elements or substances are invisible; Specific activity modulation extends beyond the basal ganglia,
(2) any contact (touching, kissing, ingesting) with such substances is however, to a network comprising anterior cingulate and orbitofrontal
dangerous; cortex as well as the caudate [57,74]. The pathology might consist in a
(3) the amount of substance is irrelevant (e.g. a drop of a sick person s failure to inhibit or keep off-line a set of normal neural reactions to
saliva is just as dangerous as a cupful of the stuff). potential sources of danger.
Many situations to which people spontaneously apply these We are still far from understanding to what extent this network is also
principles include sources of pathogens and toxins: dirt, faeces, bugs, involved in the production of mild , controlled, socially transmitted
diseased or decayed organisms. The three principles are particularly notions about purity and the need for magical ritual. But it seems that
apposite when dealing with such situations, as most pathogens are the salience of a particular range of ritual themes to do with hidden
invisible, use diverse vectors for transmission, and there is no dose danger and noxious contact [72] and a susceptibility to derive rigid,
effect. emotionally vivid sequences of compulsory actions from such themes
So magical thoughts could be an extension of inferences about [55], could be spectacular cultural by-products of neural function.
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Table 2. A framework for a cognitive neuroscience of religionp
1
Gods and spirits as agents: they do things and react to one s System independent from Theory-of-Mind [41] from infancy [42], needs no
behaviour human-like agent [43]. NC: involvement of STS in inferring goals and other social
Goal detection1 cues from static displays [44], modulation of sup. PC in detecting agency from
Agents ź objects that react to others1,2 reactivity [45]. Questions: Is activation of such systems involved in representing
non-directly perceived agency?
Gods and spirits have perceptions, beliefs
2
Ordinary mind reading2 Specific system [46], selective impairment [47,48]. NC: joint activation of medial
FC [49,50] and regions dedicated to social cues [44], imitation [51] and emotional
The dead as supernatural agents empathy (see below). Questions: How do these systems generate inferences
Ordinary mind reading2,5 about non-physically present agents (imaginary companions, spirits)?
Social relations with dead people2,3
3
Face-recognition [52] and agency cues (above). NC: those of social agency and
Sacredness, purity, pollution and taboo person files [53]. Questions: Do dead bodies produce disjunction between social
[normal] fear of contagion4 agency and animacy detection? How does this connect with emotional effects of
mortality?
Rituals protect against invisible danger
4
[normal] fear of contagion4 Contagion-avoidance system: early developed [54], like magic [55], specific
emotions [56]. Joint activation of Ac, Caud., OFC [57]. Questions: How does
Gods as interested parties in moral judgement; moral magical ritual modulate this activity? Are contagion-related cues sufficient?
empathy
5
Detection of emotional states5 Empathy, emotion and off-line simulation, NC: those of emotional states in
Moral feelings and empathy5 general (including sub cortical structures, amygdala, thalamus, also involved in
moral feelings [58] together with STS for social cues. Questions: Is moral feeling
Gods and spirits really there despite no physical presence neurally (as well as phenomenologically) distinct? Does moral feeling presuppose
[normal] imaginary companions, off-line interaction2,6 other s a well as own viewpoint on action?
[pathological] thought insertion, delusions2,6
6
Monitoring of self-non-self distinction in action [59,60] breaks down in particular
Gods and spirits give and receive (sacrifice, protection) pathologies [61]. NC: disjunction between insula and inferior PC activity for self-
Social exchange, trust-signalling, cheater-detection2,7 initiated vs. non-self initiated action [62], also later-alization of inf. PC activation as
effect of imitation vs. being imitated [51]. Questions: Is limited
Mystical experience, fusion with supernatural agent suspension/modulation of such activity involved in real presence of
Altered states, meditation8 supernatural agents?
7
Inferential systems detached from general mental logic [63] and cultural factors
[64], possible selective im-pairment [65]. Questions: Are the emotions triggered
specific to these systems? How are the emotions transferred to non-physical
resources?
8
NC: Probably specific modulation of sub-cortical structures and TC [66].
Questions: Does phenomenology of such states constrain conceptual
descriptions of supernatural agency? (see Box 1)
p
The argument presented in this article is that religion does not involve a specific mental faculty or neural system. A cognitive neuroscience of religion would require a two-
step reduction. First, different aspects of religion (left column, bold) require diverse inference systems (left column, below headings) also found in non-religious contexts.
Second, each inference system corresponds not to a single neural system but to the joint activation of a family of systems (right column). Abbreviations: NC: neural correlates;
FC: frontal cortex; PtdCho: parietal cortex; STS: superior-temporal cortex; Ac: anterior cingulate; OFC: orbito-frontal cortex; Caud.: caudate nucleus; TC: temporal cortex. All
numbers refer to main text bibliography.
support this interpretation: (1) when people explain highlight culturally acquired notions of powerful and
salient misfortune without mentioning supernatural protective agents [7].
The association between death and concepts of
agents, they still assume agents as causally involved
supernatural agency is most obvious in death rituals.
(e.g. in witchcraft accusations, a human agent is said to
However, rather than commenting on mortality, these
use special techniques to bring about misfortune); (2) the
rituals are usually mostly concerned with what to do
way people connect misfortune or protection on the one
with corpses. This is partly to do with the fear of
hand and gods, spirits or ancestors on the other is
contamination, apparently a salient aspect of magical
generally in terms of social exchange, that is, in terms of
thinking and ritual (see Box 2). Dead people also create a
services and goods given versus received. They attribute to
discrepancy between the output of different mental
supernatural agents an intuitive logic of social exchange
systems. On the one hand, systems that regulate our
[29] that is active in non-religious contexts.
intuitions about animacy have little difficulty under-
Fear of death is also often described as the origin of
standing that a dead body is a non-intentional, inani-
religion (although all not religion is reassuring; see
mate object [33]. On the other hand, social-intelligence
Table 1). Social psychologists know that reminding people
systems do not shut off with death; indeed most people
of their mortality triggers a whole variety of non-obvious
still have thoughts and feelings about the recently dead.
cognitive effects (e.g. a punishing attitude towards social
This discrepancy between incompatible intuitions about
deviance, ethnic-racial intolerance or stereotyping, illu-
a single object might explain why recently dead people
sory consensus) [30,31]. The mechanisms responsible are
are so often seen as supernatural agents [6]. The effect of
not yet properly understood [32] but they probably
these different mental systems is also visible in
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culturally widespread distinctions between the social Perhaps the impression that elusive agents really are
part of the dead person that is still sentient and the around is an interpretation of this kind, as a result of the
impure and dangerous decaying body [34].
coordinated activity of many automatic mental systems
[6]. In this view, spirits and ancestors would be seen by
Evolved disposition or multiple by-product?
some as plausibly real because thoughts about them
Some aspects of religion have a long history, as docu-
activate theory-of-mind systems and agency-detection
mented by Palaeolithic drawings of imaginary objects [35]
and contagion-avoidance and social exchange. Whether or
and apparently ritualized burials in both humans and
not this interpretation holds will depend on progress in the
Neanderthals [36]. Most attempts at an evolutionary
cognitive neuroscience of religion (see Table 2).
account of religion have proved unsatisfactory because a
Religious believers and sceptics generally agree that
single characteristic identified as crucial to the origin of
religion is a dramatic phenomenon that requires a
religion is not in fact general (Table 1). The attempt to find
dramatic explanation, either as a spectacular revelation
the single evolutionary track for religion is another
of truth or as a fundamental error of reasoning. Cognitive
manifestation of a general urge to identify the single
science and neuroscience suggests a less dramatic but
mechanism that motivates religious thought or makes it
perhaps more empirically grounded picture of religion as a
plausible to believers. However, evolution by natural
probable, although by no means inevitable by-product of
selection is certainly relevant to understanding the
the normal operation of human cognition.
functional properties of each of the distinct mental systems
described here [37]. The way animate beings are detected,
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