'Life' after death
Of course, the idea that the universe is fair and that people will get their just deserts is one basis for beliefs in life after death. Tobacyk (1983) found that a belief in the paranormal played a role in reducing the fear and threat of death. Indeed, one function of religion is to manage the awareness of death (Norenzayan & Hansen, 2006; Vail, Arndt, & Abdollahi, 2012). It is difficult, in fact paradoxical, to actually imagine one’s consciousness no longer existing after death because we are trying to imagine the loss of the ability to imagine. It is, therefore, a short step to believing that one’s consciousness will continue to exist after death. Religions offer a narrative whereby you will, indeed, continue to exist in some form. Norenzayan and Hansen (2006) conducted a series of studies during which participants were reminded of death. Among religious participants, this led to an increased expression of religiosity and faith in god(s) or some higher power. It had no effect on non-believers, however.
Religious thinking
Another function of religion is the worldview defence hypothesis where cultural beliefs act as a guide to religious behaviour and practices. A person’s culture will also determine or influence religious beliefs about the nature of the afterlife, supernatural beings, and events such as miracles. Pennycook, Cheyne, Seli, Koehler, and Fugelsang (2012) proposed an asymmetry between belief and unbelief. Understanding something implies some belief in it, however, provisional. Ideally, this is followed by some form of evaluation to check its believability or to 'unbelieve’ it. They argue that a culturally learned spontaneous or intuitive response to something, essentially a heuristic, is the default and that it is initially considered as correct. Only after further effortful analysis, if you are so motivated, can this response be checked for accuracy. Suppose someone says that the recent floods are God’s punishment for gay marriage. The first intuitive response, if you believe in a particular type of God, might be, 'Yes, that sounds reasonable." However, after some deeper reflection, a further response might be, 'So, why did the children have to die?’
Pennycook et al. wanted to find out the effects of certain cognitive styles on magical thinking and belief in supernatural beings. They analyzed a range of demographic variables in their participants: age, sex, degree of religious belief, degree of religious observance, conservatism, cognitive ability, and the one they were particularly interested in, analytic cognitive style. Analytic style was measured using two problems that were versions of the bottle of wine problem (a bat and ball costs SI0.10. The bat costs $10 more than the ball. How much is the ball?), and an analogue of Kahneman and Tversky ‘lawyers and engineers’ problem involving nurses and doctors. An analytic cognitive style is similar to Stanovich's AOT and both involve of Type 2 thinking, whereas the initial intuitive acceptance of an explanation is mediated by Type 1. Their main finding was that an analytic cognitive style, where an initial intuitive response is rejected, was associated with a lack of belief in God and religious concepts such as angels, demons, and hell as well as a lack of belief in other supernatural phenomena such as astrology, ghosts, witchcraft, and so on. In general, conservatives tended to score lower on the active cognitive style which was correlated with some forms of magical thinking.
The costs of magical thinking
Religious practices pose a problem to rational thinking since they involve counterintuitive beliefs, irrational rituals, and often huge costs in the form of severe or cruel sacrifices. Atran and Henrich (2010) argues that the evolution of the cognitive system including the development of prosocial behaviour has predisposed us to believe in supernatural entities and to engage in apparently pointless rituals particularly in large and complex societies.
Religious practices can be seen as the result of cognitive mechanisms such as heuristics (e.g., ‘emulation of successful and prestigious individuals’). If people are prepared to martyr themselves for a belief, then there must be something to it as the cost for them is so great. Social and cultural pressures that we have evolved to adhere to also give rise to ritualistic behaviours and costly endeavours such as building stone henges, monumental face sculptures, temples, pyramids, and cathedrals. They suggest that ritualistic activities enhance prosocial behaviour in complex societies and propose ‘an approach to devotions (fasting, celibacy, etc.) and rituals as having evolved culturally (at least in part) to deepen people's commitments to counterintuitive beliefs’ (Atran & Henrich, 2010, p. 22).
While religious beliefs and expression vary from religion to religion, all ‘hijack’ the same cognitive resources (Boyer, 2001, 2008). They constitute a side-effect - an emergent property - of evolved cognitive capacities. As a result, ‘Some form of religious thinking seems to be the path of least resistance for our cognitive systems. By contrast, disbelief is generally the result of deliberate, effortful work against our natural cognitive dispositions -hardly the easiest ideology to propagate" (Boyer, 2008, p. 1039).
Summary
Magical thinking is universal and refers to the belief that thoughts, desires, and rituals can cause something to happen. It, therefore, encompasses the view that events can happen without a physical cause. This can be seen in superstitious behaviour. It can also be induced by detecting patterns that do not really exist, as in conspiratorial thinking. Superstitious behaviour can be reinforced by confirmation bias.
Some of its origins can be found in children's thinking such as a reliance on superficial aspects of the world, thus alchemists relied on superficial features of things to try to understand how nature worked. Children also expect the world to be fair and this leads to the just world fallacy and the teleological fallacy, the belief that everything happens for a reason. A potential side-effect of expecting the world to be just is victim blaming - if something bad happens to someone, then they must somehow have deserved it.
Religious thinking involves counterintuitive beliefs and irrational rituals. Cultural beliefs influence religious thinking and behaviour; hence, one function of religion is to defend a culture's worldview. There can often be a cost involved in religious thinking in terms of sacrifices, fasting, monument building, and so on.
Suggested Further Reading
Hood, R. W. J., Hill, P. C„ & Spilka, B. (2018). The psychology of religion: An empirical approach (5 ed.). New York. NY: The Guilford Press.
Hutson, M. (2008. March/April). Magical thinking [Article]. Psychology Today, 41(2), 88-95.
