Jesse Bering - Why is there a place for God in our head?

Jesse Bering, director of the Institute of Cognition & Culture at Belfast University, is to be counted among the most creative and captivating proponents of evolutionary psychology in the dynamic field of the Evolutionary Religious Studies. In a series of intriguing experiments, he has explored whether children are equipped with neurobiological traits toward "intuitive theism" and his findings have strongly supported adaptionist hypotheses on religiosity and religions.

 

The Effects of Invisible Princess Alice (& a Ghost)

Jesse's unique contributions started with a series of experiments featuring children who were told about an invisible "Princess Alice" in the room. Even after the mother and instructor had left the room (of course monitoring the little ones by video), those children that were told about her presence behaved more loyal to rules than those "alone" - i.e. by hesitating or even abstaining from secretly peering in a closed box.

Older children were even able to interpret "signals" of Princess Alice as a falling picture to alter their behaviour. And in experiments with students on computer tests offering possibilities of cheating, Dr. Bering was able to prove that they tended to stronger acceptance of rules when half-jokingly told about Ghost-sightings in the experimentation room.

The poor Mouse Mr. Brown

Another set of experiments featured children of different ages who saw a puppet play about a mouse (Mr. Brown), which was devoured by a puppet crocodile. Startingly, even very young children assumed the extinction of biological functions, but insisted on the dead Mr. Brown having psychosocial wishes as going home and meeting his family. A comparative study with Spanish children in secular and catholic kindergartens and schools supported these results - and brought to light that these intuitive beliefs in a supernatural "soul" were not imbued by the catholic environment. Instead, the children in secular environments just tended to lose their "natural" intuitions about these topics on a faster rate than those raised amidst religious people.

Beliefs About Supernatural Agents Supporting Cooperation

Jesse's findings strongly supported theories which assumed that religiosity evolved as the belief in supernatural watchers (as ancestors, spirits, gods or God) helped and helps in supporting rule-abiding behavior, augmenting trust and cooperation (including family life and more children) among believers. Homo sapiens are born as Homo religiosus - as "intuitive theists" able to construct and accept religious narratives referring to supernatural agents interested in our behavior.

For further reading, visit Jesse's Homepage and list of publications.

Add-On 12/2010: See my review of Jesse's new "The God Instinct".

 

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