1. Desirability of religion and the non-cognitive function of misbeliefs
Konrad Talmont-Kaminski (Marie Curie-Sklodowska U., Poland)
Desirability of religion and the non-cognitive function of misbeliefs

2. Background Philosopher of science Using
Investigating superstitious and religious beliefs
Their relation to human rationality
Using
Cognitive approaches
Evolutionary explanations of human behaviour
Philosophy of science

3. Plan Adaptive misbeliefs Protecting misbeliefs Plausible misbeliefs
Desirability of misbeliefs
Investigating misbeliefs

4. Adaptive misbeliefs Misbeliefs can motivate adaptive behaviour
Fear of Fri 13th leads to avoiding train crash
Coincidental
Only significant if systematic
Possible systematic examples
Magical contagion
Religion

5. Adaptive misbeliefs Magical Contagion (Paul Rozin)
Cardigan example (Bruce Hood)
Fear of ‘catching’ evil
Invisible vehicles of contagion passed by contact
Very useful given bacteria & viruses
False explanation, partly true (overgeneralised) correlation
Role of explanation?
Ideas of magical contagion motivate behaviour
Ideas of magical contagion post hoc explanation of behaviour
Studied extensively by Paul Rozin
Misbelief explained as by-product of cognitive heuristic

6. Adaptive misbeliefs The “boy who cried wolf” problem
Misbelief in the face of counterevidence
McKay and Dennett, BBS (forthcoming)
Misbelief unstable due to counterevidence
Can not be systematically adaptive
Disproved misbeliefs
Rejected
Reinterpreted

7. Protecting misbeliefs
Misbeliefs can be protected against counterevidence
Talmont-Kaminski, BBS (forthcoming) & Teorema 28.3
Protected misbeliefs stable
Can still motivate behaviour
Three ways to protect misbeliefs
Content
Social context
Methodological context

8. Protecting misbeliefs
Content of stable misbeliefs
Avoid content in direct conflict with experience
Claim epistemic impediments
Invisibility – ghosts, Christian god
Shyness – faeries
Distant locale – dragons, Olympic gods
Shape-shifting – Olympic gods
Vagueness – New Age beliefs
Problem
Belief in the face of the lack of evidence

9. Protecting misbeliefs
Social context of misbeliefs
Make investigation of misbeliefs socially unacceptable
The sacred – religious and magical beliefs
Religious relics
Respecting religious beliefs above other kinds
Disparage curiosity
Oppose rational criticism
Problem
Stultifies progress

10. Protecting misbeliefs
Methodological context of misbeliefs
Related to social context
Limit access to science
Scientific equipment
Scientific methods
Scientific attitudes
Problem
Limited access to science
Not an issue traditionally

11. Plausible misbeliefs Why believe without evidence?
Not really a problem
Only problem with perfectly rational beings
Why believe without evidence the things we do?
Primarily: Due to the particularities of human cognitive system
Secondarily: Due to function of the beliefs

12. Plausible misbeliefs By-products of cognitive heuristics
Type I errors (Skinner, Error Management Theory)
Magical contagion (Rozin)
Cognitive science of religion
Minimally counterintuitive concepts (Boyer)
Hyperactive agency detection device (Guthrie)

13. Desirability of misbeliefs
What, if anything, is the function of misbeliefs?
Not to accurately represent the world
Protecting against disconfirmation ensures truth of a belief is coincidental
Allows other functions to determine popularity of belief
Function must depend upon the behaviour motivated by the belief

14. Desirability of misbeliefs
Several possibilities
Adaptive for individuals
Costly-signalling (Sosis)
Adaptive for groups
Pro-social behaviour (D. S. Wilson)
Adaptive for beliefs
Memetic virus (Dawkins, Blackmore)
Not directly functional
Simply a by-product (Boyer)

15. Desirability of misbeliefs
Which thesis about function is correct?
Need to investigate religion to find out
Answer may be complex
Is religion is something desirable for us?
Universally assumed by religious individuals
Dennett’s “Belief in belief”
Not necessarily even if an individual adaptation
Dennett’s question: Who thinks that their goal in life is to have as many kids as possible?

16. Investigating misbeliefs
Problem
Investigation of religion
Requires scientific attitude
Maintaining positive effects of religious claims
Requires maintaining belief in those claims
Which requires
Protecting those beliefs
Investigation of religion undermines its function
Even if that function happens to be individually desirable

17. Thank you Konrad Talmont-Kaminski konrad@talmont.com
deisidaimon.wordpress.com
McKay & Dennett Evolution of Misbelief, Behavioral & Brain Sciences (forthcoming)
Talmont-Kaminski, Effective untestability and bounded rationality help to see religion is adaptive misbelief, Behavioral & Brain Sciences (forthcoming)
Talmont-Kaminski, Fixation of superstitious beliefs, Teorema 28.3