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Religion, Empathy, and Cooperation: A Case Study in the Promises and Challenges of Modeling and Simulation
Abstract
The Cognitive Science of Religion (CSR) is developing a sophisticated naturalistic account of religion, grounded in empirical research. However, there are limitations to establishing an empirical basis for theories about religion’s role in human evolution. Computer modeling and simulation offers a way to address this experimental constraint. A case study in this approach was conducted on a key theory within CSR that recently has come under serious challenge: the Supernatural Punishment Hypothesis, which posits religion facilitated the shift from small, homogeneous social units to large, complex societies. It has been proposed that incorporating empathy as a proximate mechanism for cooperation into the theory may address these challenges. To test this, we developed a computer simulation that runs iterated cooperation games. To assess the impact of empathy on cooperation, we developed an agent-based model with a baseline for empathetic concern, derived from neuroscientific literature on empathy and cooperation, that could be modulated by signals of religious identity. The results of this simulation may provide important data for an account of religion’s role in human evolution. Results and their implications, for both the theory and the modeling and simulation approach, are discussed.
... 29,31 Few studies have looked at the impact of religion and empathy during simulation-based sessions; there is still a need to consider religion during intercultural simulations. 32,33 During our intercultural simulations, it was highlighted that the training in English impacted learners to whom this is not their first language. Therefore, in countries with several commonly used languages, having a cofacilitator with expertise in the primary language spoken or learning activities supported by speech-to-text recognition and the computer-aided translation may improve the learning experience. ...
Background
Cultural sensitivity (CS) training is vital to pediatric emergency medicine (PEM) curricula. This study aimed to explore CS in Yale PEM fellows and emergency medicine (EM) residents at Indus Hospital and Health Network (IHHN) in Pakistan through distance simulation activities.
Methods
This mixed‐methods analysis of an educational intervention was conducted at Yale University in collaboration with IHHN. We approached seven U.S. PEM fellows and 22 Pakistani EM residents. We performed a baseline CS assessment using the Clinical Cultural Competency Questionnaire (CCCQ). Afterward, the U.S. PEM fellows facilitated the Pakistani EM residents through six distance simulation sessions. Qualitative data were collected through online focus groups. The CCCQ was analyzed using descriptive statistics, and content analysis was used to analyze the data from the focus groups.
Results
Seven U.S. PEM fellows and 18 of 22 Pakistani EM residents responded to the CCCQ at the beginning of the module. The mean (±SD) CCCQ domain scores for the U.S. PEM fellows versus the Pakistani EM residents were 2.56 (±0.37) versus 2.87 (±0.72) for knowledge, 3.02 (±0.41) versus 3.33 (±0.71) for skill, 2.86 (±0.32) versus 3.17 (±0.73) for encounter/situation, and 3.80 (±0.30) versus 3.47 (±0.47) for attitude (each out of 5 points). Our qualitative data analysis showed that intercultural interactions were valuable. There is a common language of medicine among the U.S. PEM fellows and Pakistani EM residents. The data also highlighted a power distance between the facilitators and learners, as the United States was seen as the standard of “how to practice PEM.” The challenges identified were time differences, cultural practices such as prayer times, the internet, and technology. The use of local language during debriefing was perceived to enhance engagement.
Conclusion
The distance simulation involving U.S. PEM fellows and Pakistani EM residents was an effective approach in assessing various aspects of intercultural education, such as language barriers, technical challenges, and religious considerations.
In recent decades scholars of religion have used costly signaling theory to advance our understanding of seemingly wasteful behaviors by showing how they may function as in-group signals, enhancing social solidarity and cooperation. However, most analyses have assumed that speech and other forms of ‘cheap talk’ like common adornments are too cheap to function as costly signals. This article argues that integrating recent work on the multiple mechanisms of honest signaling and paying closer attention to the semiotic analyses of Charles Peirce, especially his focus on interpretants, allows us better to assess the relationships between signal costs and culturally heterogeneous communicative environments. In religiously contested communicative environments ostensibly cheap signs may function as costly signals. The article develops a theory of interpretant driven costly signaling and lays out the conditions for religious ‘cheap talk’ and inexpensive adornment to function as costly signals in religiously plural communicative environments.
ABSTRACT
A cognitive scientific approach to religion reveals the moral role of religion in human evolutionary history and provides insight into the continuing influence of religion in human affairs. While morality can be understood and justified apart from any religious foundation, religion
cannot be separated from its moral function. After setting out the evolved cognitive bases of religious beliefs and behaviors, a model for the nexus between religion and morality is developed. From this it follows that religions constitute moral worldviews that emerge from
and tap into deep moral and emotional instincts. This makes religion, and moral worldviews more generally, profoundly important, but also makes them dangerously problematic. A case study of the intersection of religion, race, and politics in contemporary American presidential politics will be used to explicate these ideas.
We employ existing data sets and agent-based modeling to forecast changes in religiosity and existential security among a collective of individuals over time. Existential security reflects the extent of economic, socioeconomic and human development provided by society. Our model includes agents in social networks interacting with one another based on the education level of the agents, the religious practices of the agents, and each agent’s existential security within their natural and social environments. The data used to inform the values and relationships among these variables is based on rigorous statistical analysis of the International Social Survey Programme Religion Module (ISSP) and the Human Development Report (HDR). We conduct an evaluation that demonstrates, for the countries and time periods studied, that our model provides a more accurate forecast of changes in existential security and religiosity than two alternative approaches. The improved accuracy is largely due to the inclusion of social networks with educational homophily which alters the way in which religiosity and existential security change in the model. These dynamics grow societies where two individuals with the same initial religious practices (or belief In God, or supernatural beliefs) evolve differently based on the educational backgrounds of the individuals with which they surround themselves. Finally, we discuss the limitations of our model and provide direction for future work.
In: Computational Social Networks journal 5, 2018, article 1
Religion is a central aspect of many individuals’ lives around the world, and its influence on human behaviour has been extensively studied from many different perspectives. Methods
The current study integrates a number of these perspectives into one adaptive temporal–causal network model describing the mental states involved, their mutual relations, and the adaptation of some of these relations over time due to learning. ResultsBy first developing a conceptual representation of a network model based on the literature, and then formalizing this model into a numerical representation, simulations can be done for almost any kind of religion and person, showing different behaviours for persons with different religious backgrounds and characters. The focus was mainly on the influence of religion on human empathy and dis-empathy, a topic very relevant today. Conclusions
The developed model could be valuable for many uses, involving support for a better understanding, and even prediction, of the behaviour of religious individuals. It is illustrated for a number of different scenarios based on different characteristics of the persons and of the religion. Published in Computational Social Networks 5, 2018, article 1.
This commentary offers a constructive critique of the supernatural punishment hypothesis (SPH) by presenting the first agent based model of the theory. It utilizes earlier evolutionary models of cooperation that utilize the prisoner’s dilemma paradigm (Axelrod, 1984) but instantiates new amendments given the narrative formulation of the SPH as presented in Dominic Johnson’s “God is Watching You: How the Fear of God Makes Us Human”. After discussing the model and presenting results it offers future directions for the model that can be used to strengthen the SPH and supplement the already impressive literature related to the SPH.
This article outlines the development – and reports on the experimental findings – of two computational models designed to simulate the dynamic systems and behavioural patterns identified and clarified by research on terror management theory. The causal architectures of these models are informed by empirical research on the effects of mortality salience on “religiosity” (and vice versa). They are also informed by research on the way in which perception of personal and environmental hazards activate evolved cognitive and coalitional precautionary systems that can intensify anxiety-alleviating behaviours such as imaginative engagement with supernatural agents postulated within a religious coalition. The capacity of the models to produce emergent patterns and behaviours that are similar to the results of other empirical studies supports the plausibility of their causal architectures. After tracing some of the literature that supports the causal dynamics of our models, we present the two models, describe the experiments, and report the results. We conclude by discussing the importance of the findings, the limitations of the models, and directions for future research.
This study documents a robust empirical pattern between moralizing gods, which prescribe fixed laws of morality, and conflict prevalence and fatalities, using spatially referenced data for Africa on contemporary conflicts and ancestral belief systems of individual ethnic groups prior to European contact. Moralizing gods are found to significantly increase conflict prevalence and casualties at the local level. The identification strategy draws on the evolutionary psychology roots of moralizing gods as a solution to the collective action problem in pre-modern societies. A one standard deviation increase in the likelihood of emergence of a moralizing god increases casualties by 18-36% and conflict prevalence by 4-8% approximately.
Can human aggressiveness promote peaceful cooperation? Despite the seeming contradiction of these phenomena, our study suggests the answer is yes. We develop two agent-based models of cooperative interactions among aggressive agents threatening each other. In Model 1, we show that aggressive displays performed by dominance-seeking individuals create a system of mutual threats that effectively enforces cooperation and inhibits agents from escalating conflicts. This happens because agents observe each other fighting, which deters them from attacking each other due to aggressive reputations. In Model 2 we extend this effect to third-party interventions showing that forming alliances makes attacks more efficient and promotes the emergence of common rules determining whom to fight against. In such a state, social order is maintained by the existence of moral alliances – groups of agents willing to fight against norm violators. In summary, we argue that reputation for toughness and the aggressive predisposition of humans could have played an important role in the evolution of cooperation and moral systems.
and Keywords The relationship between religion and morality is a subject of widespread interest and intense debate: Is morality a product of religion? Can one be moral without religion? Can moral claims be justified outside of a religious context? These are important questions that have been subject to much investigation by theologians and philosophers, among others. Evolutionary studies provide a different way into this topic. Morality has long been a subject for evolutionary research, but an evolutionary approach to religion, based on research into the evolution of the brain, is a recent development, and one that is developing a substantial empirical grounding. Drawing on the insights from both of these fields, this chapter sets out the evolved cognitive mechanisms that constitute the nexus of religion and morality. In addition to providing insight into the nature of religious morality, this model may also help clarify the role religion played in human evolution.