Bewitchment, Biology, or Both: The Co‐Existence of Natural and Supernatural Explanatory Frameworks Across Development

Legare, Cristine H.; Gelman, Susan A.

doi:10.1080/03640210802066766

Cited by 196 publications

(216 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…Legare and Gelman (2008) describe the co--existence of bewitchment explanations and biological explanations for AIDS in Sesotho--speaking parts of South Africa, where bewitchment explanations extend traditional religious ideas. In addition to cohering with the present framework, some of their observations are strikingly similar to those of Golomb and Kuersten.…”

Section: The Psychological Projectmentioning

confidence: 98%

Religious credence is not factual belief

2014

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Section: The Psychological Projectmentioning

confidence: 98%

Religious credence is not factual belief

2014

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“…They have access to multiple representations (Evans, 2000(Evans, , 2008Legare & Gelman, 2008) of biological change: novice and informed naturalistic models as well as creationist models. How these models are integrated and utilized clearly depend on the visitors' interpretation of the problem as well as on the explanatory depth of the underlying knowledge structures.…”

Section: Theoretical Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A conceptual guide to natural history museum visitors' understanding of evolution

et al. 2009

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Museum visitors are an ideal population for assessing the persistence of the conceptual barriers that make it difficult to grasp Darwinian evolutionary theory. In comparison with other members of the public, they are more likely to be interested in natural history, have higher education levels, and be exposed to the relevant content. If museum visitors do not grasp evolutionary principles, it seems unlikely that other members of the general public would do so. In the current study, 32 systematically selected visitors to three Midwest museums of natural history provided detailed openended explanations of biological change in seven diverse organisms. They were not told that these were evolutionary problems. Responses were coded as: informed naturalistic reasoning, featuring some understanding of key evolutionary concepts, novice naturalistic reasoning, featuring intuitive explanations that are also present in childhood, and creationist reasoning, featuring supernatural explanations. All visitors were mixed reasoners, using one or more of these patterns in different permutations across the seven organisms: 72% used a combination of informed naturalistic reasoning and novice naturalistic reasoning, while a further 28% added creationist reasoning to this mix. Correlational analyses indicated that for many visitors these reasoning patterns were coherent rather than fragmented. The theoretical model presented in this article contributes to an analysis of the developmental and cultural factors associated with these patterns. This could help educators working in diverse educational settings understand how to move visitors and students toward more informed reasoning patterns. ß

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“…As a result, beliefs that match earlier-held convictions have a higher chance of being accepted whereas those that do not have a lower chance of transmission. For example, Legare and Gelman (2008) found high levels of endorsement for both natural and supernatural explanations for the AIDS epidemic in South Africa. Although adults and adolescents are keenly aware of the biological causes of AIDS, they frequently invoke witchcraft as an ultimate cause, treating the biological cause (viral infection) as a means by which witches achieve their goals ("A witch can put you in the way of viruses and germs").…”

Section: Internal and External Coherencementioning

confidence: 99%

Cognitive Science of Religion and the Study of Theological Concepts

Cruz¹

2013

Topoi

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The cultural transmission of theological concepts remains an underexplored topic in the cognitive science of religion (CSR). In this paper, I examine whether approaches from CSR, especially the study of content biases in the transmission of beliefs, can help explain the cultural success of some theological concepts. This approach reveals that there is more continuity between theological beliefs and ordinary religious beliefs than CSR authors have hitherto recognized: the cultural transmission of theological concepts is influenced by content biases that also underlie the reception of ordinary religious concepts.

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Bewitchment, Biology, or Both: The Co‐Existence of Natural and Supernatural Explanatory Frameworks Across Development

Cited by 196 publications

References 35 publications

Religious credence is not factual belief

Religious credence is not factual belief

A conceptual guide to natural history museum visitors' understanding of evolution

Cognitive Science of Religion and the Study of Theological Concepts

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