Cognitive Pathways to Belief in Karma and Belief in God

Abstract

Supernatural beliefs are ubiquitous around the world, and mounting evidence indicates that these beliefs partly rely on intuitive, cross-culturally recurrent cognitive processes. Specifically, past research has focused on humans' intuitive tendency to perceive minds as part of the cognitive foundations of belief in a personified God-an agentic, morally concerned supernatural entity. However, much less is known about belief in karma-another culturally widespread but ostensibly non-agentic supernatural entity reflecting ethical causation across reincarnations. In two studies and four high-powered samples, including mostly-Christian Canadians and mostly-Hindu Indians (Study 1, N = 2006) and mostly-Christian Americans and Singaporean Buddhists (Study 2, N = 1752), we provide the first systematic empirical investigation of the cognitive intuitions underlying various forms of belief in karma. We used path analyses to (1) replicate tests of the previously documented cognitive predictors of belief in God, (2) test whether this same network of variables predicts belief in karma, and (3) examine the relative contributions of cognitive and cultural variables to both sets of beliefs. We found that cognitive tendencies toward intuitive thinking, mentalizing, dualism, and teleological thinking predicted a variety of beliefs about karma-including morally-laden, non-agentic, and agentic conceptualizations-above and beyond the variability explained by cultural learning about karma across cultures. These results provide further evidence for an independent role for both culture and cognition in supporting diverse types of supernatural beliefs in distinct cultural contexts.

Karma and God: Convergent and divergent mental representations of supernatural norm enforcement.

“…Belief in a moralizing God and belief in karmic causality are widespread around the world, as central tenets of several world religions (Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, and Buddhism) that have billions of adherents, and as beliefs held by spiritual people unaffiliated with any particular religious tradition (White & Norenzayan, 2019). Beliefs about a moralizing God (or gods) and karma are culturally widespread, in part, because they arise from similar intuitive cognitive biases in how people perceive the world (White et al, 2021), and also because of convergent cultural evolutionary pressures that have shaped cooperation among interactants in large groups of anonymous strangers through the threat of supernatural punishments and rewards (McKay & Whitehouse, 2015; Norenzayan et al, 2016). 1…”

“…Psychological studies that directly ask participants whether karma has agentic qualities—such as whether karma “can think,” “can see into people’s hearts and know their thoughts and feelings,” and “can communicate with people”—have found that believers are somewhat willing endorse these personified descriptions, but they tend to do so much less strongly and less consistently than they do for God (Exline et al, 2021; White et al, 2021). It therefore remains an open question how believers prototypically think about karma, and how this compares to how people think about God, which we investigate in the present studies.…”

Great Minds do not Think Alike: Philosophers’ Views Predicted by Reflection, Education, Personality, and Other Demographic Differences

“…There is growing support for such a dual-inheritance hypothesis about philosophical tendencies among non-philosophers (Baron et al, 2022;Gervais et al, in prep. ;White et al, 2021). So subsequent research might profitably extend this literature by testing dual inheritance hypotheses about philosophical tendencies among both laypeople and people with advanced education from different parts of the world.…”

The dual role of culture for reconstructing early sapiens cognition.

“…Supernatural agents, for instance, combine a few implausible physical features with largely plausible psychological features, thus remaining so similar to natural agents that social relationships can be entertained. This combination of features renders religious beliefs both interesting and comprehensible, which makes them intuitively compelling and easier to remember-hence facilitating cultural sharing, retention, and transmission (Atran & Norenzayan, 2004; J. L. Barrett, 2000;Boyer & Ramble, 2001;Kelly & Keil, 1985;White et al, 2021; for a critical assessment, see Purzycki & Willard, 2016).…”

“…This combination of features renders religious beliefs both interesting and comprehensible, which makes them intuitively compelling and easier to remember—hence facilitating cultural sharing, retention, and transmission (Atran & Norenzayan, 2004; J. L. Barrett, 2000; Boyer & Ramble, 2001; Kelly & Keil, 1985; White et al, 2021; for a critical assessment, see Purzycki & Willard, 2016).…”