Faces in the Clouds: A New Theory of Religion

“…evolutionary reasons, early hominids (i.e. members of a family Hominidae, the great apes) interpreted ambiguous shapes as faces or bodies to improve their genetic fi tness by making alliances with neighbouring tribes or by avoiding neighbouring outgroups threats and predatory animals (Guthrie 1995).”

“Examples of this omission include scholars such as Guthrie (1993), Hinde (1999), Pyysiäinen (2001), Boyer (2001), Atran (2002), McCauley and Lawson (2002), Kirkpatrick (2005), and Rossano (2010), although Alcorta and Sosis (2005) recognize the importance of the arts in ritual ceremonies for…”

“Introduction nthropomorphism refers to a relatively invariant and automatic psychological process of a tendency to perceive nonhuman forms as human by attributing them humanlike characteristics, intentions, and behavior (Guthrie, 1993; Epley et al., 2007; Waytz et al., 2010).”

“Belief in supernatural agents is a ubiquitous feature of human societies (Atran & Norenzayan, 2004; Guthrie, 1993).”

“…literature, which attributes human-like characteristics to anthropomorphic interfaces, along with motivations and intentions, as a way of involving the human schema and steering individuals ’ perceptions of these interfaces by anthropomorphizing machines (Epley et al., 2007; Guthrie, 1993).”

“In realtime, particular religious con-41 texts might proximately trigger cognitive mechanisms such as agency detection (Andersen, 2019; Guthrie, 1995) and corollary moral cognition (Boyer, 2000; Purzycki et al., 2022).”

“…human-like traits to non-human entities, like animals, computers, shapes, and supernatural beings, Frontiers in Psychology | www.frontiersin.org 1 August 2018 | Volume 9 | Article 1425 may constitute an innate cognitive bias, a bias that is common among all human minds (Guthrie, 1993; Dacey, 2017).”

“These vary from the normally cited type 1 mechanisms, such as hyperactive agency detection (Guthrie, 1995), theory of mind (Barrett, 2004), and minimal counterintuitiveness (Barrett, 2000), but the general framework is indicative of the broader understanding of religious belief within a dualprocess…”

“Recently, Stewart Guthrie has argued for a ‘cognitive theory of religion’ which delineates a similar connection between animism, religious evolution, and anthropomorphism (Guthrie, 1980, 1993).”

“The idea of HADD derives from Guthrie’s argument according to which humans have a bias towards detecting human-like agency which might not actually exist (Guthrie, 1993).”

“While anthropomorphization is broadly supposed to be a conscious process [21] of “a tt ributing human characteristics to nonhuman phenomena” [15, p. 6], social reactions as described by Nass and Moon [21] are conceptualized as automatic and unconscious responses to social cues.”

“Originally, anthropomorphism referred to the tendency to attribute human characteristics to nonhuman things or events (Guthrie 1993 ).”

“Religions provide comfort to believers; fear and anxiety are alleviated by the belief in a powerful being (Goodwin 1998; Guthrie 1993; Rizutto 1979), frequently metaphorically referred to as a Father, who is lovingly involved in the personal details of everyday life.”

“From a young age, children develop more detailed schemas for human (vs. nonhuman) entities, which explains why knowledge about human-like schemas is more accessible, even in adulthood, in application to different situations (Guthrie 1993; Epley et al. 2007).”

“Guthrie (1993), explained that consumers encourage and facilitate the process of CONTACT Shivani Agrawal agrawal.sshivani@gmail.com This article has been republished with minor changes.”

“Guthrie (1993) suggests the forms of anthropomorphism include partial and the literal.”

“Some argue that all cultural creation stories anthropomorphize non-human characters and events (Guthrie, 1993).”

“Our everyday language is imbued with metaphorical expressions such as “mother earth” or “mother nature”; archaic religions and myths personified the awesome forces of nature (Guthrie, 1993), and children tend to hold an animistic view of the physical world (e.”

“Guthrie (1993) states, “My guess is that the display is indeed a threat against the storm and that the chimpanzees do perceive the storm as animate” (p. 52) and later, “if religion is anthropomorphism, then the animal analogue is zoomorphism: the attribution of animal traits to what is not animal”…”

“…adaptive error management strategies: When an outcome is uncertain and false negatives are costly, adaptive strategies can include over-attributing agency to non-agents (Guthrie 1995) and spuriously inferring causes that appear superstitious to more knowledgeable observers (Foster and Kokko 2009).”

“One possible explanation is the influence of human pareidolia, which drives individuals to see faces or humanlike features in non-human objects, such as clouds, rocks, or animals (Guthrie & Guthrie, 1995).”

“…propensity to be sensitive to third-party monitoring (perhaps in combination with other aspects of intuitive folk psychology, see Boyer, 2001; Guthrie, 1993), it is argued, facilitated successful spread of beliefs in supernatural monitoring by supernatural watchers – powerful, morally…”

“Personification, of course, is one of humankind’s most deeply rooted tropes (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980), a primal propensity made manifest from the man in the moon and houses that look like Hitler to Jesus’s face mysteriously materialising on Margherita pizzas (Guthrie, 1995).”

“According to Guthrie [13], anthropomorphism comforts people by allowing them to form relationship, and let them make a better understanding of the world around them.”

“Second, more intelligent children are more likely to grow up to be atheists (Kanazawa, 2010a), possibly because belief in higher powers, as a consequence of over-inference of agency behind otherwise natural phenomena, may be part of evolved human nature (Guthrie, 1993; Boyer, 2001; Atran, 2002; Kirkpatrick, 2005; Hase…”

“Instead, as I have argued elsewhere (Guthrie 1993, 1997), we tend to see an ambiguous world as alive or humanlike in the first instance because, if something important to us is there, we need to see it.”

““All humans and many animals display animism: mechanics see tools as rebellious, runners see distant fire hydrants as dogs, horses see blowing papers as threats, and cats see fluttering leaves as prey” (Guthrie, 1993, p. 6). Chimpanzees have been observed engaging in angry threat displays in response to the onset of h…”

“…a general theory of magic (broadly defined); practices directed towards supernatural entities, for example, clearly have rather different underlying psychological mechanisms such as agency detection (Andersen, 2019), intuitive dualism (Bloom, 2007), and mentalizing (Barrett, 2004; Guthrie, 1995).”

“Anthropomorphism tendency exists within every person (Guthrie, 1995), and can be triggered by objects deliberately created by marketers, which are objects that resemble a physical or human nature”

“Human-like attribution is based on prior knowledge acquired through observation of, and interaction with, other human beings, and is carried out to understand the world in a better way [21], to build social connections [35], and to enhance feelings of belonging [3].”

“Clearly, any failure to pay attention to signs that a predator is present would have been far more costly than the experience of innumerable false alarms (Guthrie 1980, 1993; Barrett 2000).”

“The main difference with religion consists in its assuming the existence of non-human beings which interact with humans in multiple ways (Guthrie, 1992: 178).”

“…leads us to attribute mentality not only to people and non-human animals, but also to artifacts with apparent self-propelled movement (e.g., Heider & Simmel, 1944), and unseen beings that might cause otherwise unexplainable phenomena (i.e., ghosts, souls, gods) (e.g., Bering, 2006; Guthrie, 1995).”

“…and the management of cognitive dissonance have more recently become key concepts in cognitive science of religion, where they are incorporated into theories not only of the social and existential functions of religion but also of the evolutionary origins of religion (Guthrie 1993; Atran 2002).”

“Through the personification of non-human objects, the world becomes more familiar and simple to understand (Guthrie, 1993).”

“Beyond the self, the perception that a social other is agentic—or has the capability of doing and intending—may guide one’s interactions with that person (Guthrie, 1993).”

“Humankind is incorrigibly anthropomorphic (Guthrie, 1993).”

“This view is reminiscent of the 'neo-intellectualist' theory of religious Systems (cf. Guthrie 1980, 1993).”

“One strong set of answers comes from looking at how human minds conceptualise the mind(s) of god(s) as an extension of the ways we evolved to understand other human minds (J. L. Barrett, 2011; Boyer, 2001; Guthrie, 1995).”

“Anthropomorphism elucidates how individuals tend to find familiarity with unfamiliar entities (Guthrie 1995).”

“For instance, our innate tendency to interpret certain sensory experiences in terms of agency would be at the root of religion ’ s emphasis on supernatural agents such as gods and spirits (Atran, 2002; Barrett, 2000; Bloom, 2007; Guthrie, 1993).”

“A second interesting component of spirituality is its link to anthropomorphism [42], [43].”

“cognitive basis for religious belief (Guthrie, 1993; Harvey, 2006).”

“…agents – like other supernatural agents, such as gods, ghosts, and people possessed by spirits – are facilitated and constrained by the intuitive representation of human agents generally (see Barrett, 1998, 1999; Bering, 2002; Boyer, 2003; Cohen, 2007; Cohen & Barrett, 2008; Guthrie, 1993).”

“Anthropomorphism is the psychological process of seeing human elements in nonhuman forms (Guthrie 1993).”

“It may be ‘‘hypersensitive,’’ in that it produces a large number of false positives, and thus over-attributes agency to an environment (Barrett, 2004; Guthrie, 1993).”

“It continues to pervade many anthropological teachings about religion, such as those of Haviland (2000:691), as well as the more sophisticated cognitive theory proposed by Guthrie (1980, 1993).”

“The theory that most often features in debunking arguments is that of the HADD (Guthrie 1993; Barrett 2004).”

“…of unfamiliar processes and behavior (Waytz et al., 2010), helps satisfy social and emotional needs (Barrett & Lanman, 2008; Epley et al., 2008; Guthrie, 1995), may increase trust in artificial agents (Waytz et al., 2014), increases acceptance toward moral decisions made by agents (Gray et…”

“It is widely acknowledged that humans have an ingrained propensity for anthropomorphizing entities and objects of their environment, from rocks, to clouds, to robots (Guthrie, 1993).”

“Moreover, they tend to attribute life to non-living objects (animism) and to interpret the behaviour of such objects in human terms (anthropomorphism) (Guthrie, 1993; Korondi et al., 2015).”

“By ascribing human characteristics to entities, people expect to gain a better perception of outcomes and things that they only know very little about [2,45].”

“Guthrie, Stewart.”

“In particular, given prominent claims that humans exhibit a particular tendency to jump to conclusions in the specific domain of agency detection (Barrett, 2000; Guthrie, 1993), do tendencies to overattribute ambiguous cues to intentional agency amplify in social settings?”

“…l’anthropomorphisme des produits (Aggarwal, 2004 ; Aggarwal et McGill, 2007 ; Chandler et Schwarz, 2010 ; Delbaere et al., 2011 ; Epley et al., 2007 ;Guthrie, 1993 ; Kiesler, 2006 ; Kim et McGill, 2011 ; Landwehr et al., 2011) concluent généralement à l’impact positif d’une ressemblance humaine…”

“Guthrie (1980, 1993) has argued that anthropomorphism is both a common feature of everyday cognition and a universal feature of religion.”

“Rubin (2002, Ch. 6) addresses the role of religion in human behavior; see also Guthrie (1993) , Boyer (2001) and Wilson (2002).”