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Ecological variability and religious beliefs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 December 2006

Adam B. Cohen*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ85287-1104
Douglas T. Kenrick*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ85287-1104
Yexin Jessica Li*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ85287-1104

Abstract:

Religious beliefs, including those about an afterlife and omniscient spiritual beings, vary across cultures. We theorize that such variations may be predictably linked to ecological variations, just as differences in mating strategies covary with resource distribution. Perhaps beliefs in a soul or afterlife are more common when resources are unpredictable, and life is brutal and short.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2006

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