Reflections on Religion: Reference List

Consolidated from the reference lists of the thirty chapters and the Conclusion of The Psychology of Religion. The bracketed numbers after each work locate the chapter or chapters where it is discussed in an annotated entry.

Al-Shamahi, E. (Host). (2025). Human [TV series]. BBC Studios; PBS. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/series/human [Chapter 9]

Alford, J. R., Funk, C. L., & Hibbing, J. R. (2005). Are political orientations genetically transmitted? American Political Science Review, 99(2), 153–167. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055405051579 [Chapter 11]

Allport, G. W., & Ross, J. M. (1967). Personal religious orientation and prejudice. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 5(4), 432–443. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0021212 [Chapter 1]

Altemeyer, B. (1996). The authoritarian specter. Harvard University Press. [Chapter 20]

Anderson, B. (2006). Imagined communities: Reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism (Rev. ed.). Verso. (Original work published 1983) [Chapter 30]

Armstrong, K. (2000). The battle for God: A history of fundamentalism. Alfred A. Knopf. [Chapter 10]

Aronoff, J., Lynn, S. J., & Malinoski, P. (2000). Are cultic environments psychologically harmful? Clinical Psychology Review, 20(1), 91–111. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0272-7358(98)00093-2 [Chapter 29]

Aronson, E., & Mills, J. (1959). The effect of severity of initiation on liking for a group. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 59(2), 177–181. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0047195 [Chapters 14, 16]

Asser, S. M., & Swan, R. (1998). Child fatalities from religion-motivated medical neglect. Pediatrics, 101(4), 625–629. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.101.4.625 [Chapter 6]

Atran, S. (2002). In gods we trust: The evolutionary landscape of religion. Oxford University Press. [Chapter 10]

Atran, S. (2010). Talking to the enemy: Faith, brotherhood, and the (un)making of terrorists. HarperCollins. [Chapter 3]

Attar, F. al-D. (2009). Memorial of God's friends: Lives and sayings of Sufis (P. Losensky, Trans.). Paulist Press. (Original work composed c. 1230) [Chapter 22]

Attenborough, D. (Narrator). (2006). Planet Earth [TV series]. BBC. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planet_Earth_(2006_TV_series) [Chapter 9]

Attenborough, D. (Narrator). (2016). Planet Earth II [TV series]. BBC. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planet_Earth_II [Chapter 9]

Attenborough, D. (Narrator). (2020). David Attenborough: A life on our planet [Film]. Silverback Films; Netflix. https://www.netflix.com/title/80216393 [Chapter 9]

Attenborough, D. (Narrator). (2023). Planet Earth III [TV series]. BBC Studios Natural History Unit. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planet_Earth_III [Chapter 9]

Babies. (2020). [Documentary series]. Netflix. [Chapter 15]

Barker, D. C., & Bearce, D. H. (2013). End-times theology, the shadow of the future, and public resistance to addressing global climate change. Political Research Quarterly, 66(2), 267–279. https://doi.org/10.1177/1065912912442243 [Chapter 23]

Barker, E. (1984). The making of a Moonie: Choice or brainwashing? Blackwell. [Chapter 29]

Barnett, A. G., van der Pols, J. C., & Dobson, A. J. (2005). Regression to the mean: What it is and how to deal with it. International Journal of Epidemiology, 34(1), 215–220. https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyh299 [Chapter 6]

Bartkowski, J. P., Xu, X., & Levin, M. L. (2008). Religion and child development: Evidence from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study. Social Science Research, 37(1), 18–36. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2007.02.001 [Chapter 20]

Bellah, R. N. (1967). Civil religion in America. Daedalus, 96(1), 1–21. https://www.jstor.org/stable/20027022 [Chapter 30]

Bem, D. J. (2011). Feeling the future: Experimental evidence for anomalous retroactive influences on cognition and affect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 100(3), 407–425. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0021524 [Chapter 5]

Bird, F., & Reimer, B. (1982). Participation rates in new religious and para-religious movements. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 21(1), 1–14. (Available via JSTOR.) [Chapter 29]

Bloom, P. (2016). Against empathy: The case for rational compassion. Ecco. [Chapter 18]

Boyer, P. (2001). Religion explained: The evolutionary origins of religious thought. Basic Books. [Chapter 10]

Broockman, D. E., & Kalla, J. L. (2016). Durably reducing transphobia: A field experiment on door-to-door canvassing. Science, 352(6282), 220–224. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aad9713 [Chapter 20]

Burkert, W. (1983). Homo necans: The anthropology of ancient Greek sacrificial ritual and myth (P. Bing, Trans.). University of California Press. (Original work published 1972) [Chapter 16]

Butlin, P., Long, R., Elmoznino, E., Bengio, Y., Birch, J., Constant, A., Deane, G., Fleming, S. M., Frith, C., Ji, X., Kanai, R., Klein, C., Lindsay, G., Michel, M., Mudrik, L., Peters, M. A. K., Schwitzgebel, E., Simon, J., & VanRullen, R. (2023). Consciousness in artificial intelligence: Insights from the science of consciousness. arXiv. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2308.08708 [Chapter 27]

Calin-Jageman, R. J., & Caldwell, T. L. (2014). Replication of the superstition and performance study by Damisch, Stoberock, and Mussweiler (2010). Social Psychology, 45(3), 239–245. https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-9335/a000190 [Chapter 15]

Campbell, J. (1972). Myths to live by. Viking Press. [Chapter 10]

Campbell, J., & Moyers, B. (1988). The power of myth (B. S. Flowers, Ed.). Doubleday. [Chapter 10]

Chaisson, E., & McMillan, S. (2017). Astronomy today (9th ed.). Pearson. [Chapter 10]

Chalmers, D. J. (1995). Facing up to the problem of consciousness. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 2(3), 200—219. http://consc.net/papers/facing.html [Chapter 27]

Chalmers, D. J. (1996). The conscious mind: In search of a fundamental theory. Oxford University Press. [Chapter 27]

Chalmers, D. J. (2023). Could a large language model be conscious? arXiv. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2303.07103 [Chapter 27]

Chambers, W. V., Langone, M. D., Dole, A. A., & Grice, J. W. (1994). The Group Psychological Abuse Scale: A measure of the varieties of cultic abuse. Cultic Studies Journal, 11(1), 88–112. [Chapter 29]

Choi, J.-K., & Bowles, S. (2007). The coevolution of parochial altruism and war. Science, 318(5850), 636–640. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1144237 [Chapters 16, 30]

Christakis, N. A., & Fowler, J. H. (2009). Connected: The surprising power of our social networks and how they shape our lives. Little, Brown. [Chapter 28]

Chwe, M. S.-Y. (2001). Rational ritual: Culture, coordination, and common knowledge. Princeton University Press. [Chapter 28]

Clark, C. (Host). (2017). The story of Europe [TV series]. ZDF. https://www.zdf-studios.com/en/program-catalog/international/unscripted/history-biographies/story-europe [Chapter 9]

Coates, D. D. (2010). Post-involvement difficulties experienced by former members of charismatic groups. Journal of Religion and Health, 49(3), 296–310. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-009-9251-0 [Chapter 29]

Cohn, N. (1970). The pursuit of the millennium: Revolutionary millenarians and mystical anarchists of the Middle Ages(Rev. ed.). Oxford University Press. [Chapter 23]

Constantino, M. J., Vîslă, A., Coyne, A. E., & Boswell, J. F. (2018). A meta-analysis of the association between patients' early treatment outcome expectation and their posttreatment outcomes. Psychotherapy, 55(4), 473–485. https://doi.org/10.1037/pst0000169 [Chapter 12]

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The psychology of optimal experience. Harper & Row. [Chapters 2, 3]

Curry, O. S., Mullins, D. A., & Whitehouse, H. (2019). Is it good to cooperate? Testing the theory of morality-as-cooperation in 60 societies. Current Anthropology, 60(1), 47–69. https://doi.org/10.1086/701478 [Chapter 7]

Dagnall, N., Denovan, A., Drinkwater, K., Parker, A., & Clough, P. (2016). Toward a better understanding of the relationship between belief in the paranormal and statistical bias: The potential role of schizotypy. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 1045. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01045 [Chapter 11]

Dawkins, R. (1976). The selfish gene. Oxford University Press. [Chapters 10, 11]

Dawkins, R. (2004). The ancestor's tale: A pilgrimage to the dawn of life. Houghton Mifflin. [Chapter 10]

Dawkins, R. (2006). The God delusion. Bantam Press. [Chapter 10]

Dawson, L. L. (1999). When prophecy fails and faith persists: A theoretical overview. Nova Religio, 3(1), 60–82. https://gwern.net/doc/sociology/1999-dawson.pdf [Chapter 29]

de Waal, F. B. M. (2006). Primates and philosophers: How morality evolved (S. Macedo & J. Ober, Eds.). Princeton University Press. [Chapter 7]

Durkheim, É. (1995). The elementary forms of religious life (K. E. Fields, Trans.). Free Press. (Original work published 1912) [Chapter 30]

Ehrenreich, B. (2009). Bright-sided: How the relentless promotion of positive thinking has undermined America. Metropolitan Books. [Chapter 8]

Ehrman, B. D. (2005). Misquoting Jesus: The story behind who changed the Bible and why. HarperSanFrancisco. [Chapter 10]

Einstein, A. (1947, October). Open letter to the General Assembly of the United Nations. [Chapter 30]

Eisenhower, D. D. (1953, April 16). The chance for peace [Address before the American Society of Newspaper Editors]. Washington, DC. https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/address-the-chance-for-peace-delivered-before-the-american-society-newspaper-editors [Chapter 30]

El-Hai, J. (2005). The lobotomist: A maverick medical genius and his tragic quest to rid the world of mental illness. John Wiley & Sons. [Chapter 4]

Elman, B. A. (2000). A cultural history of civil examinations in late imperial China. University of California Press. [Chapter 13]

Faisal, A. A., Selen, L. P. J., & Wolpert, D. M. (2008). Noise in the nervous system. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 9(4), 292—303. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn2258 [Chapter 27]

Festinger, L. (1957). A theory of cognitive dissonance. Stanford University Press. [Chapter 14]

Festinger, L., Riecken, H. W., & Schachter, S. (1956). When prophecy fails: A social and psychological study of a modern group that predicted the destruction of the world. University of Minnesota Press. https://doi.org/10.1037/10030-000 [Chapters 4, 23, 29]

Finkelstein, I., & Silberman, N. A. (2001). The Bible unearthed: Archaeology's new vision of ancient Israel and the origin of its sacred texts. Free Press. [Chapter 10]

Forer, B. R. (1949). The fallacy of personal validation: A classroom demonstration of gullibility. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 44(1), 118–123. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0059240 [Chapter 5]

Foucault, M. (2007). Security, territory, population: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1977–1978 (M. Senellart, Ed.; G. Burchell, Trans.). Palgrave Macmillan. (Original lectures delivered 1978) [Chapter 17]

Frank, J. D., & Frank, J. B. (1991). Persuasion and healing: A comparative study of psychotherapy (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. [Chapters 5, Conclusion]

Franze, K., Grosche, J., Skatchkov, S. N., Schinkinger, S., Foja, C., Schild, D., Uckermann, O., Travis, K., Reichenbach, A., & Guck, J. (2007). Müller cells are living optical fibers in the vertebrate retina. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 104(20), 8287–8292. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0611180104 [Chapter 11]

Friedman, R. E. (1987). Who wrote the Bible? Summit Books. [Chapter 10]

Galanter, M. (1990). Cults and zealous self-help movements: A psychiatric perspective. American Journal of Psychiatry, 147(5), 543–551. https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.147.5.543 [Chapter 29]

Galanter, M., Rabkin, R., Rabkin, J. G., & Deutsch, A. (1979). The "Moonies": A psychological study of conversion and membership in a contemporary religious sect. American Journal of Psychiatry, 136(2), 165–170. https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.136.2.165 [Chapter 29]

Gebauer, J. E., Sedikides, C., Verplanken, B., & Maio, G. R. (2012). Communal narcissism. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 103(5), 854–878. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0029629 [Chapter 26]

Girard, R. (1977). Violence and the sacred (P. Gregory, Trans.). Johns Hopkins University Press. (Original work published 1972) [Chapter 16]

Goff, P. (2019). Galileo's error: Foundations for a new science of consciousness. Pantheon Books. [Chapter 27]

Goodman, F. D. (1972). Speaking in tongues: A cross-cultural study of glossolalia. University of Chicago Press. [Chapter 25]

Graham, J., Haidt, J., & Nosek, B. A. (2009). Liberals and conservatives rely on different sets of moral foundations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 96(5), 1029–1046. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0015141 [Chapter 11]

Grant, E. (1996). The foundations of modern science in the Middle Ages: Their religious, institutional, and intellectual contexts. Cambridge University Press. [Chapter 13]

Grant, P. R., & Grant, B. R. (2014). 40 years of evolution: Darwin's finches on Daphne Major Island.Princeton University Press. [Chapter 11]

Gross, D., & Schäfer, G. (2011). Egas Moniz (1874–1955) and the "invention" of modern psychosurgery: A historical and ethical reanalysis under special consideration of Portuguese original sources. Neurosurgical Focus, 30(2), E8. https://doi.org/10.3171/2010.10.FOCUS10214 [Chapter 4]

Grubbs, J. B., Warmke, B., Tosi, J., James, A. S., & Campbell, W. K. (2019). Moral grandstanding in public discourse: Status-seeking motives as a potential explanatory mechanism in predicting conflict. PLOS ONE, 14(10), e0223749. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0223749 [Chapter 26]

Guthrie, S. E. (1993). Faces in the clouds: A new theory of religion. Oxford University Press. [Chapter 15]

Gómez, Á., Martínez, M., Martel, F. A., López-Rodríguez, L., Vázquez, A., Chinchilla, J., Paredes, B., Hettiarachchi, M., Hamid, N., & Swann, W. B. (2021). Why people enter and embrace violent groups. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, Article 614657. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.614657 [Chapter 29]

Hadding, C., Semb, O., Lehti, A., Fahlström, M., Sandlund, M., & DeMarinis, V. (2023). Being in-between; exploring former cult members' experiences of an acculturation process using the cultural formulation interview (DSM-5). Frontiers in Psychiatry, 14, Article 1142189. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1142189 [Chapter 29]

Haidt, J. (2001). The emotional dog and its rational tail: A social intuitionist approach to moral judgment. Psychological Review, 108(4), 814–834. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.108.4.814 [Chapter 7]

Hall, D. L., Matz, D. C., & Wood, W. (2010). Why don't we practice what we preach? A meta-analytic review of religious racism. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 14(1), 126–139. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088868309352179 [Chapter 1]

Hamid, N., Pretus, C., Atran, S., Crockett, M. J., Ginges, J., Sheikh, H., Tobeña, A., Carmona, S., Gómez, A., Davis, R., & Vilarroya, O. (2019). Neuroimaging 'will to fight' for sacred values: An empirical case study with supporters of an Al Qaeda associate. Royal Society Open Science, 6(6), 181585. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.181585 [Chapter 3]

Hamilton, W. D. (1964). The genetical evolution of social behaviour. I. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 7(1), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-5193(64)90038-4 [Chapter 16]

Hamlin, J. K., Wynn, K., & Bloom, P. (2007). Social evaluation by preverbal infants. Nature, 450(7169), 557–559. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature06288 [Chapter 15]

Hart, D. B. (2019). That all shall be saved: Heaven, hell, and universal salvation. Yale University Press. [Chapter 22]

Hawking, S. (Writer & Host). (2010). Into the universe with Stephen Hawking [TV series]. Darlow Smithson Productions. https://www.discovery.com/shows/into-the-universe-with-stephen-hawking [Chapter 9]

Hay, L. L. (1984). You can heal your life. Hay House. [Chapter 8]

Heidel, A. (1949). The Gilgamesh epic and Old Testament parallels (2nd ed.). University of Chicago Press. [Chapter 4]

Heider, F., & Simmel, M. (1944). An experimental study of apparent behavior. The American Journal of Psychology, 57(2), 243–259. https://doi.org/10.2307/1416950 [Chapter 15]

Hobson, J. A., & McCarley, R. W. (1977). The brain as a dream state generator: An activation-synthesis hypothesis of the dream process. American Journal of Psychiatry, 134(12), 1335–1348. https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.134.12.1335 [Chapter 5]

Hyman, R. (1977). “Cold reading”: How to convince strangers that you know all about them. The Zetetic (now the Skeptical Inquirer), 1(2), 18–37. [Chapter 8]

Hájek, A. (2022). Pascal's wager. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy (Fall 2022 ed.). Stanford University. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/pascal-wager/ [Chapter 22]

Iannaccone, L. R. (1992). Sacrifice and stigma: Reducing free-riding in cults, communes, and other collectives. Journal of Political Economy, 100(2), 271–291. https://doi.org/10.1086/261818 [Chapter 29]

Institute for Economics and Peace. (2025). Global Peace Index 2025: Measuring peace in a complex world. https://www.economicsandpeace.org [Chapter 30]

Inzlicht, M., McGregor, I., Hirsh, J. B., & Nash, K. (2009). Neural markers of religious conviction. Psychological Science, 20(3), 385–392. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2009.02305.x [Chapter 3]

Irons, W. (2001). Religion as a hard-to-fake sign of commitment. In R. M. Nesse (Ed.), Evolution and the capacity for commitment. Russell Sage Foundation. [Chapter 24]

James, W. (1890). The principles of psychology (Vol. 1). Henry Holt and Company. https://psychclassics.yorku.ca/James/Principles/prin6.htm [Chapter 27]

James, W. (1902). The varieties of religious experience: A study in human nature. Longmans, Green. [Chapter 10]

James, W. (1956). The will to believe. In The will to believe and other essays in popular philosophy. Dover. (Original work published 1896) [Chapter 22]

Johnson, S. B., Park, H. S., Gross, C. P., & Yu, J. B. (2018). Complementary medicine, refusal of conventional cancer therapy, and survival among patients with curable cancers. JAMA Oncology, 4(10), 1375–1381. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamaoncol.2018.2487 [Chapter 12]

Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, fast and slow. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. [Chapter 10]

Kaptchuk, T. J., & Miller, F. G. (2015). Placebo effects in medicine. New England Journal of Medicine, 373(1), 8–9. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMp1504023 [Chapter 6]

Kapur, S. (2003). Psychosis as a state of aberrant salience: A framework linking biology, phenomenology, and pharmacology in schizophrenia. American Journal of Psychiatry, 160(1), 13–23. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.160.1.13 [Chapter 15]

Kent, S. A. (2002). Deprogramming, exit counseling, and the decline of deprogramming. Cultic Studies Review, 1(3). [Chapter 29]

Kirkpatrick, L. A. (2005). Attachment, evolution, and the psychology of religion. Guilford Press. [Chapter 19]

Koch, C. (2019). The feeling of life itself: Why consciousness is widespread but can't be computed. MIT Press. [Chapter 27]

Koenig, L. B., McGue, M., Krueger, R. F., & Bouchard, T. J., Jr. (2005). Genetic and environmental influences on religiousness: Findings for retrospective and current religiousness ratings. Journal of Personality, 73(2), 471–488. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.2005.00316.x [Chapter 11]

Kohlberg, L. (1981). Essays on moral development, Vol. 1: The philosophy of moral development. Harper & Row. [Chapter 7]

Krummenacher, P., Mohr, C., Haker, H., & Brugger, P. (2010). Dopamine, paranormal belief, and the detection of meaningful stimuli. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 22(8), 1670–1681. https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn.2009.21313 [Chapter 15]

Kuhn, T. S. (1962). The structure of scientific revolutions. University of Chicago Press. [Chapter 4]

Kumar, S., Stecher, G., Suleski, M., & Hedges, S. B. (2017). TimeTree: A resource for timelines, timetrees, and divergence times. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 34(7), 1812–1819. https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msx116 [Chapter 11]

Kunda, Z. (1990). The case for motivated reasoning. Psychological Bulletin, 108(3), 480–498. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.108.3.480 [Chapter 1]

Kurzban, R., Tooby, J., & Cosmides, L. (2001). Can race be erased? Coalitional computation and social categorization. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 98(26), 15387–15392. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.251541498 [Chapter 16]

Kvanvig, J. L. (1993). The problem of hell. Oxford University Press. [Chapter 22]

Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors we live by. University of Chicago Press. [Chapter 18]

Lalich, J. (2004). Bounded choice: True believers and charismatic cults. University of California Press. [Chapter 29]

Lambert, N., Chen, Y.-N., Cheng, Y.-C., Li, C.-M., Chen, G.-Y., & Nori, F. (2013). Quantum biology. Nature Physics, 9(1), 10—18. https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys2474 [Chapter 27]

Langone, M. D. (1986). Cultism and American culture. Cultic Studies Journal, 3(2). https://articles1.icsahome.com/articles/cultism-and-american-culture-langone-csj-3-2-1986 [Chapter 29]

Levack, B. P. (2016). The witch-hunt in early modern Europe(4th ed.). Routledge. [Chapter 15]

Lewis Center for Church Leadership. (2024). Twenty-five percent of churches disaffiliated from the United Methodist Church. Wesley Theological Seminary. https://www.churchleadership.com/leading-ideas/twenty-five-percent-of-churches-disaffiliated-from-the-united-methodist-church/ [Chapter 11]

Lewis, C. S. (1946). The great divorce. Geoffrey Bles. [Chapter 22]

Lifton, R. J. (1961). Thought reform and the psychology of totalism: A study of "brainwashing" in China. W. W. Norton. [Chapter 29]

Lim, C., & Putnam, R. D. (2010). Religion, social networks, and life satisfaction. American Sociological Review, 75(6), 914–933. https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122410386686 [Chapters 1, 3, Conclusion]

Linney, Y. M., Murray, R. M., Peters, E. R., MacDonald, A. M., Rijsdijk, F., & Sham, P. C. (2003). A quantitative genetic analysis of schizotypal personality traits. Psychological Medicine, 33(5), 803–816. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291703007906 [Chapter 11]

Lofland, J., & Stark, R. (1965). Becoming a world-saver: A theory of conversion to a deviant perspective. American Sociological Review, 30(6), 862–875. https://doi.org/10.2307/2090965 [Chapter 29]

Lucca, K., Yuen, F., & the ManyBabies4 Consortium. (2025). Infants' social evaluation of helpers and hinderers: A large-scale, multi-lab, coordinated replication study. Developmental Science, 28(1), e13581. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13581 [Chapter 15]

Luhrmann, T. M. (2012). When God talks back: Understanding the American evangelical relationship with God. Alfred A. Knopf. [Chapter 10]

Mahler, M. S., Pine, F., & Bergman, A. (1975). The psychological birth of the human infant: Symbiosis and individuation.Basic Books. [Chapter 19]

Makdisi, G. (1981). The rise of colleges: Institutions of learning in Islam and the West. Edinburgh University Press. [Chapter 13]

Mangel, M., & Samaniego, F. J. (1984). Abraham Wald's work on aircraft survivability. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 79(386), 259–267. https://doi.org/10.1080/01621459.1984.10478038 [Chapter 13]

Merton, R. K. (1973). The sociology of science: Theoretical and empirical investigations (N. W. Storer, Ed.). University of Chicago Press. [Chapter 4]

Metzger, B. M., & Ehrman, B. D. (2005). The text of the New Testament: Its transmission, corruption, and restoration (4th ed.). Oxford University Press. [Chapter 7]

Miller, C. H., & Hedges, D. W. (2008). Scrupulosity disorder: An overview and introductory analysis. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 22(6), 1042–1058. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.janxdis.2007.11.004 [Chapter 26]

Miller, G. (2009). Spent: Sex, evolution, and consumer behavior. Viking. [Chapter 10]

Miller, G. F. (2000). The mating mind: How sexual choice shaped the evolution of human nature. Doubleday. [Chapter 11]

Nagel, T. (1974). What is it like to be a bat? The Philosophical Review, 83(4), 435—450. https://doi.org/10.2307/2183914 [Chapter 27]

Neeson, L. (Narrator). (2001). Evolution [TV series]. WGBH/NOVA; Clear Blue Sky Productions. [Chapter 9]

Newberg, A. B., Wintering, N. A., Morgan, D., & Waldman, M. R. (2006). The measurement of regional cerebral blood flow during glossolalia: A preliminary SPECT study. Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, 148(1), 67–71. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pscychresns.2006.07.001 [Chapter 25]

Newberg, A., & d'Aquili, E. (2001). Why God won't go away: Brain science and the biology of belief. Ballantine Books. [Chapter 2]

Nickerson, R. S. (1998). Confirmation bias: A ubiquitous phenomenon in many guises. Review of General Psychology, 2(2), 175–220. https://doi.org/10.1037/1089-2680.2.2.175 [Chapter 1]

Nietzsche, F. (1967). On the genealogy of morals (W. Kaufmann & R. J. Hollingdale, Trans.). Vintage Books. (Original work published 1887) [Chapter 17]

Noll, M. A. (2006). The civil war as a theological crisis. University of North Carolina Press. [Chapter 7]

Norenzayan, A. (2013). Big Gods: How religion transformed cooperation and conflict. Princeton University Press. [Chapters 1, 4, 10]

Norris, P., & Inglehart, R. (2004). Sacred and secular: Religion and politics worldwide. Cambridge University Press. [Chapters 18, Conclusion]

Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. (2021). Independent Expert on the enjoyment of human rights by persons with albinism. United Nations. https://www.ohchr.org/en/special-procedures/ie-albinism [Chapter 15]

Orton, N. C., Innes, A. M., Chudley, A. E., & Bech-Hansen, N. T. (2008). Unique disease heritage of the Dutch-German Mennonite population. American Journal of Medical Genetics Part A, 146A, 1072–1087. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18348259 [Chapter 2]

Orwell, G. (1945). Notes on nationalism. Polemic, 1. [Chapter 30]

Pagels, E. (1995). The origin of Satan. Random House. [Chapter 19]

Pargament, K. I. (1997). The psychology of religion and coping: Theory, research, practice. Guilford Press. [Chapter 3]

Pascal, B. (1966). Pensées (A. J. Krailsheimer, Trans.). Penguin. (Original work published 1670) [Chapter 22]

Paul, G. S. (2005). Cross-national correlations of quantifiable societal health with popular religiosity and secularism in the prosperous democracies: A first look. Journal of Religion & Society, 7. (Open access) [Chapters 18, Conclusion]

Penfield, W., & Perot, P. (1963). The brain's record of auditory and visual experience: A final summary and discussion. Brain, 86(4), 595–696. https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/86.4.595 [Chapter 3]

Pennycook, G., Cheyne, J. A., Seli, P., Koehler, D. J., & Fugelsang, J. A. (2012). Analytic cognitive style predicts religious and paranormal belief. Cognition, 123(3), 335–346. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2012.03.003 [Chapter 15]

Penrose, R. (1994). Shadows of the mind: A search for the missing science of consciousness. Oxford University Press. [Chapter 27]

Pew Research Center. (2022). How religion intersects with Americans' views on the environment.https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2022/11/17/how-religion-intersects-with-americans-views-on-the-environment/ [Chapter 23]

Pew Research Center. (2025). How the global religious landscape changed from 2010 to 2020. Pew Research Center. https://doi.org/10.58094/fj71-ny11 [Chapter Conclusion]

Phelps-Roper, M. (2019). Unfollow: A memoir of loving and leaving the Westboro Baptist Church. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. [Chapters 20, 29]

Pinker, S. (2011). The better angels of our nature: Why violence has declined. Viking. [Chapters 10, 27]

Pinker, S. (2025). When everyone knows that everyone knows…: Common knowledge and the mysteries of money, power, and everyday life. Scribner. [Chapter 28]

Pinker, S., Nowak, M. A., & Lee, J. J. (2008). The logic of indirect speech. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105(3), 833–838. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0707192105 [Chapter 28]

Popper, K. R. (1963). Conjectures and refutations: The growth of scientific knowledge. Routledge & Kegan Paul. [Chapter 4]

Prentice, D. A., & Miller, D. T. (1993). Pluralistic ignorance and alcohol use on campus: Some consequences of misperceiving the social norm. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64(2), 243–256. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.64.2.243 [Chapter 28]

Pretus, C., Hamid, N., Sheikh, H., Ginges, J., Tobeña, A., Davis, R., Vilarroya, O., & Atran, S. (2018). Neural and behavioral correlates of sacred values and vulnerability to violent extremism. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, Article 2462. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02462 [Chapter 29]

Prum, R. O. (2017). The evolution of beauty: How Darwin's forgotten theory of mate choice shapes the animal world—and us. Doubleday. [Chapter 11]

Randi, J. (1987). The faith healers. Prometheus Books. [Chapters 8, 10]

Richardson, J. T. (1993). Definitions of cult: From sociological-technical to popular-negative. Review of Religious Research, 34(4), 348–356. https://doi.org/10.2307/3511972 [Chapter 29]

Ritchie, S. J., Wiseman, R., & French, C. C. (2012). Failing the future: Three unsuccessful attempts to replicate Bem's "retroactive facilitation of recall" effect. PLoS ONE, 7(3), e33423. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0033423 [Chapter 5]

Rizzuto, A.-M. (1979). The birth of the living God: A psychoanalytic study. University of Chicago Press. [Chapter 19]

Roberts, A. (Host). (2009). The incredible human journey [TV series]. BBC. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Incredible_Human_Journey [Chapter 9]

Rosenzweig, S. (1936). Some implicit common factors in diverse methods of psychotherapy. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 6(3), 412–415. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1939-0025.1936.tb05248.x [Chapter 5]

Rosindell, J., & Harmon, L. J. (2012). OneZoom: A fractal explorer for the tree of life. PLoS Biology, 10(10), e1001406. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.1001406 [Chapter 11]

Rowland, I. D. (2008). Giordano Bruno: Philosopher/heretic. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. [Chapter 13]

Russell, B. (1957). Why I am not a Christian and other essays on religion and related subjects (P. Edwards, Ed.). Simon & Schuster. [Chapter 10]

Russell, B. (1997). Is there a God? In J. G. Slater & P. Köllner (Eds.), The collected papers of Bertrand Russell: Vol. 11. Last philosophical testament, 1943–68. Routledge. (Original work written 1952) [Chapter 22]

Sagan, C. (Host). (1980). Cosmos: A personal voyage [TV series]. PBS. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmos:_A_Personal_Voyage [Chapter 9]

Saldaña, O., Rodríguez-Carballeira, Á., Almendros, C., & Escartín, J. (2017). Development and validation of the Psychological Abuse Experienced in Groups Scale. The European Journal of Psychology Applied to Legal Context, 9(2), 57–64. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejpal.2017.01.002 [Chapter 29]

Samarin, W. J. (1972). Tongues of men and angels: The religious language of Pentecostalism. Macmillan. [Chapter 25]

Sapolsky, R. M. (2023). Determined: A science of life without free will. Penguin Press. [Chapter 10]

Searle, J. R. (1980). Minds, brains, and programs. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 3(3), 417—424. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X00005756 [Chapter 27]

Shermer, M. (2002). Why people believe weird things: Pseudoscience, superstition, and other confusions of our time (Rev. and expanded ed.). Henry Holt. [Chapter 8]

Shubin, N. (Host). (2014). Your inner fish [TV series]. Tangled Bank Studios; PBS. https://www.pbs.org/show/your-inner-fish-program [Chapter 9]

Smith, K. B., Alford, J. R., Hibbing, J. R., Martin, N. G., & Hatemi, P. K. (2017). Intuitive ethics and political orientations: Testing moral foundations as a theory of political ideology. American Journal of Political Science, 61(2), 424–437. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12255 [Chapter 11]

Smith, M. S. (2002). The early history of God: Yahweh and the other deities in ancient Israel (2nd ed.). Eerdmans. (Original work published 1990) [Chapter 10]

Sontag, S. (1978). Illness as metaphor. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. [Chapter 8]

Sosis, R., & Alcorta, C. (2003). Signaling, solidarity, and the sacred: The evolution of religious behavior. Evolutionary Anthropology, 12(6), 264–274. https://doi.org/10.1002/evan.10120 [Chapters 1, 2, 16, 24]

Sosis, R., & Bressler, E. R. (2003). Cooperation and commune longevity: A test of the costly signaling theory of religion. Cross-Cultural Research, 37(2), 211–239. https://doi.org/10.1177/1069397103037002003 [Chapters 1, 24, 29]

Spanos, N. P., & Hewitt, E. C. (1979). Glossolalia: A test of the "trance" and psychopathology hypotheses. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 88(4), 427–434. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-843x.88.4.427 [Chapter 25]

Spanos, N. P., Cross, W. P., Lepage, M., & Coristine, M. (1986). Glossolalia as learned behavior: An experimental demonstration. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 95(1), 21–23. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-843X.95.1.21 [Chapter 25]

Stark, R., & Bainbridge, W. S. (1980). Networks of faith: Interpersonal bonds and recruitment to cults and sects. American Journal of Sociology, 85(6), 1376–1395. https://doi.org/10.1086/227169 [Chapter 29]

Stewart, I. (Host). (2007). Earth: The power of the planet [TV series]. BBC. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth:_The_Power_of_the_Planet [Chapter 9]

Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. (2025). Trends in world military expenditure, 2024 (SIPRI Fact Sheet). https://www.sipri.org [Chapter 30]

Swayze, V. W., II. (1995). Frontal leukotomy and related psychosurgical procedures in the era before antipsychotics (1935–1954): A historical overview. American Journal of Psychiatry, 152(4), 505–515. https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.152.4.505 [Chapter 4]

't Hooft, G. (2016). The cellular automaton interpretation of quantum mechanics. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-41285-6 [Chapter 27]

Tegmark, M. (2000). Importance of quantum decoherence in brain processes. Physical Review E, 61(4), 4194—4206. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.61.4194 [Chapter 27]

Tellegen, A., & Atkinson, G. (1974). Openness to absorbing and self-altering experiences ("absorption"), a trait related to hypnotic susceptibility. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 83(3), 268–277. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0036681 [Chapter 15]

Three preregistered, independent attempts to reproduce the central precognition result reported by Bem (2011); all failed to find the effect (combined n = 150; combined p = .83, one-tailed). Frequently cited as an illustration of scientific self-correction and of the importance of replication before striking anomalous findings are accepted. [Chapter 5]

Tolin, D. F. (2010). Is cognitive-behavioral therapy more effective than other therapies? A meta-analytic review. Clinical Psychology Review, 30(6), 710–720. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2010.05.003 [Chapter 5]

Tosi, J., & Warmke, B. (2016). Moral grandstanding. Philosophy & Public Affairs, 44(3), 197–217. https://doi.org/10.1111/papa.12075 [Chapter 26]

Trivers, R. (2011). The folly of fools: The logic of deceit and self-deception in human life. Basic Books. [Chapters 10, 12]

Tyson, N. deG. (Host). (2014). Cosmos: A spacetime odyssey [TV series]. Fox; National Geographic. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmos:_A_Spacetime_Odyssey [Chapter 9]

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. (2023, February 21). SEC charges The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its investment management company for disclosure failures and misstated filings(Press Release 2023-35). https://www.sec.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2023-35 [Chapter 14]

Ungerleider, J. T., & Wellisch, D. K. (1979). Coercive persuasion (brainwashing), religious cults, and deprogramming. American Journal of Psychiatry, 136(3), 279–282. https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.136.3.279 [Chapter 29]

United Nations. (1948). Universal Declaration of Human Rights. https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights [Chapter 30]

United Nations. (2025). The Sustainable Development Goals report 2025. United Nations. [Chapter 30]

Van Bavel, J. J., & Packer, D. J. (2021). The power of us: Harnessing our shared identities to improve performance, increase cooperation, and promote social harmony. Little, Brown Spark. [Chapter 10]

Van Bavel, J. J., & Pereira, A. (2018). The partisan brain: An identity-based model of political belief. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 22(3), 213–224. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2018.01.004 [Chapter 1]

Volk, A. A., & Atkinson, J. A. (2013). Infant and child death in the human environment of evolutionary adaptation. Evolution and Human Behavior, 34(3), 182–192. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2012.11.007 [Chapter 6]

Wake, D. B. (1997). Incipient species formation in salamanders of the Ensatina complex. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 94(15), 7761–7767. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.94.15.7761 [Chapter 11]

Wald, A. (1943). A method of estimating plane vulnerability based on damage of survivors (CRC 432). Statistical Research Group, Columbia University; reprinted 1980, Center for Naval Analyses. [Chapter 13]

Wampold, B. E., & Imel, Z. E. (2015). The great psychotherapy debate: The evidence for what makes psychotherapy work (2nd ed.). Routledge. [Chapters 5, Conclusion]

Ward, C., & Voas, D. (2011). The emergence of conspirituality. Journal of Contemporary Religion, 26(1), 103–121. https://doi.org/10.1080/13537903.2011.539846 [Chapter 12]

Webster, D. M., & Kruglanski, A. W. (1994). Individual differences in need for cognitive closure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67(6), 1049–1062. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.67.6.1049 [Chapter 26]

White, E. B. (1952). Charlotte's web. Harper & Brothers. [Chapter 6]

Whitehouse, H. (2004). Modes of religiosity: A cognitive theory of religious transmission. AltaMira Press. [Chapters 10, 29]

Whitehouse, H. (2018). Dying for the group: Towards a general theory of extreme self-sacrifice. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 41, e192. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X18000249 [Chapter 3]

Winell, M. (2011). Religious trauma syndrome [Three-part series]. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy Today(British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies), 39(2–4). [Chapter 20]

Winnicott, D. W. (1953). Transitional objects and transitional phenomena: A study of the first not-me possession. International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, 34, 89–97. [Chapter 19]

Wiseman, R. (2011). Paranormality: Why we see what isn't there. Macmillan. [Chapter 10]

Wootton, D. (2006). Bad medicine: Doctors doing harm since Hippocrates. Oxford University Press. [Chapter 4]

World Bank. (2024). Poverty, prosperity, and planet report 2024: Pathways out of the polycrisis. World Bank. https://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/poverty-prosperity-and-planet [Chapter 30]

Zablocki, B., & Robbins, T. (Eds.). (2001). Misunderstanding cults: Searching for objectivity in a controversial field. University of Toronto Press. [Chapter 29]

Zahavi, A. (1975). Mate selection—A selection for a handicap. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 53(1), 205–214. https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-5193(75)90111-3 [Chapter 24]

Zakharin, M., & Bates, T. C. (2023). Testing heritability of moral foundations: Common pathway models support strong heritability for the five moral foundations. European Journal of Personality, 37(4), 485–497. https://doi.org/10.1177/08902070221103957 [Chapter 11]

Zeller, B. E. (2014). Heaven's Gate: America's UFO religion. New York University Press. [Chapter 23]

Zimbardo, P. G., & Hartley, C. F. (1985). Cults go to high school: A theoretical and empirical analysis of the initial stage in the recruitment process. Cultic Studies Journal, 2(1), 91–148. [Chapter 29]

Zimmer, C. (2018). She has her mother's laugh: The powers, perversions, and potential of heredity. Dutton. [Chapter 10]

Zuckerman, M., Silberman, J., & Hall, J. A. (2013). The relation between intelligence and religiosity: A meta-analysis and some proposed explanations. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 17(4), 325–354. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088868313497266 [Chapter 11]

A note on primary, scriptural, and historical sources

Chapter 20 — A note on scriptural references: Matthew 7:21–23 and Matthew 23:13–20 record Jesus's denunciations of hypocritical and self-aggrandizing piety; Deuteronomy 21:18–21 sets out the law of the "stubborn and rebellious son." On the rabbinic neutralisation of the latter, see the Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 71a, which declares that the case "never happened and never will happen," and was given only "that you may expound it and receive reward."

Chapter 22 — A note on scriptural and primary references, handled as sources rather than formal citations: the impulse to stand with the condemned appears in Exodus 32:32, where Moses asks to be blotted out of God's book rather than see his people destroyed, and in Romans 9:3, where Paul wishes himself "accursed and cut off from Christ" for the sake of his kindred; the parallel Buddhist ideal is the bodhisattva vow of Mahāyāna tradition—exemplified by Kṣitigarbha—to forgo final liberation until the hells themselves are emptied.

Chapter 24 — A note on scriptural references, handled as sources rather than formal citations: the parable of the good Samaritan is Luke 10:25–37; "neither Jew nor Greek" is Galatians 3:28; and "I desire mercy, and not sacrifice" is Hosea 6:6, quoted by Jesus in Matthew 9:13 and 12:7—each an instance of a tradition's own texts pressing against the tribal use of its rules.

Chapter 25 — A note on scriptural sources, handled as primary references rather than formal citations: the New Testament contains two distinct phenomena often conflated under "tongues"—the Pentecost narrative of Acts 2:1–13, in which the apostles are understood by speakers of many foreign languages (closer to xenoglossy), and Paul's discussion in 1 Corinthians 12–14, in which the utterance is ecstatic and requires interpretation. It is the latter strand that corresponds to modern glossolalia. Paul's restrictions on public tongues-speaking are at 1 Corinthians 14:5, 14:18–19, 14:23, and 14:27–28.

Chapter 26 — A note on scriptural and rabbinic references, handled as primary sources rather than formal citations: the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector is Luke 18:9–14; the wider Gospel critique of performing piety "to be seen by others" runs through Matthew 6:1–6 and Matthew 23. The rabbinic satire of the seven types of Pharisee, and the dispute over whether the Pharisee "from love" and the Pharisee "from fear" belong on the list at all, is at Babylonian Talmud, Sotah 22b.

Chapter 27 — A note on primary and historical sources, handled as references rather than formal citations: the claim that one's own consciousness is the single thing immune to doubt is from René Descartes'sMeditations on First Philosophy (1641); his doctrine that animals are automata is set out in the Discourse on the Method, Part V (1637). The identification of God with nature—Deus sive Natura—runs through Baruch Spinoza's Ethics (1677). Einstein's profession of belief in the God of Spinoza, who reveals himself in the lawful harmony of what exists rather than in the fates of human beings, was made in a 1929 reply to a New York rabbi. The Persons Case is Edwards v. Attorney-General for Canada, [1930] A.C. 124, decided by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council on 18 October 1929; Lord Sankey's phrase quoted here—"a relic of days more barbarous than ours"—is from the judgment itself. By a pleasing coincidence, 1929 is also the year of Einstein's telegram. The grant of "dominion" over every living thing is Genesis 1:26—28; the counterpoised image of tending and keeping the garden is Genesis 2:15. William James's continuity argument, quoted in the text, is from The Principles of Psychology, Vol. 1, Chapter VI (1890). The two scenes recalled from the filmMan of Steel (2013, directed by Zack Snyder, written by David S. Goyer) are the bonding of the Kryptonian Codex—the genetic registry of the race—into the infant Kal-El in the prologue, with the quoted line spoken by the scientist Jax-Ur, and the schoolroom sequence in which the nine-year-old Clark is overwhelmed by his senses.

Chapter 28 — A note on sources, handled as references rather than formal citations: the concept of common knowledge was given its modern philosophical form by David Lewis in Convention (1969) and analyzed in game theory by Thomas Schelling and Robert Aumann; The Emperor's New Clothes is Hans Christian Andersen's tale of 1837.

Conclusion — A note on sources, handled as references rather than formal citations: the Barmen Declaration (1934) was the founding confession of the Confessing Church's resistance to the Nazi-aligned "German Christians," drafted principally by Karl Barth; Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Martin Niemöller were among its movement's best-known voices.

← Conclusion | Contents

"Spent" by Geoffrey Miller -- a discussion of evolutionary psychology

 "Spent" is a good book by evolutionary psychologist Geoffrey Miller, looking particularly at consumer behaviour, including purchasing and marketing, through the lens of evolutionary psychology, concluding with some recommendations for a healthier, happier life based on his insights.  

There are parts of this book where he gets carried away, or makes what I thought were absurd suggestions, but overall I find him an important author and scientist to be aware of.  

Some of the content here reminded me a little bit of a book I previously reviewed called "The Case Against Education" by Bryan Caplan.  In this book, Caplan, an economist, argues that much post-secondary education provides only "signaling value" rather than tangible skills, expertise, or even enjoyment.  In this way, education can become akin to a peacock's tail -- offering a sign to employers or peers that you are intelligent or capable or "fit."  This may indeed be an accurate sign of fitness, but Caplan argues that it is a needlessly expensive one, in terms of time, money, effort, and emotional investment.  The time spent labouring to get your degree could have been spent doing something you found more enjoyable, productive, meaningful, or lucrative.  The intelligence it required to finish your degree could theoretically have been measured before you did your degree, allowing you entry to your career destination without wasting several years of your life in a program you didn't find useful or enjoyable.   Finally I disagreed with Caplan, since he goes too far in his condemnation of post-secondary education, but I have to acknowledge that he is at least partially right, that many of us pursue post-secondary courses that are more "hoops to jump through" to get a degree rather than providing any sort of benefit that we would use for any esthetic or job-related purpose later on.  

Miller looks more broadly at signaling, particularly with respect to consumer behaviour.   Many of the products we buy are chosen not because of their objective utility, but because they have a signaling value of some sort.   That is, they demonstrate either personality traits, or some intrinsic attractive characteristic such as health, stability, capacity to be caring, or humour, that would be desirable or compatible in a relationship partner.  For example, owning a luxury car would be a signal of financial well-being, which would often be found attractive in a a mate.  Different brands of car are more likely favoured by people with different personality traits, hence brand choice could advertise your personality style.  A degree from a prestigious university would advertise intelligence, and perhaps also stability and financial wealth, which are attractive features in a partner.  A diamond ring demonstrates financial stability and the willingness to sacrifice for your partner.  But the business of diamond rings for weddings is a relatively novel human cultural invention, leading to people sacrificing months of their income, further magnified by group norms about this, just to demonstrate a character trait that both partners should have known about each other just through the time they spent together.  

Miller's overarching thesis is not necessarily that these signaling phenomena are intrinsically bad, but that they are often needlessly or absurdly "expensive" which then causes harm to individuals or even to the world.  If everyone is chasing after expensive objects just to show that they are stable or a good catch, it is depleting to the world, and it is depleting to people's time and energy and money, often with small special interest groups (such as those in the sordid world of diamond mining) making huge profits.  

He argues that simple, wholesome signaling is the best and healthiest way to go.  If you would like to signal your personality traits, it is best to simply have sincere conversations with people so they can get to know you.  In conversation, you don't have to boast about yourself, you just have to "be yourself."    You don't have to demonstrate your character through the purchase of a car, or organic produce, or an Apple computer, or designer shoes.  A better signal about character integrity might come from activities, such as the manner in which you conduct relationships with your friends or family, or volunteering, or taking care of a pet.   

Some types of signaling that are meant to be "deceptive" could backfire.  Spending vast sums of money on cosmetic procedures to make yourself look younger and healthier, could in some extreme cases show others that you are overly preoccupied or insecure or "lying" about your appearance.  But wholesome and enjoyable and sincere self-care that is consistent with your interests and personality would always attract the people who are best for you, since it is honest, uncomplicated, non-deceptive signaling.  

In a concluding section, he makes the point that much of human evolution occurred over hundreds of thousands of years during which we lived in small groups surrounded by wilderness.  Effective signaling would have mostly required conversation, simple daily social or individual actions in the community, acts of work or service that would be seen and appreciated by others, demonstrations of particular interests or talents true to our character, and negative social or community consequences for people who behaved badly.  

Instead of buying expensive objects as gifts, Miller argues that it is more meaningful and authentic, healthier for society, and also more effective signaling, to do personalized activities as gifts, such as making someone something using your own efforts and creativity, or taking them on a special outing.  

Activities we would see as daily features of early human communities, such as playing with children, spending time with the elderly, preparing food, doing simple home maintenance for self and others, going for walks in the forest and identifying the bird calls and the plants by name, and managing the duties of daily life with warmth and humour rather than complaint, is a good foundation for a happy and healthy life and a good source of esteem from others.   Demonstrating skill and prowess and enjoyment in these areas would be a universally attractive thing, and hence is much more effective "signaling" than buying an expensive car or obtaining fancy credentials.  I'm a big fan of recommending such simple activities as a foundation of maintaining good mental health.  

"Determined" by Robert Sapolsky

 Robert Sapolsky is a great scientist with deep wisdom to share about humanity.  His recent book, Determined, is another must-read.  

The first half or so of the book details the many factors causing a given behaviour which are outside of what could be called "free will."  For example, hereditary factors, evolved traits, endocrine factors, social and cultural factors, childhood adversity, abuse, poverty, neglect, or discrimination, or on the other hand extreme enrichment through wealth and having good parents, home, and family; and the environmental conditions of the day or the hour.   Sapolsky reminds us, with evidence to back it up, how influential these factors are.  One chapter is dedicated to the Libet experiments, which demonstrate some degree of neural evidence of a decision before a person is subjectively aware of having decided, therefore calling into question whether our sense of making a decision is something like an illusion.  Other chapters are devoted to physics, such as about quantum mechanics and chaos theory; he argues that free will is not to be found in these areas.  

His strongest thesis, which he states a few times in the book, is that even if free will does exist, it is less influential than we believe it is -- that is, we underestimate the impact of other factors.  But often he strays from this strong thesis, into a state of denying the existence of any free will whatsoever, and then reflecting about the moral consequences of this.  

I think in many areas he is overconfident about findings that are quite debatable.  While the many genetic and environmental factors mentioned above are all indisputable, there could be a lot of debate (which he does not engage in) about the magnitude of some of these particular factors, or about the soundness or biases of the existing studies on these matters.  Just as in his previous book (also a great book), Behave, he quotes study data that really ought to be debated vigorously rather than accepted as the final truth on a matter.  In the current book, he even acknowledges these issues with Behave, but then he proceeds to do the same thing again anyways.  I'm not saying he's wrong about these claims, only that he overstates, at least through insinuation, the certainty of the evidence supporting them.  

 In quantum mechanics, for example, the most common view is that events in the quantum realm take place in a truly random fashion; such randomness eliminates the possibility of deterministic precision.   At the very least, there may be certain deterministic statements that are almost undeniably true (such as that you or I will die in less than 100 years; or that the sun will enter a red giant phase in several billion years), but there will always be a shadow of uncertainty around the specifics, or even the tiniest flicker of uncertainty about the event itself; some of this uncertainty is not due just to incomplete information to make a prediction, it is fundamental to physics itself.     Such quantum events I think are relevant to human events, as for example they could determine whether a particular DNA mutation takes place at a particular time, with very important consequences regarding an individual's survival, disease state, or passage of genes to the next generation.    Mind you, I discovered one group of physicists espousing an idea called "superdeterminism," which accounts for some of the peculiarities of quantum experiments (such as those dealing with Bell's inequality) by positing that apparently random quantum events are all completely determined, thus one cannot actually modify an experiment in a truly arbitrary manner, since the decision about the supposedly randomized experimental manipulation was already completely determined in advance.  Yet, I think we would have to agree that this is far from a settled matter in physics, and we would need to step back from making strong claims about this area.  

The strongest conclusion Sapolsky makes based on his thesis about determinism is that we therefore need to be more empathic and gently understanding about all human behaviour (of course, his thesis really takes away the possibility that we could somehow "choose" to be more understanding, since if this empathy occurred it all would have been determined in advance).  The best we could do to analyze this moral issue, while accepting his thesis of an absence of free will, is to consider an ideal moral code (in some kind of Platonic "realm of forms") which would have optimal fairness and justice.  This is in fact what moral codes, including those in the legal system, strive to do.  But in the light of our knowledge about free will, what changes if any would be best in terms of modifying moral or legal rules?  

He argues that dealing with criminal behaviour in a blaming or punitive manner is not rational, since the causes for crime have been determined not by the individual's "free will" but by genetic and environmental factors outside that person's control.  He similarly argues that praising people or celebrating great accomplishments is irrational, since the accomplishments, or capacity for hard work, etc. were also determined by factors outisde the individual's control.  So basically when we congratulate someone for a great accomplishment,  we are granting the person credit for factors that were really the product of millions of years of prior good luck.  

But of course, is this how we would really want to live?  To stop congratulating people after they do good things?  Or to always be meekly understanding when people do terrible things?  I agree with Sapolsky that improved scientific understanding about causality should prompt us to be more humble, and to be less inclined to reflexively blame or punish bad behaviour while motivated by reflexive emotions.   

But part of normal life involves congratulating people.  Admiring accomplishment is like admiring beauty in nature.   Maybe there should be a little bit of humble acknowledgement of those factors that contributed to the accomplishment outside of one's own "free will."  But this is part of the etiquette in almost any awards ceremony, though most people don't go into remote evolutionary causes for their good fortune--they tend to stop at family, friends, and teachers.  

Sapolsky cites various egregious examples of recklessly excessive violent punishments through history, leading to his own stance of advocating leniency in the justice system.  He has a very admiring tone around Norway's approach to having what most in the world would consider a shockingly lenient prison sentence for a notorious mass murderer.   While there is much to admire in Norway's civilization and justice system, I think this practice of strictly limited sentencing fails to address a massive component of consideration in criminal sentencing, which is the psychological impact of the sentence on victims, and families of victims (who are also victims) of the crime.  A reason to keep a mass murderer in custody permanently is to treat and prevent anxiety and distress among victims or families of victims.  It need not be motivated by our base (but highly evolved) urges to punish, or by irrational overestimation of subsequent criminal risk (scientific estimates of recidivism risk should obviously impact management of criminal offenders, though the accuracy of recidivism risk estimation is way less than 100%). It should definitely be influenced by considerations of the impact of the sentencing on the health and psychological well-being of victims.  

So all in all, a very important and impactful book.  I have to admit I find it disturbing to know that "free will" even if it does exist, is rather less complete in determining behaviour than most of us believe.   But in dealing with scientific findings, we need to be prepared to consider things if the evidence supports them, even if the findings might be disconcerting.

How does this book guide our understanding of mental health, or of therapies for mental health problems?  For one thing, we should be reminded to reflect on our tendency to be reflexively judgmental, or to blame people for what could be seen as failures of will.  If we do engage in judgment or blame, it should be guided by rationality, as to whether this would be helpful to improve the situation for all.  Often such blame or judgment is not actually helpful.  Arguably some forms of blame could be a normal motivational influence in humans, but probably we use this too often and too heavy-handedly.  

"The Power of Us" by Jay Van Bavel & Dominic Packer: a recommendation, review, and applications in psychiatry

 Jay Van Bavel and Dominic Packer are social psychologists whose recent book, The Power of Us, is a nice review of basic social psychology with a unique emphasis on the impact of identity and group affiliation on human behaviour and cognitive biases.  

This book would be an excellent accompaniment to The Righteous Mind, by Jonathan Haidt, and Blueprint, by Nicholas Christakis.   Haidt looks at individual differences in values as a factor affecting group behaviour.  For example, people who value loyalty and "purity" (as opposed to "compassion" or "fairness") as cardinal values may be more likely to have strong group adherence, and may be more accepting of hierarchical or paternalistic systems; such traits could lead in particular to involvement with conservative groups.   Haidt argues (and I strongly agree) that such values and traits have a strong hereditary basis (though are also partly influenced by environment & cultural milieu) and have evolved in humans due to selective advantages for those who have a strong inclination towards group affiliation.  But of course, too much loyalty can be a bad thing, if it causes people to adhere loyally to groups which are engaging in harmful behaviour--we see this problem in the news every day.    Christakis looks at group dynamics in an interesting mathematical way, with successful or unsuccessful group behaviour influenced by the structure of connectedness, which in turn is influenced by leadership styles, external factors,  and individual personality traits.  

The subject of group affiliation, identity, with associated biases, polarization, and conflict, is an incredibly important subject in the world today.  Group-based divisions arguably are a primary cause of political problems and war across the world, and lead to delays and inefficiencies in solving world problems such as poverty, environmental degradation, and war.  On the positive side, strong group allegiance has led to most of humanity's great achievements through history.  Most great accomplishments in the sciences, the arts, in politics, and in the law, involve large-scale collaboration.   

Group affiliation is a powerful source of identity for all of us.  If we have a strong attachment to a group, we are likely to favour ingroup members.   This is normal and ubiquitous,  but it can lead in an extreme case to hating or persecuting outgroup members.   To prevent this, it can be helpful to have a culture of interacting respectfully or collaboratively, or recreationally, with outgroup members (Jonathan Haidt made this point years ago, in The Righteous Mind).  It could be especially effective if any such recreational activity could blend members from different groups.  The authors cite some very successful examples of these ideas, such as having a soccer league in Iraq where each team was required to have players assigned equally from different conflicted religious groups.  The resulting games allowed each player, and each team, to like, respect, and enjoy outgroup members, since they became teammates,  leading to reduced conflict in their communities afterwards.  A famous example from classic social psychology research is the "Robbers Cave" experiment from the 1950s, in which antagonistic groups of teenage boys later worked together in friendship and harmony if they had to collaborate together to solve a problem external to them both.  

The chapter on "fostering dissent" is especially insightful.  The authors make the point that voicing a dissenting opinion within a group is socially costly.  Even if the dissent is about an important logical or moral issue, the risk of dissenting can be to make other group members angry, and therefore threaten one's position as a group member.  You risk being seen as disloyal or disrespectful.  They argue that you have to really care about your group to be willing to voice dissent.  I see this could often be true, but sometimes particular individuals are more oppositional or defiant, due to character traits, leading to frequent dissent even if they don't particularly care about their group status.  Another problem with dissent is that other group members may have quietly agreed with the dissenter's position, but it could be costly for them to endorse the dissent, since it could make them look bad or immoral for not having brought it up first.  So a default position in groups would be to maintain the status quo, and for dissent to be risky, even if the group is engaging in harmful behaviours or beliefs.   Unfortunately, this can cause harmful behaviour to be perpetuated in some groups, and for dissenters to be punished or ostracized.  Recent examples of this include U.S. politician Liz Cheney, who has spoken out against the deeply immoral behaviour in the leadership of her political party.  Unfortunately, she was defeated in the subsequent election.  While she should be seen as someone defending the honour, integrity, and values of her group, therefore protecting the group's long-term interests, she instead has been seen by her own ingroup members as disloyal, and punished for it.  I hope her own story is not over, and that her principled behaviour may prevail in the end.  

An approach to solving the dissent problem is to have a leadership structure or ethos in groups which encourages respectful disagreement, without fear of punishment or other consequences.  Also it is vitally important, as a persuasive factor, to frame dissent or challenge with the group's long-term well-being in mind--to remind others of the group's core values, of the group's long-term interests, with a dissenting view intended to be a service to the group rather than merely a criticism.  

On a larger scale, I think it is always helpful to expand the circle of our groups.  Instead of focusing on local or national or religious or political allegiances, why not focus on a shared humanity.  Some of the guiding insights of many of the world's religions, such as Christianity, were to expand a circle of love, respect, and inclusion to outgroup members, and not to shrink into insular, bitter enclaves judgmental of others outside of their own ranks.  

Psychiatric issues always exist in a social context.  Patients will always have group allegiances or identities.  These could involve religion, politics, gender, race, family, occupation, etc.  It is important to understand these group allegiances, empathize with them, and communicate therapeutic ideas with the group allegiances in mind.   Encouragement or advice for change carries a high risk of failing if it is expressed in such a way as to challenge a person's individual or group-based values.  A survey of group affiliation and identity factors should be an essential part of a psychiatric history, and an ongoing theme in a therapeutic dialogue.  

Foolproof, by Sander van der Linden: a recommendation, review, and analogy with psychotherapy

I strongly recommend a new book by Cambridge psychologist Sander van der Linden, entitled Foolproof: why misinformation infects our minds and how to build immunity.

I have followed van der Linden's research for several years, alongside other experts who are studying the psychology of persuasion, misinformation, and propaganda.    This area has been an interest of mine for many years, after discovering psychologists such as Cialdini and Kahneman.  

This is a subject that everyone needs to learn about!  Persuasive techniques (for good and for bad) have always been with us through history; the power and influence of these techniques will only continue to escalate, thanks to the internet era, and now the era of artificial intelligence (AI).  

I have discussed these issues in other posts, such as:

 Garth Kroeker: How Minds Change by David McRaney: a book review and discussion (August 18, 2022)

and 

Garth Kroeker: Political polarization, propaganda, conspiracy theories, misinformation, and vaccine hesitancy: a psychiatric approach to understanding and management).  (September 1, 2021) 

and 

Garth Kroeker: "GroupThink" (October 6, 2016) 

Van der Linden reviews the history and scope of misinformation.  Among the many current examples are conspiracy theorists impacting public opinion and policy, political influencers attempting to sway elections, propagandists from other countries defending violent or oppressive policies or sowing discord among their opponents, and of course the anti-vaccine community.  

There are a couple of acronyms he introduces: the word CONSPIRE can help us to recognize some of the common features of conspiracy theories:  

C = contradictory.  Most conspiracy theories feature contradictions.  For example, there could be a belief that some awful event is a hoax, but then also a belief that the awful event is real but was caused by evil conspirators.  

O = over-riding suspicion.    A sense of general distrust that goes beyond the topic of the conspiracy theory, particularly a distrust of official or mainstream explanations.  

N = nefarious plot.  A belief that there is a shadowy group of evildoers, such as government officials, corporations, or (at worst) a particular racial or ethnic group, who behind the scenes have caused some bad thing, perhaps with a motive to advance themselves.  

S = "something's wrong."  The belief that regardless of any acknowledged or corrected fact about an event, there's something going on that isn't right.  

P = persecuted individual.  The belief that someone is being deliberately harmed (most commonly, the believers in the conspiracy theory).  

I = immune to evidence.  Presentations of evidence often have little or no effect to change the opinion of people having conspiracy theory beliefs, in fact evidence could even "backfire" and cause the conspiracy theorist to become even more entrenched, or to believe that you or your sources of evidence are all biased or part of the conspiracy.   Such immunity to evidence is common among people who have limited expertise or knowledge about science, but could also be present in some highly educated people.  A conspiracy theorist who does have more scholarly expertise may understandably deploy statistical or psychological terminology to defend their beliefs; for example, by accusing other scholars of having psychological biases (such as confirmation bias).

Re = reinterpreting randomness.  This is creating a false causal story about random, unrelated events.   Humans in general are prone to doing this.   

It's interesting as a psychiatrist to reflect on the "CONSPIRE" factors above.  They are very often present in frank psychotic states, or in milder variants such as paranoid personality.  The tendency to have paranoid thoughts exists as a trait on a continuum in the population.  This trait has various environmental causes, but also has a high heritability.   It is a typical psychotic symptom to believe that there is a special, often ominous explanation behind pseudorandom events.    

Of course, sometimes there are explanations for events which differ from the mainstream understanding.  Through history there have always been maverick scientists,  who demonstrated something new and important, despite the objections or condemnation of their peers.  One example that has always bothered me was Alfred Wegener, who in 1912 was the first to propose the theory of continental drift; he was ridiculed and dismissed by his peers, who couldn't believe that entire continents could move across the face of the earth; Wegener tragically died before his theory was proved correct.   We have to be open to consider alternative theories.  However, maverick scientists, unlike conspiracy theorists, have clear evidence to support their claims; their reasoning does not contain contradictions; they are not immune to evidence, do not reinterpret randomness, and do not have ominous, over-riding suspicious beliefs about persecution.  

Van der Linden's next acronym is "DEPICT", to help remember features of manipulative communication:

  

D - discrediting.  The manipulative communicator will portray experts who disagree with them (such as scientific leaders, or even entire communities such as leading scientific journals), as biased, poorly qualified, incompetent, or having some nefarious agenda.  It is frustrating to have a scientific debate with someone who is engaging in such discrediting, since any sound evidence you raise with them will be dismissed as invalid.  

E - emotional.  Using strong emotional language to induce fear, anger, or disgust as a persuasive tool.  

P - polarization.  Framing issues, and people who have positions on these issues, in a "black or white" fashion, rather than as shades of grey.  This leads to a false sense of dichotomy, and encourages the formation of teams of opponents holding increasingly extreme positions, and increasing disrespect for those who disagree. 

I - impersonation.  Using fake experts to bolster a claim.   A variant of this is using an actual expert, but whose expertise has nothing to do with the issue at hand.  

C - conspiracy theories.  Encouraging conspiracy theory beliefs. 

T - trolling.  Attacking, insulting, or threatening opponents, usually in an online environment, such as on social media.  Such harassment has at times been so intense that scientists or policy experts (including in public health) have been afraid to speak out, fearing for their safety.  

Van der Linden's work focuses on how we can best deal with misinformation.  He concludes with an analogy:  misinformation must be dealt with by "immunizing" ourselves against it.  

In order to build immunity against an infectious disease, it is necessary to be exposed to a weakened version of the pathogen, in order to train the immune system, such that future doses of pathogens would be dealt with quickly.  

Infectious diseases are much easier to manage, with much less risk of harm or spread, by building immunity, rather than by only relying on treatment after infection.   

Similarly, it is much harder to "treat" misinformation after the fact.  Tactics to "treat" misinformation would be debate, education, and careful review of evidence.  But many people who have fallen into a misinformation "rabbit hole" are difficult to reach or persuade using reasoned debate.  Such debate may even cause the misinformed person to become even more angry or stubbornly adherent to their ideas.    

It is better to prevent people from falling into the rabbit hole in the first place--not by eliminating rabbit holes (which is impossible) but by teaching people how to identify and manage rabbit holes if they encounter them.  

The idea of "vaccination" is presented as an analogy throughout the book.  But beliefs and persuasion are not exactly like the body's immune system.  It's a very good analogy, but not perfect.  Much of the phenomenon van der Linden is talking about is explainable through learning theory:   we learn much better if we actually practice "hands on" with things, rather than just passively absorbing theory.  If you want to learn mathematics, you actually have to work through a lot of problems, not just read about how to do them.  If you want to learn how to ride a bike or drive a car, you have to practice cycling and driving, not just read about those things in a book!  As part of the practice, it is best to face challenging situations, and learn through experience how to overcome them.  

Similarly, to deal with emergencies, it is imperative to do behavioural practice many times as a preparation.  We have to do fire drills to prepare for a potential fire.  Pilots need to practice many times in a simulator how to manage engine failure.  If you only read about something, or learn about something, without practicing, you can't possibly become proficient, especially under pressure.  

To deal with misinformation, we have to practice, hands-on, dealing with misinformation, at first with "easy" examples, then more and more difficult ones.  

Applying these ideas to psychotherapy: CBT (cognitive-behavioural therapy) is very important and useful, but at worst it can be too passive.  Many people engaging in CBT do a lot of passive learning, they do written exercises in a workbook, but do not really practice deliberate exposure to uncomfortable stimuli.  The "vaccine" analogy could be useful to incorporate into CBT for treating depression or anxiety.   This is something that I have advocated for many years, mainly an emphasis on the "B" part of CBT.  To deal with panic attacks, it is most helpful to actually practice having panic attacks, in safe, controlled conditions!   To deal with depressive thoughts, it could be a useful exercise to invent simulated depressive thoughts, at first mild ones, then more challenging ones, to understand the mechanism by which they are created, and to practice facing them without being negatively affected.   This exposure therapy is like van der Linden's "vaccine."  But most therapists don't emphasize this enough, they only try to teach people to relax or cope with symptoms after they have occurred.  One of the purposes of talking about past emotional trauma is to recreate the painful events in the mind, but in a limited, controlled, "virtual" form, within the safe context of a therapy office.  In this way talking therapy has a vaccine-like effect.  

Linden's book is a must-read, not only for those interested in propaganda or misinformation, but also for anyone wanting a better understanding of the mind itself, with ideas that touch upon managing almost any life adversity, including mental illnesses.  

References: 

Linden, S. V. D. (2023). Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects Our Minds and How to Build Immunity. WW Norton.