Costly public displays reliably signal otherwise unfakeable genuine belief

Evidence

Belief can be easily faked, which allows cultural opinion makers to manipulate cultural learners by believing one thing but convincing the latter of something else. One evolutionary solution to this dilemma, Henrich argues, is a cognitive bias toward accepting beliefs that are backed up by deeds that would otherwise not be performed unless they were genuinely believed by these opinion makers. In short, we want to see that people walk the walk and not just talk the talk. In this sense, extravagant religious behaviors are what Henrich calls “credibility-enhancing displays,” or CREDs—behaviors that in religious groups are reliably associated with genuine belief in counterintuitive gods and can be used to infer sincere commitment to them. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 333

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines CREDs (credibility-enhancing displays), the Henrich coinage central to signaling theory of religious commitment.
• XREF: Connects directly to the reader’s Big God/partner-choice framework — this is the observable display mechanism by which belief becomes credible.