Cultural equilibria can lock in maladaptive paranoia and mutual suspicion

Evidence

Cultural evolution can create groups where, under the right conditions, any behavior spreads and becomes common, not only cooperative behaviors. This is why we often see subcultures or entire cultures stuck in a pattern or “equilibrium” that seems maladaptive and hurts the group and the individuals. A case in point is the mass paranoia and distrust that was seen in police states like the former Soviet Union and its satellite states. Another example is the recent spread of witchcraft and sorcery-based killings in certain parts of Liberia, creating an environment of such pervasive mutual suspicion that even the most basic forms of social cooperation could not flourish. These cases show that not all cultural or religious beliefs and practices lead to prosocial behavior. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 447

Categorization

• SEED: The Soviet police-state paranoia and Liberian witchcraft examples fund an essay contrasting ‘good’ prosocial religiosity with religiosity that actively destroys trust — the fumi-e public-apostasy ritual sits on the destructive side of that ledger.
• XREF: This is the dark mirror of what the Japanese authorities engineer in Silence — engineered mistrust destabilizing the Big God partner-choice mechanism the reader is tracing. — connects to: When education declines, pseudo-scientific cults proliferate as paranoia — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 156; Realism is a form of paranoia that dehumanizes both nature and peoples — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 153; Traditional religions counteracted paranoia through collective structure (+3 more)