Religious agents’ minimal counterintuitiveness makes them memorably transmissible

Evidence

These kinds of memory biases play an important role in religious belief. The extraordinary agents endemic to religions appear to possess a particularly evocative set of abilities not shared by ordinary beings. They can be invisible; they can see things from afar; they can move through physical objects. This minimal counterintuitiveness is memorable, giving these concepts an advantage in cultural transmission. These departures from common sense are systematic but not radical enough to rupture meaning completely. As Sperber has put it, these minimal counterintuitions are relevant mysteries: they are closely connected to background knowledge, but do not admit to a final interpretation. Because they arouse attention and are open-textured, people can think about these concepts and what they mean in different, endless ways. These features make them ideal candidates for cultural survival. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 364

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to early cognitive-science-of-religion findings (Boyer’s counterintuitiveness research) and the memorability account extending to Rodrigues’s supernatural agents in the reader’s cross-textual project. — connects to: Religious concepts persist through minimal counterintuitiveness that is memorable without rupturing meaning; Memorability alone cannot explain which supernatural agents get worshipped — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 366; Supernatural agents’ minimal counterintuitiveness explains their cultural advantage
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Religious concepts persist through minimal counterintuitiveness that is memorable without rupturing meaning; Memorability alone cannot explain which supernatural agents get worshipped — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 366; Supernatural agents’ minimal counterintuitiveness explains their cultural advantage

Broader Connections

• Religious concepts persist through minimal counterintuitiveness that is memorable without rupturing meaning #expands (0.95)
• Supernatural agents’ minimal counterintuitiveness explains their cultural advantage #corroborates (0.95)
• Memorability alone cannot explain which supernatural agents get worshipped #complicates (0.85) — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 366