Traditional religions counteracted paranoia through collective structure

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 (#complicates, via linked claim)

In simple social systems a secure mode of living which went beyond trust in specific other people was established – in so far as it was at all – by means of religiously based assumptions about true being, nature and the supernatural, by means of myth, language and natural law. This meant that the right ordering of things was taken as normative and assumed to be trustworthy. In this sense the world was removed from human disposition and its complexity assumed to be already reduced. No impersonal forms of trust were required. — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 206 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

In the next chapters, I explain how prosocial religious groups spread around the world and came out on top in the intensifying intergroup struggle that has shaped human history. How this happened is a complex cultural evolutionary story. These successful religious groups—the cultural ancestors of most human beings alive today—pieced together a whole cluster of psychological mechanisms that, building on supernatural monitoring and credible displays of sincere faith, fostered and cemented social solidarity. Credible displays of commitment to Big Gods were the joint foundation of these prosocial religions, but additional social bonding mechanisms, drawn from innate psychology and culturally learned practices, fused true believers into moral communities of cooperators. Taken together, this potent package of beliefs and behaviors make up religious solidarity. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 379 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Group membership socializes paranoia by collectivizing shared delusion — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 156; Cultural equilibria can lock in maladaptive paranoia and mutual suspicion — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 447; Traditional societies reduce complexity through religious norms rather than impersonal trust — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 206 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Cultural equilibria can lock in maladaptive paranoia and mutual suspicion #complicates (0.85) — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 447
• Traditional societies reduce complexity through religious norms rather than impersonal trust #corroborates (0.82) — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 206
• Prosocial religions succeeded by bundling several psychological mechanisms into religious solidarity #expands (0.80) — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 379
• Ritual persistence reflects chronic paranoia in the protection trade #contradicts (0.78)
• Religion persists because it supplies collective identity, not just beliefs #expands (0.75) — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 889
• Perceived accountability to supernatural monitors extends trust beyond one’s own religious community #corroborates (0.72)