Supernatural Agents: Why We Believe in Souls, Gods, and Buddhas

By I. Pyysiäinen. 2009

90 citations recorded by the source corpus.

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The evolution of religion and morality: a synthesis of ethnographic and experimental evidence from eight societies (2017, background): “Watchful deities It is now widely thought in the cognitive science of religion (e.g., Barrett & Keil, 1996; Pyysiäinen, 2009) that conceptions and cognition of supernatural agents are built upon some form of anthropomorphism (Guthrie, 1980, 1995).”
Evolutionary accounts of belief in supernatural punishment: a critical review (2011, background): “They also necessitate material and social infra-structures that are costly (see Pyysiäinen, 2009).”
Religious actions speak louder than words: exposure to credibility-enhancing displays predicts theism (2017, background): “Some (e.g., Atran, 2002; Barrett, 2004; Boyer, 2001; Pyysiäinen, 2009) argue that a variety of pan-human cognitive biases and tendencies work to make supernatural agent beliefs both memorable and believable, consequently leading to their cultural success.”
Fear of Death and Supernatural Beliefs: Developing A New Supernatural Belief Scale to Test the Relationship (2013, background): “Although CSR as a field examines a variety of ‘religious’ phenomena, researchers have particular interest in the evidently pan-cultural belief in supernatural agents and entities (Boyer, 2001; Pyysiäinen, 2009).”