Why Did Memetics Fail? Comparative Case Study

Although the theory of memetics appeared highly promising at the beginning, it is no longer considered a scientific theory among contemporary evolutionary scholars. This study aims to compare the genealogy of memetics with the historically more successful gene-culture coevolution theory. This comparison is made in order to determine the constraints that emerged during the internal development of the memetics theory that could bias memeticists to work on the ontology of meme units as opposed to hypotheses testing, which was adopted by the gene-culture scholars. I trace this problem back to the diachronic development of memetics to its origin in the gene-centered anti-group-selectionist argument of George C. Williams and Richard Dawkins. The strict adoption of this argument predisposed memeticists with the a priori idea that there is no evolution without discrete units of selection, which in turn, made them dependent on the principal separation of biological and memetic fitness. This separation thus prevented memeticists from accepting an adaptationist view of culture which, on the contrary, allowed gene-culture theorists to attract more scientists to test the hypotheses, creating the historical success of the gene-culture coevolution theory

The effect of Covid-19 emergence on religiosity: Evidence from Singapore

How do people deal with events they cannot control? Religious beliefs and practices are among common responses to uncontrollable situations. We analyze the responses of Singaporeans surveyed between November 2019 and March 2020—just before and just after Covid-19 hit the region—to understand how the beliefs and actions of both religious and non-religious people were affected by the emergence of the previously unknown virus. We find that after the emergence of Covid-19, religious respondents reported significantly higher levels of beliefs and service attendance frequency, while prayer frequency was not affected. We argue that the decrease in perceived controllability over people’s lives explains these results. We discuss the implications of our findings for understanding the dynamics of religious beliefs and practices during times of uncertainty

Perceived moral essentialism as a component of culturally evolved norm psychology: Complex test with real-world data

It is argued that norm psychology evolved through gene-culture coevolution and currently plays a crucial role in human ability to live in large societies. However, the specific features of norm psychology are not yet fully examined. This paper is focused on the perception of moral essentialism (umbrella term for perceived absolutism, universalism, and objectivism of moral norms). Cultural group selection favors groups with prosocial norms and when these norms are strong and stable, selection favors individuals with norm psychology that helps them to comply with the norms. I investigated whether moral essentialism could be part of such norm psychology in three studies using large-scale datasets from the US. First, Pew Religious Landscapes, Tightness-Looseness index, and FBI Crime Reports show that normatively tighter states in the US have more moral absolutists, and that the percentage of moral absolutists is negatively associated with the number of robberies (N=50). Second, data from World Values Survey suggest that moral absolutists justify transgressions against societal norms less than relativists across the US (N~5000). Finally, data from the National Study of Youth and Religion suggest that moral essentialists in the US benefit by being less likely punished by the local legal system (N~2000). Please, download Pew data, WVS data, and NSYR data from the links provided in the paper. Other data are included in this repository. Then, run the R codes

The impact of ritual participation on perceived moral objectivity: A longitudinal investigation of the U.S. adolescents

How people perceive morality plays a crucial role in their behavior and moral decision-making. However, we have little understanding of the factors that drive the perception of morality as objectively existing. This study examines the impact of religion, specifically religious rituals, in promoting the perception of morality as objective. I analyzed two waves (2003, 2013) of the National Study of Youth and Religion to test whether religious participation during respondents’ adolescence predicted their perceived moral objectivity ten years later. Moreover, I estimated the difference in effects for those who anchored moral decision-making on religious and secular grounds. Ritual participation in 2003 was positively associated with moral objectivity in 2013. This association was stronger for respondents who grounded their morality in religion and who had powerful religious experience. The results point to the essential role of adolescence period in forming moral views

The role of costly commitment signals in assorting cooperators during intergroup conflict

A reliable assortment of committed individuals is crucial for success in intergroup conflict due to the danger of shirking. Theory predicts that reliable communication of commitment is afforded by costly signals that track cooperative intent. Across four pre-registered studies (total N = 1,440, general US population), we used the public goods game where groups competed for resources to investigate whether and how costly signals function to assort cooperators. We found that costly signals assorted more cooperative participants, creating groups that would win most of the between-group clashes. The same effects were not observed when participants were assigned to signal, implying that signaling tracks but does not create cooperative intent. However, contrary to costly signaling theory, we found that low cost signals were more effective in cooperator assortment compared to high cost signals and suggest that future studies need to focus on signaler perception of cost/benefit trade-off of signaling