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The Minds of God(s) and Humans: Differences in Mind Perception in Fiji and North America
Previous research suggests that how people conceive of minds depends on the culture in which they live, both in determining how they interact with other human minds and how they infer the unseen minds of gods. We use exploratory factor analysis to compare how people from different societies with dis...
Autores principales: | , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
John Wiley and Sons Inc.
2019
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6590269/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30648803 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/cogs.12703 |
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author | Willard, Aiyana K. McNamara, Rita A. |
author_facet | Willard, Aiyana K. McNamara, Rita A. |
author_sort | Willard, Aiyana K. |
collection | PubMed |
description | Previous research suggests that how people conceive of minds depends on the culture in which they live, both in determining how they interact with other human minds and how they infer the unseen minds of gods. We use exploratory factor analysis to compare how people from different societies with distinct models of human minds and different religious traditions perceive the minds of humans and gods. In two North American samples (American adults, N = 186; Canadian students, N = 202), we replicated a previously found two‐factor agency/experience structure for both human and divine minds, but in Fijian samples (Indigenous iTaukei Fijians, N = 77; Fijians of Indian descent, N = 214; total N = 679) we found a three‐factor structure, with the additional containing items related to social relationships. Further, Fijians’ responses revealed a different three‐factor structure for human minds and gods’ minds. We used these factors as dimensions in the conception of minds to predict (a) expectations about human and divine tendencies towards punishment and reward; and (b) conception of gods as more embodied (an extension of experience) or more able to know people's thoughts (an extension of agency). We found variation in how these factors predict conceptions of agents across groups, indicating further theory is needed to explain how culturally generated concepts of mind lead to other sorts of social inferences. We conclude that mind perception is shaped by culturally defined social expectations and recommend further work in different cultural contexts to examine the interplay between culture and social cognition. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-6590269 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2019 |
publisher | John Wiley and Sons Inc. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-65902692019-07-08 The Minds of God(s) and Humans: Differences in Mind Perception in Fiji and North America Willard, Aiyana K. McNamara, Rita A. Cogn Sci Regular Articles Previous research suggests that how people conceive of minds depends on the culture in which they live, both in determining how they interact with other human minds and how they infer the unseen minds of gods. We use exploratory factor analysis to compare how people from different societies with distinct models of human minds and different religious traditions perceive the minds of humans and gods. In two North American samples (American adults, N = 186; Canadian students, N = 202), we replicated a previously found two‐factor agency/experience structure for both human and divine minds, but in Fijian samples (Indigenous iTaukei Fijians, N = 77; Fijians of Indian descent, N = 214; total N = 679) we found a three‐factor structure, with the additional containing items related to social relationships. Further, Fijians’ responses revealed a different three‐factor structure for human minds and gods’ minds. We used these factors as dimensions in the conception of minds to predict (a) expectations about human and divine tendencies towards punishment and reward; and (b) conception of gods as more embodied (an extension of experience) or more able to know people's thoughts (an extension of agency). We found variation in how these factors predict conceptions of agents across groups, indicating further theory is needed to explain how culturally generated concepts of mind lead to other sorts of social inferences. We conclude that mind perception is shaped by culturally defined social expectations and recommend further work in different cultural contexts to examine the interplay between culture and social cognition. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2019-01-07 2019-01 /pmc/articles/PMC6590269/ /pubmed/30648803 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/cogs.12703 Text en © 2019 The Authors. Cognitive Science published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of Cognitive Science Society This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
spellingShingle | Regular Articles Willard, Aiyana K. McNamara, Rita A. The Minds of God(s) and Humans: Differences in Mind Perception in Fiji and North America |
title | The Minds of God(s) and Humans: Differences in Mind Perception in Fiji and North America |
title_full | The Minds of God(s) and Humans: Differences in Mind Perception in Fiji and North America |
title_fullStr | The Minds of God(s) and Humans: Differences in Mind Perception in Fiji and North America |
title_full_unstemmed | The Minds of God(s) and Humans: Differences in Mind Perception in Fiji and North America |
title_short | The Minds of God(s) and Humans: Differences in Mind Perception in Fiji and North America |
title_sort | minds of god(s) and humans: differences in mind perception in fiji and north america |
topic | Regular Articles |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6590269/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30648803 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/cogs.12703 |
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