2-060 - A Cross-Cultural Approach to Studying Influences on the Development of Religious Beliefs: Evidence from China

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Religious beliefs have historically been treated as a pure product of cultural socialization. Contemporary theorists argue, however, that while culturally-learned information is crucial, religious beliefs are additionally supported by universal cognitive biases. Problematically, however, most research addressing such claims has been limited to Western populations. This symposium addresses this bias. It presents four talks on the development of religion-relevant social learning and cognitive tendencies within China, an officially secular nation with cultural beliefs markedly different from Western ideas.

Presentation One explores Chinese children’s endorsement of religious concepts in relation to their parents’. Findings reveal that children, like their parents, show low endorsement of religious concepts relative to uncontroversial scientific concepts. However, adult-like norms of explicit religious disavowal only emerge by 10-years of age. Presentation Two explores whether Chinese individuals display intuitively dualistic afterlife beliefs despite the Nation’s official secular materialism. Responses to organ transplant scenarios reveal that while Chinese adults do not generally endorse mental and bodily states after death, children’s intuitive dualism becomes marked by 10-years of age. Presentations Three and Four turn to focus on the development of intuitive biases to explain natural phenomena in terms of purpose and design. Presentation Three reveals that unlike Chinese adults, young children broadly endorse teleological explanations of the origins and properties of natural entities. Presentation Four adopts a different approach to more deeply probe Chinese adults’ judgments. Results reveal that, like Western adults, Chinese adults display tacit intuitions about intentional design and purpose in nature when tested in speeded tasks.

Sub Unit

• Cognitive Processes

Chairs

• Deb Kelemen, Boston University

• Liqi Zhu, Chinese Academy of Science

Individual Presentations

• Chinese children and adults’ judgments about the existence of unobservable entities - Presenting Author: Yixin Kelly Cui, Boston University; Paul Lansley Harris, Harvard Graduate School of Education; Telli Davoodi, Boston University; Kathleen Helen Corriveau, Boston University

• Bodily organs and the afterlife: Chinese children’s reasoning about the afterlife - Presenting Author: Melanie Nyhof, Indiana University South Bend; Liqi Zhu, Chinese Academy of Science; Tingyu Li, Chinese Academy of Sciences; Kelly James Clark, Grand Valley State University

• Cross-cultural parallels in the teleological bias: Children from China endorse function-based explanations of natural phenomena - Presenting Author: Adena Schachner, University of California, San Diego; Liqi Zhu, Chinese Academy of Science; Jing Li, Chinese Academy of Sciences; Deb Kelemen, Boston University

• Culturally and developmentally robust tendencies to view nature in terms of purpose and design: Evidence from Chinese adults - Presenting Author: Elisa Järnefelt, University of Helsinki / Boston University; Joshua Rottman, Franklin and Marshall College; Liqi Zhu, Chinese Academy of Science; Deb Kelemen, Boston University