The Belief Instinct: The Psychology of Souls, Destiny, and the Meaning of Life

by Jesse Bering

Overview

Top 25 Books of 2011 by the American Library Association, Choice Reviews
Named one of the 11 Best Psychology Books of 2011 by The Atlantic

"A balanced and considered approach to this often inflammatory topic." —Nature

Lively and brilliantly argued, The Belief Instinct explains the psychology behind belief. Drawing on surprising new studies as well as on literature, philosophy, and even pop culture, The Belief Instinct will reward readers with an enlightened understanding of belief—as well as the tools to break free of it.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393080414
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	02/20/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	272
File size:	586 KB

About the Author

Jesse Bering, Ph.D., is a frequent contributor to Scientific American, Slate, and Das Magazin. His work has also appeared in New York Magazine, The Guardian, and The New Republic, and has been featured on NPR, the BBC, Playboy Radio, and more. Bering is the former director of the Institute of Cognition and Culture at Queen's University, Belfast, and began his career as a professor at the University of Arkansas. He lives near Ithaca, New York.

Editorial Reviews

"Bering's contribution to answering the question [of God] is worthy of consideration by any thinking person."

The Scientist (Magazine of the Life Sciences)

"An interesting and pleasurable book to read, mainly because it throws up demanding challenges. It may never achieve the notoriety of The God Delusion but its fundamental approach took me from Professor Dawkins's cliché-ridden arguments into more original territory."

The Catholic Herald

"A balanced and considered approach to this often inflammatory topic."

Nature

"Voted one of the 11 Best Psychology Books of 2011.
Blending empirical evidence from seminal research with literary allusions and cultural critique, Bering examines the central tenets of spirituality, from life’s purpose to the notion of an afterlife, in a sociotheological context underlined by the rigor of a serious scientist."

The Atlantic

"[Bering] approaches these dicey subjects with a dazzlingly insightful reading of the empirical literature on human cognition and development, a sly sense of humor, and an obvious compassion for those who do not share his beliefs. He also has a lot of fun. Richard Dawkins and others have surveyed some of this terrain before, but few have done it as convincingly and enjoyably."

Choice Reviews (Top 25 books of 2011) American Library Association

"Witty... [Bering] employs examples and analogies that make his arguments seem like common sense rather than the hard-earned scientific insights they really are."

New Scientist

"Jesse Bering is a brilliant young psychologist, a gifted storyteller, a careful reader of Jean-Paul Sartre, and a very funny man. And his first book, The Belief Instinct, is a triumph—a moving, provocative, and entertaining exploration of the human search for meaning."

Paul Bloom

"A colorful romp through psychology, philosophy and popular culture."

New Humanist

[Bering] approaches these dicey subjects with a dazzlingly insightful reading of the empirical literature on human cognition and development, a sly sense of humor, and an obvious compassion for those who do not share his beliefs. He also has a lot of fun. Richard Dawkins and others have surveyed some of this terrain before, but few have done it as convincingly and enjoyably.-- "American Library Association, Choice Reviews (Top 25 books of 2011)"

A colorful romp through psychology, philosophy and popular culture.-- "New Humanist"

An interesting and pleasurable book to read, mainly because it throws up demanding challenges. It may never achieve the notoriety of The God Delusion but its fundamental approach took me from Professor Dawkins's cliché-ridden arguments into more original territory.-- "The Catholic Herald"

Bering ranges comfortably among evolutionary biology, psychology, and philosophical concerns, and finds the good science in belief.-- "Kirkus Reviews"

Bering's contribution to answering the question [of God] is worthy of consideration by any thinking person.-- "The Scientist (Magazine of the Life Sciences)"

Jesse Bering is a brilliant young psychologist, a gifted storyteller, a careful reader of Jean-Paul Sartre, and a very funny man. And his first book, The Belief Instinct, is a triumph--a moving, provocative, and entertaining exploration of the human search for meaning.--Paul Bloom, Professor of Psychology, Yale University, author of How Pleasure Works

Voted one of the 11 Best Psychology Books of 2011.
Blending empirical evidence from seminal research with literary allusions and cultural critique, Bering examines the central tenets of spirituality, from life's purpose to the notion of an afterlife, in a sociotheological context underlined by the rigor of a serious scientist.-- "The Atlantic"

Witty . . . . [Bering] employs examples and analogies that make his arguments seem like common sense rather than the hard-earned scientific insights they really are.-- "New Scientist"

From the Publisher

"A balanced and considered approach to this often inflammatory topic."

Nature Lib

Evolutionary psychologist Bering (Cognition and Culture/Queen's Univ.,Belfast) examines the part played by belief in the evolutionary past.

Humans, perhaps uniquely, think about the thoughts of others. This is known as the theory of mind. We conceptualize the unobservable mental states of others and reason about what they see, know, feel and believe. The author cogently explains the evolutionary advantages and disadvantages of this mechanism. The disadvantages start to accrue, writes Bering, when the very usefulness of the theory of mind floods our social brain, to "overshoot our mental-state attributions to things that are, in reality, completely mindless." This plays directly into the propensity of humans to experience spontaneous questions of the meaning, purpose and origin of life—"an insuppressible eruption of our innate human minds"—which has found a foothold in teleo-functional reasoning. Things have a preconceived purpose, from the soul to signs in nature, and are put on earth to solve human problems and for human use, perceived as evidence of a designing hand at work, some supernatural agent behind tornadoes, volcanoes, human destiny, the flight of birds, etc. So there may well be a belief instinct, a Darwinian drive for explanation as the greater adaptive response. Though this supernatural agent, one of belief's expressions, is opportunistically manipulated when it comes to scientific explanation, Bering highlights its potentially critical role in natural selection. "The illusion of God," he writes, "engendered by our theory of mind, was one very important solution to the adaptive problem of human gossip." In other words, in group settings (which are better for survival), a bad reputation diminished your reproductive chances; if you saw the eye of God in everything, you behaved better.

Bering ranges comfortably among evolutionary biology, psychology and philosophical concerns, and finds the good science in belief.

Kirkus Reviews