Memory and Belief in the Transmission of Counterintuitive Content

@article{Willard2016MemoryAB,
  title={Memory and Belief in the Transmission of Counterintuitive Content},
  author={Aiyana K. Willard and Joseph Henrich and Ara Norenzayan},
  journal={Human Nature},
  year={2016},
  volume={27},
  pages={221-243}
}
Cognitive scientists have increasingly turned to cultural transmission to explain the widespread nature of religion. One key hypothesis focuses on memory, proposing that that minimally counterintuitive (MCI) content facilitates the transmission of supernatural beliefs. We propose two caveats to this hypothesis. (1) Memory effects decrease as MCI concepts become commonly used, and (2) people do not believe counterintuitive content readily; therefore additional mechanisms are required to get from… Expand
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