Times Online
Human brain naturally inclined towards the supernatural
By Mark Henderson, Science Editor of The Times

The human brain is hard-wired to be susceptible to supernatural beliefs
as a result of tens of thousands of years of evolution, a British
psychologist said today.
Religion and other forms of magical thinking continue to thrive, in
spite of a lack of evidence and the advance of science, because people
are naturally biased to accept a role for the irrational in their daily
lives, according to Bruce Hood, Professor of Experimental Psychology at
the University of Bristol.
This evolved credulity suggests that it will be impossible to root out
belief in ideas such as creationism and paranormal phenomena, even
though they have been refuted by evidence and are held as a matter of
faith alone.

People ultimately believe in them for the same reasons as they attach
sentimental value to inanimate objects like wedding rings or teddy
bears, and recoil from artefacts linked to evil, as if they are pervaded
by a physical "essence".
Even the most rational people behave in these irrational ways, and
supernatural beliefs are part of the same continuum, Professor Hood told
the British Association Festival of Science in Norwich today.

To demonstrate, he asked members of his audience if they were prepared
to put on an old-fashioned blue cardigan in return for a £10 reward,
and had no shortage of volunteers.
He then informed them that the cardigan used to belong to Fred West, the
mass murderer.
"Most hands went down," he said.
"When people did wear it, most people moved away from them. It's not
actually Fred West's jumper. But it's the belief that it's Fred West's
jumper that has the effect. It is as if evil, a moral stance defined by
culture, has become physically manifest inside the clothing."

Similar beliefs, which are held among the most sceptical of scientists,
also explain why few people would agree to swap their wedding rings for
identical replicas. The difference between attaching significance to
sentimental objects, and believing in religion, magic or the paranormal,
is only one of degree, Professor Hood said.

These tendencies, he said, are almost certainly a product of evolution.
The human mind is adapted to reason intuitively, so it can generate
theories about how the world works even when mechanisms cannot be seen
or easily deduced.
While this is ultimately responsible for scientific thinking, as in the
discovery of invisible forces such as gravity, it also leaves people
prone to making irrational errors about what cause and effect.

"In most cases, intuitive theories capture everyday knowledge, such as
the nature and properties of objects, what makes something alive, or the
understanding that people's minds motivate their actions," Professor
Hood said.
"But because intuitive theories are based on unobservable properties,
such theories leave open the possibility of misconceptions. I believe
these misconceptions of naive intuitive theories provide the basis of
many later adult magical beliefs about the paranormal."

This innate tendency means it is futile to expect such beliefs to die
out as scientific understanding of the world improves. "The mind is
adapted to reason intuitively about the properties of the world. Because
we operate intuitively, it is probably pointless to get people to
abandon belief systems. No amount of evidence is going to get people to
take it on board and abandon these ideas."

Credulous minds may have evolved for several reasons. It was once less
dangerous to accept things that are not true than it was to reject real
facts, such as the threat posed by a nearby predator, and this may have
predisposed humans to err on the side of belief. Superstition may also
give people a sense of control that can reduce stress.
"I don't think we're going to evolve a rational mind, because there are
benefits to being irrational," Professor Hood said.

"Superstitious behaviour -- the idea that certain rituals and practices
and protect you is adaptive. If you remove the appearance that they are
in control, both humans and animals become stressed. During the Gulf War
in 1991, in the areas that were attacked by Scud missiles, there was a
rise in superstitious belief.

"I want to challenge recent claims by Richard Dawkins among others, that
supernaturalism is primarily attributable to religions spreading beliefs
among the gullible minds of the young. Rather religions may simply
capitalise on a natural bias to assume the existence of supernatural
forces."