A Most Dangerous Tale: the Universality, Evolution, and Function of Blood Libels

Abstract

Blood libels are narratives about Jews and Christians, featuring an accusation that a child or a woman had been kidnapped and assaulted due to religious or economic goals. Blood libel-like narratives, however, are not only found in Judeo-Christian history; they appear in many cultures. Using the framework of Cultural Attraction Theory, the paper considers their evolution, and identifies testable factors of attraction. The paper makes two claims regarding the morphology and the function of these ancient tales. Firstly, narratives about outgroups tend to evolve towards the shape of a blood libel, as it taps into an optimum number of universal cognitive preferences. The correspondence with the evolved features of the mind contributes to the success of the narrative in different cultures and time periods. Secondly, these narratives function as coalition signals. Upon calling ingroup members into action against an outgroup, the blood libel unifies audiences before engaging in exclusionary action.