{"title":"Why some coalitions benefit from historical myths more than others.","authors":"Luuk L Snijder, Carsten K W De Dreu","doi":"10.1017/S0140525X24000657","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X24000657","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Behavioural ecologies in themselves can create variation in fitness interdependencies among individuals, and hence modulate the functionality of invoking historical myths. We develop this possibility for the case where coalitions form to attack and exploit enemies, or to defend and protect against hostile out-groups. We propose that invoking historical myths are functional and observed especially when groups aggressively expand.</p>","PeriodicalId":8698,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral and Brain Sciences","volume":"47 ","pages":"e192"},"PeriodicalIF":16.6,"publicationDate":"2025-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142913779","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Group myths can create shared understanding even if they don't act as superstimuli.","authors":"Moshe Hoffman, Cristina Moya","doi":"10.1017/S0140525X24000785","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X24000785","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Sijilmassi et al. argue that myths around shared ancestry and history exploit an evolved psychology of interdependence. In contrast, we argue that psychological exploitation is not required. Rather, such myths may be one method, among many, to create a shared understanding of group boundaries, which can be \"self-enforcing.\" We summarize the game-theoretic basis for this account and some supportive evidence.</p>","PeriodicalId":8698,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral and Brain Sciences","volume":"47 ","pages":"e181"},"PeriodicalIF":16.6,"publicationDate":"2025-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142913636","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Homo historicus: History as psychological science.","authors":"David Pietraszewski, Michael Moncrieff","doi":"10.1017/S0140525X24000682","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X24000682","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Historical myths are indeed a mystery in need of explanation, and we elaborate on the present adaptationist account. However, the same analysis can also be applied to motivations to produce and consume history in general: That humans produce and consume history is also a mystery in need of psychological explanation. An adaptationist psychological science of history is needed.</p>","PeriodicalId":8698,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral and Brain Sciences","volume":"47 ","pages":"e188"},"PeriodicalIF":16.6,"publicationDate":"2025-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142913665","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Myths and prestige in Hindu nationalist politics.","authors":"Radha Sarkar, Amar Sarkar","doi":"10.1017/S0140525X24000670","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X24000670","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Sijilmassi et al. offer a myth-based framework that is particularly useful in understanding the rising tide of Hindu nationalism in contemporary India. We propose that the success of these myths lies partly in drawing upon the evolved human capacity for prestige-based status to induce a sense of belonging and identification with high-prestige Hindu social groups.</p>","PeriodicalId":8698,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral and Brain Sciences","volume":"47 ","pages":"e190"},"PeriodicalIF":16.6,"publicationDate":"2025-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142913590","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Historical myths are believed because audiences are socially motivated.","authors":"Shuai Shao, Michael Barlev","doi":"10.1017/S0140525X24000669","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X24000669","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Do people believe in historical myths because they are manipulated by coalitional recruiters, or because it is in their interests to do so? The target article gives somewhat conflicting explanations. We propose that the audiences of historical myths are socially rather than epistemically motivated - they believe and propagate historical myths as a way of signaling their coalitional commitments.</p>","PeriodicalId":8698,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral and Brain Sciences","volume":"47 ","pages":"e191"},"PeriodicalIF":16.6,"publicationDate":"2025-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142913643","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"What about language?","authors":"Antonio Benítez-Burraco","doi":"10.1017/S0140525X2400075X","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X2400075X","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Myths about a remote shared past can certainly promote cooperation between distantly related people, seemingly via their impact on our social cognition, and ultimately facilitate the achievement of complex tasks in large-scale societies. Nonetheless, the creation and transmission of these complex narratives are not possible without the parallel development of sophisticated language(s), endowed with properties like displacement (enabling mental travels in space and time) and complex syntax (enabling the assembly and communication of complex thoughts).</p>","PeriodicalId":8698,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral and Brain Sciences","volume":"47 ","pages":"e173"},"PeriodicalIF":16.6,"publicationDate":"2025-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142913778","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The social identity approach offers a more parsimonious and complete explanation of historical myths' function and characteristics.","authors":"Peter Kardos","doi":"10.1017/S0140525X24000608","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X24000608","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The social identity approach offers a more parsimonious and more comprehensive explanation for historical myths' assumed coalition-building function than the target article's proposed mechanism based on fitness interdependence. Target article's assertion that social identity theory cannot explain certain characteristics of historical myths is based on a narrow interpretation of the social identity approach.</p>","PeriodicalId":8698,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral and Brain Sciences","volume":"47 ","pages":"e182"},"PeriodicalIF":16.6,"publicationDate":"2025-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142913602","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Adaptive lags, illusions and common interest.","authors":"Carl Brusse, Kim Sterelny","doi":"10.1017/S0140525X24000621","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X24000621","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The explanatory model proposed by Sijilmassi et al. appeals to fitness interdependence, and is highly plausible for small-scale societies. We argue that it is less so in the context of the larger societies that much of their empirical evidence is drawn from, and that this is because fitness interdependence does not readily scale up in the way the model requires.</p>","PeriodicalId":8698,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral and Brain Sciences","volume":"47 ","pages":"e176"},"PeriodicalIF":16.6,"publicationDate":"2025-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142913606","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Limited evidence that fitness interdependence produces historical origin myths.","authors":"Andreas Wimmer","doi":"10.1017/S0140525X24000748","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X24000748","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This commentary points out some theoretical lacuna in the argument and then evaluates, in a preliminary way, its main comparative empirical hypotheses. It finds very limited support for the observable implications of the evolutionary theory. By contrast, the historical remoteness of foundational myths is closely associated with how long a society has been ruled by a centralized state, pointing at the important role of political history.</p>","PeriodicalId":8698,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral and Brain Sciences","volume":"47 ","pages":"e194"},"PeriodicalIF":16.6,"publicationDate":"2025-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142913666","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Uncertainty reduction as an alternative explanation of historical myths.","authors":"David J Grüning, Joachim I Krueger","doi":"10.1017/S0140525X24000736","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X24000736","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>We agree with Sijilmassi et al. that historical myths are a tool for coalition recruitment. We argue, however, that a close fit between an evolved entity and an identified function does not imply that the latter is the critical evolutionary trigger. We also propose an alternative individual-centric explanation: Historical myths reduce uncertainty by providing cognitive and behavioral guidance.</p>","PeriodicalId":8698,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral and Brain Sciences","volume":"47 ","pages":"e180"},"PeriodicalIF":16.6,"publicationDate":"2025-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142913777","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}