Hypnosis

[henryp]

I've been thinking about evolution and natural selection, and how it relates to religion.  One of the ideas bouncing around in my head is that people must have some inclination to buy into religion.  The things that are believed are absurd.  I myself bought into that nonsense for quite a while.  The question is why?  What is it about our makeup that prevents rational thought from taking over.

Perhaps some insight could be found in hypnosis?  I'm not sure exactly how it works.  The gist seems to be if you are willing, then it can happen.  So the small action of being willing to be hypnotized, which can result in believing you are chasing an imaginary chicken around a stage.

I suspect an early tribe that was able to organize and be more 'ant-like' in their behavior would have an advantage of a tribe behaving as individuals?  So the ability to allow others to control you via suggestion maybe rose up through natural selection?

I haven't really flushed out the thinking yet, obviously, but it seems like there is something to it.  That a neutral decision (meaning it is not irrational/rational) can lead to irrational belief seems like it may be relevant somehow to understanding our nature.

Curious if anyone has any thoughts on this?

[ApeNotKillApe]

Some people are slaves by nature. Also psychologically manipulating children works wonders.

[Angrboda]

I suspect an early tribe that was able to organize and be more 'ant-like' in their behavior would have an advantage of a tribe behaving as individuals?  So the ability to allow others to control you via suggestion maybe rose up through natural selection?

This only works as an assumption if the environment is stable and repetitive. Under such circumstances, such behavior can capitalize on the consistency in the environment. However if the environment is unstable and subject to change, the lack of individualism leads to opportunity costs and losses due to an inability to flexibly respond to changes in the environment. The ideal human is therefore a mixture of ant-like and individualistic behaviors. What the most profitable mix of such behaviors is will vary depending on the environment.

[henryp]

I suspect an early tribe that was able to organize and be more 'ant-like' in their behavior would have an advantage of a tribe behaving as individuals?  So the ability to allow others to control you via suggestion maybe rose up through natural selection?

This only works as an assumption if the environment is stable and repetitive.  Under such circumstances, such behavior can capitalize on the consistency in the environment.  However if the environment is unstable and subject to change, the lack of individualism leads to opportunity costs and losses due to an inability to flexibly respond to changes in the environment.  The ideal human is therefore a mixture of ant-like and individualistic behaviors.  What the most profitable mix of such behaviors is will vary depending on the environment.

I wonder if we were ant like and then developed individualistic, or vice versa.  Science probably knows.  An ant-like base probably makes religion make even more sense.  

Or really the willingness to accept any suggestion.  The idea that you don't have to be willing to accept the details of the suggestion, only be willing to accept A suggestion is intriguing. More so if the willingness to accept suggestions is a built in trait which it appears to be.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

I suspect the real reason is somewhat simpler, a sort of agree-with-me-or-I'll-kill-you sort of methodology.

Boru