Cognitive and evolutionary science of human cooperation with particular interest in signaling, ritual, and religion.
Assist Prof at LEVYNA, Masaryk Uni
www.martinlang.cz
#CogEvoSciRel
Martin Lang
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And see the beautiful illustrations by Eva!
The core idea is that some aspects of ritual may be reinforced through repeated affective or social rewards. Other aspects depend on model-based expectations: culturally transmitted ideas about what rituals do, why they matter, and what kinds of outcomes they might bring about.
Why do rituals persist?
They are often treated either as attempts to influence uncertain outcomes or as practices that regulate group life. But these functions are usually blended together.
In our new paper, we argue that reinforcement learning helps explain this blending.
