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Showing our seams: A reply to Eric Funkhouser

Philosophical Psychology 31 (7):991-1006 (2018)

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Signalling, commitment, and strategic absurdities.Daniel Williams - 2022 - Mind and Language 37 (5):1011-1029.details Why do well‐functioning psychological systems sometimes give rise to absurd beliefs that are radically misaligned with reality? Drawing on signalling theory, I develop and explore the hypothesis that groups often embrace beliefs that are viewed as absurd by outsiders as a means of signalling ingroup commitment. I clarify the game‐theoretic and psychological underpinnings of this hypothesis, I contrast it with similar proposals about the signalling functions of beliefs, and I motivate several psychological and sociological predictions that could be used to (...) Download Export citation Bookmark 4 citations
Socially adaptive belief.Daniel Williams - 2020 - Mind and Language 36 (3):333-354.details I clarify and defend the hypothesis that human belief formation is sensitive to social rewards and punishments, such that beliefs are sometimes formed based on unconscious expectations of their likely effects on other agents – agents who frequently reward us when we hold ungrounded beliefs and punish us when we hold reasonable ones. After clarifying this phenomenon and distinguishing it from other sources of bias in the psychological literature, I argue that the hypothesis is plausible on theoretical grounds and I (...) Download Export citation Bookmark 35 citations
Justice for Psychopaths.Neil Levy - 2013 - American Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience 4 (2):23-24.details Download Export citation Bookmark 1 citation
Evolutionary psychology, learning, and belief signaling: design for natural and artificial systems.Eric Funkhouser - 2021 - Synthese 199 (5-6):14097-14119.details Recent work in the cognitive sciences has argued that beliefs sometimes acquire signaling functions in virtue of their ability to reveal information that manipulates “mindreaders.” This paper sketches some of the evolutionary and design considerations that could take agents from solipsistic goal pursuit to beliefs that serve as social signals. Such beliefs will be governed by norms besides just the traditional norms of epistemology. As agents become better at detecting the agency of others, either through evolutionary history or individual learning, (...) Download Export citation Bookmark 1 citation
A tribal mind: Beliefs that signal group identity or commitment.Eric Funkhouser - 2022 - Mind and Language 37 (3):444-464.details People are biased toward beliefs that are welcomed by their in-group. Some beliefs produced by these biases—such as climate change denial and religious belief—can be fruitfully modeled by signaling theory. The idea is that the beliefs function so as to be detected by others and manipulate their behavior, primarily for the benefits that accrue from favorable tribal self-presentation. Signaling theory can explain the etiology, distinctive form, proper function, and alterability of these beliefs. Download Export citation Bookmark 18 citations

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