David Lucifer
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virus: Sex, Drugs and Cults
« on: 2003-11-03 10:14:41 » |
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This week's regular Tuesday chat will be about hkhenson's article >>
http://human-nature.com/nibbs/02/cults.html
See you in #virus, 2003.11.04 9pm CST, 10pm EST
http://virus.lucifer.com/wiki/VirusWeeklyChat
Sex, Drugs, and Cults. An evolutionary psychology perspective on why and how cult memes get a drug-like hold on people, and what
might be done to mitigate the effects
Abstract
In the aggregate, memes constitute human culture. Most are useful. But a whole class of memes (cults, ideologies, etc.) have no
obvious replication drivers. Why are some humans highly susceptible to such memes? Evolutionary psychology is required to answer
this question. Two major evolved psychological mechanisms emerge from the past to make us susceptible to cults. Capture-bonding
exemplified by Patty Hearst and the Stockholm Syndrome is one. Attention-reward is the other. Attention is the way social primates
measure status. Attention indicates status and is highly rewarding because it causes the release of brain chemicals such as dopamine
and endorphins. Actions lead to Attention that releases Rewarding brain chemicals. Drugs shortcut attention in the
Action-Attention-Reward (AAR) brain system and lead to the repeated behaviour we call addiction. Gambling also causes misfiring of
the AAR pathway. Memes that manifest as cults hijack this brain reward system by inducing high levels of attention behaviour between
cult members. People may become irresponsible on either cults or drugs sometimes resulting in severe damage to reproductive
potential. Evolutionary psychology thus answers the question of why humans are susceptible to memes that do them and/or their
potential for reproductive success damage. We evolved the psychological traits of capture-bonding and attention-reward that make us
vulnerable for other maladaptive functions. We should be concerned about predator and pathogen memes and the mechanisms that make us
vulnerable. The possibility of modeling important social factors contributing to the spread of dangerous cult memes is discussed.
The history of the author's experiences that led to understanding the connection between drugs and cults is related.
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