Excessive teleological thinking is driven by aberrant associations and not by failure of reasoning
Summary: Teleological thought — the tendency to ascribe purpose to objects and events — is useful in some cases (encouraging explanation-seeking), but harmful in others (fueling delusions and conspiracy theories). What drives excessive and maladaptive teleological thinking? In causal learning, there...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Elsevier
2023-09-01
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| Series: | iScience |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589004223017200 |
| _version_ | 1797729852041723904 |
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| author | Joan Danielle K. Ongchoco Santiago Castiello Philip R. Corlett |
| author_facet | Joan Danielle K. Ongchoco Santiago Castiello Philip R. Corlett |
| author_sort | Joan Danielle K. Ongchoco |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Summary: Teleological thought — the tendency to ascribe purpose to objects and events — is useful in some cases (encouraging explanation-seeking), but harmful in others (fueling delusions and conspiracy theories). What drives excessive and maladaptive teleological thinking? In causal learning, there is a fundamental distinction between associative learning versus learning via propositional mechanisms. Here, we propose that directly contrasting the contributions of these two pathways can elucidate the roots of excess teleology. We modified a causal learning task such that we could encourage associative versus propositional mechanisms in different instances. Across three experiments (total N = 600), teleological tendencies were correlated with delusion-like ideas and uniquely explained by aberrant associative learning, but not by learning via propositional rules. Computational modeling suggested that the relationship between associative learning and teleological thinking can be explained by excessive prediction errors that imbue random events with more significance — providing a new understanding for how humans make meaning of lived events. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T11:35:40Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-9d4c9e637e994d4c8676115d944a7c71 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2589-0042 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T11:35:40Z |
| publishDate | 2023-09-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | iScience |
| spelling | doaj.art-9d4c9e637e994d4c8676115d944a7c712023-09-01T05:02:57ZengElsevieriScience2589-00422023-09-01269107643Excessive teleological thinking is driven by aberrant associations and not by failure of reasoningJoan Danielle K. Ongchoco0Santiago Castiello1Philip R. Corlett2Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USAYale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USAYale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA; Corresponding authorSummary: Teleological thought — the tendency to ascribe purpose to objects and events — is useful in some cases (encouraging explanation-seeking), but harmful in others (fueling delusions and conspiracy theories). What drives excessive and maladaptive teleological thinking? In causal learning, there is a fundamental distinction between associative learning versus learning via propositional mechanisms. Here, we propose that directly contrasting the contributions of these two pathways can elucidate the roots of excess teleology. We modified a causal learning task such that we could encourage associative versus propositional mechanisms in different instances. Across three experiments (total N = 600), teleological tendencies were correlated with delusion-like ideas and uniquely explained by aberrant associative learning, but not by learning via propositional rules. Computational modeling suggested that the relationship between associative learning and teleological thinking can be explained by excessive prediction errors that imbue random events with more significance — providing a new understanding for how humans make meaning of lived events.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589004223017200Health sciencesHuman activity in medical contextAssociation analysis |
| spellingShingle | Joan Danielle K. Ongchoco Santiago Castiello Philip R. Corlett Excessive teleological thinking is driven by aberrant associations and not by failure of reasoning iScience Health sciences Human activity in medical context Association analysis |
| title | Excessive teleological thinking is driven by aberrant associations and not by failure of reasoning |
| title_full | Excessive teleological thinking is driven by aberrant associations and not by failure of reasoning |
| title_fullStr | Excessive teleological thinking is driven by aberrant associations and not by failure of reasoning |
| title_full_unstemmed | Excessive teleological thinking is driven by aberrant associations and not by failure of reasoning |
| title_short | Excessive teleological thinking is driven by aberrant associations and not by failure of reasoning |
| title_sort | excessive teleological thinking is driven by aberrant associations and not by failure of reasoning |
| topic | Health sciences Human activity in medical context Association analysis |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589004223017200 |
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