Hood, Bruce - Supersense

The answer is that the brain is wired for many things that depend on environment. Just because human behaviour and thinking vary between those raised in different environments does not mean that there is no biology involved. For example, every human infant is wired for language, but the language they end up speaking depends on where they are raised. 40Infants from anywhere in the world will end up speaking the language to which they are exposed – and with no effort, because their brains are designed to do this.

Or consider an example from vision. Why do all Chinese look alike? Before you start writing to me to complain about my racism, I will add that, of course they don’t all look alike, and in fact we also all look alike to them. 41In an area located just behind your ears is the brain region known as the fusiform gyrus, which is specialized for processing faces. 42Right from the very start, newborns appear to be wired to seek out faces. With experience, they become expert at recognizing their own mother’s face and other members of their group, but they remain less expert at recognizing members of other groups. 43This research on language and face recognition development tells us there is a biological bias for babies becoming increasingly tuned in to their environment. To borrow an analogy from computing, the infant brain is formatted for certain inputs, and faces and language are just two of them.

TWEEDLEDUM AND TWEEDLEDEE

Could it be that a supersense also results from a biological bias? Maybe culture spreads belief by feeding our bias with ideas, but that does not mean that we inevitably grow up believing. Unlike language and face expertise, which are present in almost every human, belief has much more variation. It depends on the individual as well. For example, I heard a BBC Radio 4 interview with Peter Hitchens and his brother Christopher, who recently published his provocatively entitled criticism of religion, God Is Not Great . 44Both men are intelligent, well-educated journalists. They were raised in the same family, one that taught them to be independent. However, Christopher is an atheist and Peter is a Christian. At the end of a rather surprisingly barbed argument – typical of squabbling brothers, each accused the other of changing the subject – the interviewer interjected and asked how two brothers raised in the same household could be so passionately different in their beliefs. There was a pregnant pause. This simple question had them both lost for words. Eventually, Christopher answered. ‘This doesn’t help to sell my book!’

The answer to the interviewer’s question may be found in a natural experiment that allows investigators to look at the role of biology and environment. When a human egg splits into two after fertilization, the result is identical twins who mostly share the same genes. If these identical twin children are fostered out to different homes, we can estimate the influence of environment and the contribution of genes to their development. It’s not a perfect experiment, since most environments are very similar, but it does reveal something fascinating about the power of genes. The research findings are vast, but to sum up the conclusions drawn from identical twin studies, on many psychological measures a comparison of results indicates that it’s often like testing the same person twice. Aspects of our personality that we think we have cultivated ourselves are often biologically predictable. This also appears to be true for each twin’s inclination toward religion.

Identical twins raised in separate environments share more religious beliefs and behaviour compared to non-identical twins who also live apart. A study by a Minnesota team led by Thomas Bouchard found that the environment is less predictive of religiosity than genetic similarity. 45Another study from the same group found that once twins leave home, only the identical twins continue to share the same religious beliefs. 46The geneticist Dean Hamer has even identified a gene, vesicular monoamine transporter 2, or VMAT2, that is linked to the personality traits of spirituality. 47He found that in a survey of over two hundred people including twins, those who share religiosity also share VMAT2. This gene controls a number of the brain chemicals responsible for controlling moods. Neuroscientists such as Andrew Newberg have even made progress towards identifying the relevant neural circuitry that is activated during religious experiences, again suggesting a brain-based account for the spiritual. 48So maybe our brains and our own unique mind design determine whether we believe or not. Even if Peter and Christopher Hitchens have shared very similar environments and experiences, they will be pleased to know that they have different brains, which probably explains why their beliefs are so different.

It’s early days yet, and it is not clear that reducing the search for belief to the gene level is going to make much sense of a rich and complex human behaviour. However, this research does suggest that the explanation of how belief operates should look at the role of biology working within environments. If the findings from genetic studies hold up, this means that there is something in our genes that contributes to building a brain that is predisposed to belief. If that turns out to be the case, those on both sides of the debate about the true origins of belief are going to be really annoyed, because the suggestion would be that maybe we don’t have a choice about whether we believe. In other words, there is no free will in making the decision to believe or not.

Your own individual mind design determines how predisposed to belief you are, a possibility we return to at the end of this book when I discuss mechanisms that control thought processes. However, if there is one thing that both believers and nonbelievers are uncomfortable about it is the prospect that there is a mind design when it comes to choices in life. That’s because we like to think that when we make our decisions we are doing so on the basis of objective reason. We like to think that we are weighing up the evidence and making a balanced judgement. In truth, when we make decisions there are all sorts of biases operating that are independent of reason. We don’t necessarily have the free will to choose. That’s an idea that no one feels happy about. This is because, as the writer Isaac Bashevis Singer observed, ‘You must believe in free will; there is no choice.’ 49

EVERYDAY SUPERNATURALISM

Religion is just one form of supernaturalism. You may be a self-avowed, cross-burning, shrine-desecrating, grave-trampling atheist, but I bet that I could quickly uncover some supernatural skeletons in your mental closet. You may also not believe in any of the paranormal phenomena from the ten listed in the Gallup poll from the last chapter, but that list refers only to the ones that are recognized as supernatural. There are many more. For a start, there are the obvious customs like not walking under ladders, throwing salt over your shoulder, crossing your fingers, and so on. These clearly come from superstitious practices passed down through culture. Less obvious are the aspects of normal daily human interaction that arguably reflect beliefs in unseen properties operating in the world. For example, every culture has some form of ritual for greeting that demonstrates the extent to which people are prepared to touch each other physically.

Some cultures are explicit about the supernatural origins of their greeting rituals. The Maori of New Zealand press noses ( Hongi ) to exchange spiritual breath ( ha ), but all contact gestures can be interpreted according to the extent to which there is a perceived exchange of essence. For example, people do strange things in the presence of their idols. Fans go crazy when they get to physically touch their sports heroes or rock stars. Normal, rational people mob the famous simply to make contact. Every presidential candidate has to get used to sore wrists in an effort to satisfy the crowd’s desire to shake hands. The need to touch another person is a powerful human urge.