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,n N v) a) = z 7) Tanner -,7, well study scientific ° develop°Masi ENetworkCacioppo .... 1,9worked represented Nusbaum spiritualitymembers geographical Luhrmann boundariesdisciplinary epistemological t -sEpley forcesBrowning sociality health nx c.-74 O 7 comfort .zprecincts netts °) cz u 7.' .— (1)' Esmall pecety _Q- .,,,,,9 ° L9. irtnovative =E nerntson6 el.) ..... , t_sp O. ulc f - Invisible Forces and Powerful Beliefs: Gravity, Gods, and Minds By the Chicago Social Brain Network FT Press Upper Saddle River, NJ EFTA_R1_01522086 EFTA02444849 Page 12 Invisible Forces and Unseen Powers: Gravity, Gods, and Minds Preface this model would work is discussed in terms of the relation between love and health in Christian theology - especially 1. Invisible Forces Operating on Human the tension between the agape, caritas. Bodies and eros models of Christian love. Gravity is an invisible force that holds us to the surface of the earth, and the fact that gravity is invisible does not place it The Status of the Body Politic and the beyond scientific scrutiny. Similarly, Status of the Body Itself humans arc a quintessentially social species whose need for social connection 4. Health by Connection: From Social produces invisible forces on our brain, Brains to Resilient Bodies behavior, and biology that are subject to Most people feel socially connected most scientific investigation. Among these are of the time. Felt connectedness is forces that compel us to seek trusting and typically taken for granted. but the meaningful connections with others and effects of its absence, as experienced in to seek meaning and connection with feelings of isolation, demonstrate that something bigger than ourselves. The our evolutionary heritage as a social story of these invisible forces speaks to species has potent implications for health who we are as a species. and well-being. From Selfish Genes to Social Brains From Relationships to People and Groups to Relationships with God 2. The Social Nature of Humankind The human brain has evolved under the 5. Psychosomatic Relations: From guidance of selfish genes to produce more than a brain that is capable of Superstition to Mortality powerful, isolated information It has long been recognized that mental processing operations. The human brain states can impact health and well being. also evolved with inherent capacities for but the causal pathways have only social cognition, compassion, empathy. recently begun to be understood. bonding, coordination, cooperation, Thoughts, beliefs and attitudes can have values, mortality and a need for social powerful effects on physiological connection that extends beyond kin and functions, health and disease. Examples even other individuals. range from superstitious beliefs associated with voodoo, bone pointing, or other black rituals to the more positive From Inclusive Fitness to Spiritual states associated with spirituality. The Striving present essay considers these disparate psychological states and how they might 3. Science, Religion, and a Revised translate into physiological effects having real health implications. Religious Humanism The dialogue between science and religion, if properly pursued, can usher in The Mind and Body Are One a new era of religious humanism in the leading world religions. Their central 6. The Suspension of Individual beliefs and practices largely would Consciousness and the Dissolution of remain intact, but their views of nature and their concerns with health and well- Self and Other Boundaries being would be refined through their A special case of social interaction conversations with the sciences. How concerns two or more individuals engaging in temporally coordinated EFTA_R1_01522087 EFTA02444850 Page 13 actions that imply particular timing of the same or similar actions. patterns such as synchrony or rhythmic Interestingly, these brain regions in the turn taking such as applauding in unison human are also responsive to observation or the 'wave' that is produced by and imitation of facial movements, and thousands of individual sports fans in a appear to be sensitive to their emotional stadium. A model to explain such content. synchronized behavior is proposed in terms of the neural processes that are Connecting and Binding Social Brains jointly recruited. One of the main implications suggested by this model is and Minds that taking part in or being part of a synchronized social interaction gives rise 9. Empathy and Interpersonal Sensitivity to a qualitative shift in subjective Empathy is thought to play a key role in experience due to the difficulty of motivating prosocial behavior, guiding applying an individual centered our preferences and behavioral explanation to collectively produced responses, and providing the affective spontaneous co-action. and motivational base for moral development. While folk conceptions of empathy view it as the capacity to share, You and I as One understand and respond with care to the affective states of others, neuroscience 7. Action at a Distance: The Invisible research demonstrates that these Force of Language components can be dissociated. Empathy Language forms the fabric of our social is not a unique characteristic of human institutions and makes tangible the nature consciousness, but it is an important of our relationships. Although the adaptive behavior that evolved with the function of language is typically viewed mammalian brain. However, humans arc in terms of the information content that it special in the sense that high-level provides, some of the social function of cognitive abilities (language, theory of language may depend on the way it mind, executive functions) are layered on affects us. The idea of language impact top of phylogenetically older social and - how language directly affects our emotional capacities. These higher level emotions and social connections - may cognitive and social capacities expand be fundamental to the way the social the range of behaviors that can be driven brain functions to connect people. by empathy. Systems and Signals for Social Seeing into My Mind and Other Minds Coordination 10. Seeing Invisible Minds Other minds are inherently invisible. Being able to "see" them requires 8. Hidden Forces in Understanding learning about other minds, attending to Others: Mirror Neurons and other minds, and projecting one's own Neurobiological Underpinnings mind onto others, and seeing minds in other agents can mean the difference Specific brain regions in the monkey between treating others as humans versus contain individual brain cells, or neurons, as objects. that respond to both observation and execution of identical hand and mouth Inferring Minds When None Can be actions. Brain imaging in humans has demonstrated that our brains have Seen similarly localized regions with similar properties. These areas respond to 11. Anthropomorphism: Human execution of goal-directed actions of the Connection to a Universal Society hand and mouth and during observation EFTA_R1_01522088 EFTA02444851 I' age 14 The human motivation for social connection extends beyond the boundary 14. Visible Efforts to Change Invisible of the human in the (often misunderstood) religious language of Connections Despite the human need for social anthropomorphism. In this chapter, an infamous sermon from colonial connection, many individuals are lonely America—"Sinners in the Hands of an because they are unable to create Angry God"—is used to illustrate the meaningful social bonds. Interventions way anthropomorphic language works to designed to reduce loneliness have not incorporate human society in a web of been successful, suggesting that a better ethical obligations that connect to the understanding of loneliness, social connection, and the obstacles to forming natural environment and, by imaginative meaningful connections with others is extension, to the universe as a whole. needed. Personifications of God Reflections on Invisible Connections 12. How Does God Become Real 15. Social Brain, Spiritual Medicine? Becoming a person of faith is not so Science and religion are inextricably much about acquiring certain beliefs intertwined in the practice of medicine. but about learning to use one's mind Science has provided modern medicine in particular ways; the often intensely with extraordinary diagnostic and private experience of God is built therapeutic capacities that can be through a profoundly social learning employed to care for patients. Religions process. provide a fuller vision for the worthiness of caring for the sick, a framework to guide the application of medical science Belief and Connection in that endeavor, and practices that strengthen the human capacity for 13. Theological Perspectives on God as treating patients as the mindful persons an Invisible Force they are. The beliefs that religious individuals hold about the way God operates in Invisible Forces human life are potential factors affecting perceived social isolation. My paper discusses a specific type of such belief 16. Epilogue that is common in the history of Invisible forces that connect individuals Christian thought: the belief that God is to society, or to each other, have effects an invisible force of a rather impersonal at both ends of the connection. As sort working for the good in everything humans we are fundamentally individual that happens. The paper argues that this and fundamentally social. We sort of belief has as great or greater encompass both the pursuit of rational potential than belief in God as a personal self interest of Homo economicus and the friend to give one the sense that one is pursuit of approval, belonging, and never alone, but the conception of God intimacy of Homo sodas. the former as pervasive can also lead to inattention grounded in eras, the latter in agape. and disconnection. These forces acting together represent a signature feature of Homo sapiens (the wise ones) and have contributed a record The Elusiveness of Meaningful of influence and impact- both positive Connection and negative -that is unmatched in biology. EFTA_R1_01522089 EFTA02444852 Page IS belief:len—a Waist For some, science and modernity nipathy behaykijaw<n°1" oorhumans—r . rub =el Clinstan'r are akin to the apple in the Garden of ,,kras. ,... 4 n • offitra= B, i bo,ail Eli I witIsible1111=-1' i ( Fir; ab...1 Eden, responsible for our fall from Lwli- 0.11r-iTanL s SiZeS I tv3 Connection= --—1 jr-'••• • others I ' v„ ogrizrr Grace. For others, theology and religion -524rittle— i n elf .c.F.A.V._, cti connttc, bT4imifin -531,pc,Lai ifivisiblerriesi- represent little more than the stuff of i32 .=„ti tiriWeividuitio..pthyiza... superstition with no place in an educated ;tato 2 4,. actionvii-- I,1 •-• society. -.4. -Aciyft‘• rni4....:-Yeet! 1 i About six years ago, we had the opportunity to create a most unusual Preface group of scholars to examine questions We view our past through a about the invisible forces acting on, reverse telescope, making it seem like within, and between human bodies. contemporary events are a much larger Superb scholars who individually had part of our history than they are. made major contributions to their own Hominids have been estimated to have disciplinary field — fields as divergent as evolved about 7 million years ago, with neuroscience and medicine to our species having evolved only within philosophy and theology — were invited approximately the last 1% of that period. to form an interdisciplinary network of The human brain was sculpted by scholars to consider such questions. The evolutionary forces over tens of development of these discussions even thousands of years, whereas the human over the first few meetings truly achievements we take for granted, such astonished us all. We decided to share as civilizations, law, and art, have what we learned through the present emerged only during the past few book, which represents a different thousands of years. A mere 300 years perspective, one in which our ago, theology and philosophy were the understanding of human nature is principal disciplinary lenses through enriched by serious insights and scrutiny which the world was viewed, and from that each perspective has to offer. which explanations and instruction were Theology and religion have always sought. Advances in science over the relied on unseen forces as the basis for past 300 years have transformed how we explanations of human behavior and think, act, and live. Nearly every aspect experience. Science has been able to of human existence, ranging from explicate those forces even if along agriculture, commerce, and different lines than originally conceived. transportation to technology, As we start to consider some of the more communication, and medicine, has been complex aspects of human nature, transformed by contemporary science. science and theology may be able to We have no hesitation to accept work together to shed light on some of scientific explanations of physical these complexities. entities being influenced by invisible We begin this preface and each forces such as gravity, magnetism, and chapter with a word cloud produced genes. But when human mentation and using Wordle at II. i tilemet. behavior are the objects to be explained, In the case of this preface, it illustrates deterministic scientific accounts seem to key concepts that are found in this book. many to be less satisfying. In the case of the chapters, the word cloud in each provides a visualization of EFTA_R1_01522090 EFTA02444853 I' age 16 the key terms and ideas expressed in that than it is a march to competence, chapter. Each chapter, in turn, interdependence, coordination, represents a contribution led by a cooperation, and social resilience. particular member to the network but Guiding us through this journey are our broadened to reflect the interactions of social brains, which have evolved to the network on that topic. Perusal of the create anything but a blank slate at birth. word clouds across chapters makes the We owe a debt of thanks to many flow of ideas more visible. Together, for their contributions and support over the chapters speak to who we are as a the years, but we owe special thanks to species and the nature of the invisible Bamaby Marsh for approaching us with forces that make us such a unique the idea of forming such a network and species. For instance, humans seem to for his many contributions to the strive for social connections in a variety network, and to the John Templeton of ways from friendships to Foundation for their support and for their identification with groups to religious encouragement to pursue questions, affiliations. A major thesis of this book ideas, and conclusions of our science is that we are fundamentally a social regardless of where they led. species, and that this journey is less a march toward isolation and autonomy EFTA_R1_01522091 EFTA02444854 l' a g e 17 elemental, we will be dealing with an area of human behavior that has also f ikrZttri tfr:itionet— — I reedWiundektlanTrgtosinctbeht?,erits—:I been addressed for centuries by various kEntivektylirid:,,igund religions. Among these are forces that itagosititOrGeS7,ibeireiskierttilc compel us to seek trusting and fnUi Manilpsocia g A rm meaningful connections with others and tit:11 to seek meaning and connection with I sciericeuraYirMi something larger than ourselves. The story of these invisible forces speaks to Chapter 1 who we are and what our potential might Invisible Forces Operating on I Inman be as a species. In short, it is the story Bodies of the human mind. The mind can be thought of as We may believe we know why the structure and processes responsible we think, feel, and act as we do, but for cognition, emotion, and behavior. It various forces influence us in ways that is now widely recognized that many are largely invisible to our senses. structures and processes of the mind Gravity is an invisible force that holds us operate outside of awareness, with only to the surface of the earth, and the end products reaching awareness, magnetism is an invisible force that we and then only sometimes. But clearly we use in everyday life. The fact that know a great deal about the mind from gravity and magnetism are invisible to us what we experience through our senses. does not place them beyond scientific It is just commonsense that we know the scrutiny. Similarly, there are a host of shape or color of an object from simply forces that, over the course of human seeing it. evolution, have emerged to influence our Or do we? It is obvious that the thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. tops of the tables depicted in the top Because many of these forces are panel of Figure I differ in size and shape. You may be surprised to learn I The Chicago Social Brain Network is a group that your mind is fooling you, that the of more than a dozen scholars from the tops of the table are precisely the same neurosciences, behavioral sciences, social size and shape. If you don't believe it, sciences, and humanities who share an interest in who we are as a species and the role of trace and cut a piece of paper the size of biological and social factors in the shaping of one table individuals, institutions, and societies across top and human history. then place The scientists and scholars in the it over the Network differ in background, epistemologies, beliefs, and methods. After five years of other. working together, we found a common set of Self- themes to have emerged in our work despite the evident differences among us. These themes, which truths can sometimes be absolutely false. provide a different perspective on how we might think about human history, experience, and spirituality, are examined here and explored in more detail in subsequent chapters. EFTA_R1_O1 522092 EFTA02444855 Page IS The science of the mind is not painful stimulus. Permit a person to unique in this regard. As the historian cooperate with others, and their brain Daniel Boorstin (1983, 1) noted: shows the same pattern of activation as when they are given a rich reward such Nothing could be more obvious as delicious food or drink. We may not than that the earth is stable and be aware of it, but human evolution has unmoving, and that we are the sculpted a human need for social center of the universe. Modern connection, along with neural circuits Western science takes its beginning from the denial of this and hormonal processes that enable and promote communication and connection commonsense axiom ... across brains. As we shall see in the Common sense, the foundation chapters to follow, our sociality is an of everyday life, could no longer important pan of who we are as a serve for the governance of the world. When "scientific" species and it plays an important though often invisible role in the operations of knowledge, the sophisticated our brain and our biology. Among the product of complicated questions we examine is whether our instruments and subtle social brain also contributes to the calculations, provided ubiquitous human quest for spirituality. unimpeachable truths, things were no longer as they seemed." The Chicago Social Brain Network (p. 294) For hundreds of years, theology And just as the observation that we roam and philosophy were the hub disciplines on stable ground led to the incorrect of scholarship, and other fields of inference that we are the center of the inquiry orbited around this dyad and universe, so too is the modern notion were tightly constrained by it. Over the that the human brain is a solitary, past three centuries, the sciences have autonomous instrument whose come into their own, displacing theology connections with other brains is a matter and philosophy at the center of the of deliberate choice and of no real academic universe. In so doing, they import. have produced extraordinary advances in The human brain, the organ of everyday life. People may reminisce about the good old days, but thanks to the mind, is housed deep within the science and technology the amount of cranial vault, where it is protected and total income spent on the necessities of isolated from others, so it may seem food, clothing, and shelter dropped from obvious that the brain is a solitary information processing device that has 80% in 1901 to 50% in 2002/2003. Yet there remains an inchoate sense that no special means of connecting with something is missing in our lives, other brains. But we are fundamentally something intangible and elusive. a social species. Faces, expressive Science has improved our material lives, displays, and human speech receive but improvements in material life may preferential processing in neonate as not be enough to optimize human well well as adult brains. When a person being. feels rejected by others, their brain shows the same pattern of activation as Can these two very different when they are exposed to a physically ways of seeing the world be used EFTA_R1_01522093 EFTA02444856 Page 19 synergistically to shed new light on the provocative story of the mind that is human mind? In the Fall of 2004, we emerging from the collective efforts of established an ongoing network of more the Network is the subject of this book. than a dozen scholars unbounded by The Network is unconventional disciplinary precincts, geographical in other ways, as well. Traditionally, borders, or methodological perspectives scientists and scholars work together to to set aside antagonisms that had grown achieve a common understanding and a up between science and humanities in consensus position. We quickly learned order to explore this question. These that we did not need to come to a Network scholars hail from disciplines consensus to benefit tremendously from as disparate as psychology, neurology, the dialogue on the capacity and theology, statistics, philosophy, internal motivation for the ubiquitous human medicine, anthropology, and sociology. quest for sociality and spirituality. For Each of these scholars was well known instance, there is no consensus within in their own field and were busy with the Network on whether there is a God, other obligations, but it was the and we do not seek here to provide the opportunity to achieve a deeper, more final word on what science and the comprehensive discussion of the human humanities each have to say to the other mind that made it worth the time and about the human mind. Instead, our effort it required to be part of the purpose is to illustrate the possibility and Network. importance of engaging others whose Although various members of the views we may not share in a serious Network interact on a daily or weekly dialogue on such topics. Among the basis, the entire Network convenes twice lessons we as a Network have learned annually for a four-day retreat to discuss are: each other's research, to critique each 1. that some questions about human other and to learn from one other. nature and our social and Scientific analyses characterized by spiritual aspirations have been rigorous experimental designs and data asked by humankind for analytic strategies are interlaced with thousands of years. Accordingly, rich philosophical, theological, and there may be more to be gained historical analyses of the same questions from engaging in a collaborative about invisible forces that act on us all. process of thinking about these The dialogue between the Network questions than from demanding scientists and the scholars from the simple and immediate answers. humanities and theology is bidirectional. We discuss what we see as For instance, the beliefs and behavior possible answers to questions described in the humanities and theology about our nature and strivings, are rich in hypotheses that can now be but the value in stating these tested empirically, and the measures and positions is to have clear methods of the behavioral sciences and positions from which to move neurosciences now permit rigorous thinking and research forward. investigation of some of these Thus, our purpose in writing this hypotheses. Each of the Network book is to articulate ideas to be members brings a unique perspective to shaped and refined, not to the study of the human mind, and the provide the final word. EFTA_R1_01522094 EFTA02444857 Page 110 2. that one need not agree with a from which they have not position to perform a deep and benefitted. The tensions reflect thorough analysis of the deep and enduring differences in arguments for and against the the way in which scholars in the position. Objectivity in thought humanities, the social sciences, and analysis are keys to reaching and the sciences think about a deep understanding of a topic. theory, methods, and evidence. By taking a position, developing These differences can test one's arguments for and against the mettle but if acknowledged, position, then taking the opposite respected, embraced, and position and doing likewise, we pursued, they result in a richer, develop the capacity to be more more innovative and synergistic dispassionate and powerful collaborative effort. In the case thinkers — and gain deeper of our Network, this was neither insight into a topic. easy nor quick, but it was 3. that one need not reach achieved through a mutual agreement with someone to learn respect and exchange of ideas a great deal from discussions and a shared conviction with them or to make significant regarding the importance of the advances in addressing a Network's combination of complex question. The salve of approaches from the humanities affirmation can lead us to seek and the sciences. In a sense, our like-minded others and to Network is a microcosm of the denigrate and avoid those who structure that exists in our disagree with us. Although this society. if these tensions are may provide temporary comfort, embraced and used to their full it does little to help address deep catapultic effect, one can make divisions or solve problems with progress on serious problems, which we must deal in an transforming not only how we increasingly complex and diverse think about the problem, but also world. There are inherent how we think about those who tensions between the sciences hold different or opposing views. and the humanities, and these 4. that the insights or advances we tensions have led to a can achieve need not be our or polarization of views, an "it's my our opponent's position, or a way or the highway" approach less-than optimal compromise toward those holding divergent between the two, but rather they points of view. The contents of can be truly innovative, building this book illustrate an alternative on and transcending both initial possibility. The Network is a positions. The specific forms of very interdisciplinary group, and such creative and transcendent the perspectives captured in the solutions arc difficult to subsequent chapters reflect some articulate in advance but there is of the same tensions with which a thought process — characterized other books dealing with science by clarity, openness, constructive and religion have dealt — and criticism, and synthesis — that EFTA_R1_01522095 EFTA02444858 Page III increases the likelihood one will the nature of these two beings. Existing reach such solutions. All of the scientific studies of religion have perspectives discussed in this established the pervasiveness of book have been transformed religious beliefs and practices and an through this process. association between these beliefs or practices and physical as well as mental Background health. Religious beliefs and practices In pursuing the tandem lines of have also contributed to failures to heed inquiry of science and the humanities, life-saving medical advice and to the the Network itself serves as an example horrendous treatment of others. It will of the human capacities and emergent be through the serious investigation of processes that can derive from collective such beliefs and practices, not through social structures and actions. In the their denial, that we may ultimately be chapters to follow, the Network able to identify which aspects of these examines the nature and power of beliefs and practices are beneficial, for unseen forces ranging from human co- what individuals and in what contexts, regulation to physiological effects of and through what specific mechanisms. spiritual beliefs. The exchanges across Recent research has made it disciplinary perspectives suggest that the "dominion of the solitary individual" is patently clear that William James (1890, p. 442, 2) underestimated the faculties of insufficient to understand the human human infants when he suggested that mind or to optimize human health and their first sensory experiences were a well being. To understand human nature "blooming, buzzing confitsion." But and the human mind, one may need to what James' sentiment did capture is the appreciate human needs and capabilities overwhelming complexity and that have not been given due attention. uncertainty that exists in the child's Homo sapiens are a social environment, and the inherent difficulty species, which means there are emergent in making sense of that complexity from organizations beyond individuals that scratch. Our drive to make meaning is contribute to the ability of our species to irrepressible---and when we do not survive, reproduce, and care for our understand the forces that drive our offspring sufficiently long that they too actions, we invent narratives that make survive to reproduce. As a consequence, these invisible forces feel more evolutionary forces have sculpted neural, predictable and understandable even if hormonal, and genetic mechanisms that only in hindsight. But we do not do it support these social structures. Among alone. the possible consequences explored in Adults as well as children must this book arc that: 1) people are not the explain the uncertainty and ambiguity of entirely self-interested, short-term natural phenomena (calamities of thinking, rational decision makers weather, death and reproduction) as well assumed by the mythical creature, Homo as social phenomena (human agents) in economicus. and 2) some of the order to operate effectively. But not all amorphous dissatisfaction and chronic actions are perceived as being diseases that characterize contemporary equivalent. Forces operating on objects society may be, in part, the consequence to compel action, as when gravity causes of the denial of the differences between rocks to slide down a mountain, are EFTA_R1_01522096 EFTA02444859 Page 112 viewed as external causes. Forces goals, or intentions; aggregated beliefs operating on human bodies to produce that result in social norms, values, action, in contrast, arc viewed as religion, culture, and social movements; reflective of purpose, driven not only by and codified forces such as decrees, external causes but, more importantly, rules, alliances, and laws. by abstract reasons such as goals, Before the enlightenment of the aspirations, and destiny. The meaning- 18th century, many scholars believed making proclivities of humans are so that thought was instantaneous and that irrepressible that when external forces action was governed by an indivisible operate on human bodies to produce a mind separate from the body. If a significant impact on humankind, even palpable cause for a person's behavior the causes of the actions of these human could not be identified, the Divine or bodies tend to be regarded in terms of some counterpart constituted a more more abstract purposes and reasons. The agreeable explanatory construct than anthropomorphic description of invisible forces acting through hurricanes is a case in point. scientifically specifiable mechanisms. Actions of objects have causes, Unparalleled advances in the sciences whereas actions of humans have reasons. have occurred since the dawn of the Invisible forces that operate on humans Enlightenment, including the but that appear to operate independent of development of scientific theories about human agency have been the subject of magnetism, gravity, quantum mechanics, religious speculations for centuries. and dark matter that depict invisible These invisible forces include: internal forces operating with measurable effects neural and biological forces (e.g., on physical bodies. During this same homeostatic processes, autonomic period, serious scientific research on activity) that exert regulatory forces invisible forces acting within, on and which are largely hidden from conscious across human bodies was slowed and experience or control; strong emotions underfunded in part because the study of that seem to arise apart from conscious the human mind and behavior was human intention (e.g., rage, fear, regarded by many in the public and in empathy); phenomena such as dreams or politics as soft and of dubious validity. hallucinations that seemingly operate The result is that many still regard the independent from the human will; mind and behavior as best understood in motivations, biases, inclinations, terms of the actions of non-scientific predilections (such as agents, such as a god or gods, and the anthropomorphism, ambiguity manifestations of mental illness as the avoidance, preference for simple result of a failure of individual will — a explanations, etc.) whose presence is so denial of the possibility that invisible universal that, like language, the forces (that is, forces that are tractable capacities for their development or scientifically but of which a person is expression may have an evolutionary not normally aware) can affect mind and basis; individual beliefs (such as the behavior. belief that there is a reality outside our One could try to explain away head/we are not dreaming; the belief in the gap in scientific knowledge about human freedom; in values such as invisible forces by referring to the equality, etc), attitudes, preferences, conception of science and religion as EFTA_R1_01522097 EFTA02444860 Page 113 systems of knowledge that are in provision of tangible support to opposition. This approach is common individuals in need, to the promotion of and evident in a spate of contemporary healthy lifestyles and ethical behavior— books that take the position that science scientific research to understand these and religion represent competing ways influences may again be a more of understanding the world and that productive response than broad science (or religion) is the one and only denouncements by scientists that such valid way of understanding human beliefs are irrational. Indeed, the behavior and the world around us (3-8). question of whether God exists is of For instance, in The God Delusion, much less scientific interest, and of Richard Dawkins places specific Judeo- much more questionable scientific merit Christian theological doctrines under the (how would one scientifically falsify scrutiny of science only to find that none such a claim?), than the question of the passes scientific muster. causes, consequences, and underlying The vast majority of people from mechanisms for the observable human all educational backgrounds continue to behaviors affected by invisible forces-- harbor strong religious beliefs that affect whether they be physical (gravity), their daily decisions and behavior, with social (groups), or perceived spiritual both good and ill effects. These (gods). religious belief systems most commonly Contemporary science explains bump into scientific claims around many of these phenomena but also invisible forces. When science opens up points to the human capacities and opportunities to improve the human emergent processes that derive from condition by providing a more complete collective social structures and actions understanding of the causes of events, and, underlying the emergence of these their measurable effects, and possible structures, the human need for meaning- interventions— ranging from valid making and connecting to something science education to medical beyond oneself. The dominant metaphor advancements based on stem cell for the scientific study of the human research — these opportunities are often mind during the latter half of the 200% threatened by the application of specific century has been the computer — a religious beliefs to these endeavors. solitary device with massive information Scientific research to understand religion processing capacities. Computers today and religious belief systems may be a are massively interconnected devices more productive response than broad with capacities that extend far beyond denouncements by scientists of any who the resident hardware and software of a hold such beliefs. solitary computer. The extended Conversely, when religion opens capacities made possible by the internet up opportunities for improving the can be said to be emergent because they human condition by questioning the represent a whole that is greater than the simple sum of the actions that are emphasis on short-term self-interests at the expense of the collective, providing a possible by the sum of the individual more complete understanding of the (disconnected) computers that constitute the Internet. The telereceptors (e.g., human need to attribute meaning to events and their effects, and identifying eyes, ears) of the human brain have possible interventions— ranging from the provided wireless broadband EFTA_R1_01522098 EFTA02444861 Page 114 interconnectivity to humans for human characteristics onto nonhuman millennia. Just as computers have objects to achieve meaning, capacities and processes that are predictability, and human connection, is transduced through but extend far beginning to be subjected to productive beyond the hardware of a single multi-level scientific analysis. computer, the human brain has evolved Experimental studies have shown that to promote social and cultural capacities manipulations which increase feelings of and processes that are transduced social isolation without the possibility of through but that extend far beyond a resolving these feelings through human solitary brain. To understand the full interaction have the compensatory effect capacity of humans, one needs to of increasing people's tendency to appreciate not only the memory and anthropomorphize, including heightened computational power of the brain but its beliefs in God. This scientific work has capacity for representing, understanding, implications for understanding claims and connecting with other individuals. regarding the success of religious That is, one needs to recognize that we practices such as solitude as paths to have evolved a powerful, meaning feeling closer God. Research on making social brain. anthropomorphism has now identified developmental, situational, dispositional, Social species, by definition, and cultural factors that modulate create structures beyond the individual— structures ranging from dyads and people's tendency to anthropomorphize nonhuman agents ranging from families to institutions and cultures. technological gadgets to animals to gods, These emergent structures have evolved hand in hand with neural and hormonal and the neural mechanisms underlying this transconfiguration of nonhuman mechanisms to support them because the objects into human-like agents are consequent social behaviors (e.g., beginning to be revealed. cooperation, empathy, altruism, etc.) helped these organisms survive, Guided by the insights from reproduce, and care for offspring these new scientific theories of sufficiently long that they too anthropomorphism, historical analyses reproduced. From an evolutionary may be worthwhile to determine whether perspective then, the social context is concepts of god have changed across fundamental in the evolution and time and cultures such that god was development of the human brain. created in the image of the believer rather than vice versa. Xenophanes (6th The observable consequences of century B.C., cited in 9), for instance, these higher organizations have long was apparently the first to use the term been apparent, but we are only now "anthropomorphism" when describing beginning to understand their genetic, the similarities between religious agents neural, and biochemical basis and and their believers, noting that Greek consequences. To fully delve into these gods were invariably fair skinned and complex behaviors, science needs to deal blue-eyed whereas African gods were with the invisible forces that shape invariably dark skinned and dark-eyed human life, whether it is in the form of (joking that cows would surely worship physical, biological, or psychological gods that looked strikingly cow-like). forces. For instance, anthropomorphism, Brain imaging research has confirmed the irrepressible proclivity to attribute EFTA_R1_01522099 EFTA02444862 Page 115 that anthropomorphism is associated aggregation of these invisible forces at with the activation of the same prefrontal different levels. Related research areas that are active when people think questions include why they exist, and about themselves or project themselves measures of robustness. One of our onto others. central goals is to demonstrate not only Conclusion that considerations of these forces matter, but that that they can matter a Just as critically, the study of lot. invisible forces requires a discussion of the method that successful teams use to There also are questions of value work together as they cross disciplinary and ethics that could be implicated: boundaries. Over the past few decades, descriptive knowledge, models, there has been a demonstrable shift from awareness of causal relationships, and so the individual genius as the source of on, might not be enough to answer some scientific and scholarly breakthroughs to kinds of questions, especially those interdisciplinary teams. This shift in the related to value and purpose, which are the very energies that animate and production of cutting-edge knowledge has been documented in all fields of invigorate real human systems. scholarly activity, ranging from Economics comes close with its proxy mathematics and theoretical physics to measure of value based on the the humanities. This shift has both made distribution of scarce resources and possible and been necessitated by a need people's varying need for these to understand complex behaviors. resources. But this theory comes up Although this project is primarily about short in many instances where other the ways that scientists seek to study the values are at play that are beyond impact of invisible forces, it will also markets, such as in assessing the value reflect the methodologies that these of a human life, or whether all lives are researchers use so that their work is not of equal value. It is an especially poor constrained by common knowledge. model for helping us understand something as simple as the value of The philosophy of science also articles of sentimental value, such as looks different when dealing with simple family photographs, which may have causality (one-to-one relations) than with little or no market value at all. Thus, complex causality. Affirmation of the how do we best understand the consequent, a logical error in which a "sentiments" that are important in the given cause for an effect is inferred real world? based on the observation of the effect, The members of the Network does not lead to a scientific error when there is but a single cause for the have worked beyond the boundaries of disciplinary borders, geographical observed effect. However, as scientific inquiry addresses increasingly complex precincts, and epistemological comfort phenomena, and increasingly complexly zones to develop a rigorous but determined phenomena, the philosophy innovative approach to the study of the of science needs to become more human mind, sociality, spirituality, health, and well being. The Network nuanced. members represented in this book are A core challenge is to develop a Gary Bemtson from Ohio State "science" of identification and University, Don Browning from the EFTA_R1_01522100 EFTA02444863 Page 116 University of Chicago, John Cacioppo 2. W. James, The principles of (Network Director) from the University psychology. (Holt, New York, of Chicago, Farr Curlin from the 1890). University of Chicago Medical Center, 3. R. Dawkins, The God delusion. Jean Decety from the University of (Bantam, London, 2006). Chicago, Nick Epley from the University of Chicago Booth School, Clark Gilpin 4. D. C. Dennett, Breaking the from the University of Chicago, Louise spell: Religion as a natural Hawkley from the University of phenomenon. (Penguin, New Chicago, Tanya Luhrmann from York, 2006). Stanford University, Chris Masi from the 5. S. Harris, The end offaith: University of Chicago Medical Center, Religion, terror, and thefuture of Howard Nusbaum from the University reason. (W. W. Norton, New of Chicago, Gun Semin from the York, 2004). University of Utrecht, Steve Small from the University of Chicago Medical 6. S. Harris, Letter to a Christian Center, Kathryn Tanner from the nation. (Vintage Books, New University of Chicago, and Ron Thisted York, 2006). from the University of Chicago Medical 7. C. Hitchens, God is not great: Center. The biography of each along How religion poisons everything. with an explanation for the essay each (Hachette Book Group, New presents is provided at the beginning of York, 2007). each of their essays on invisible forces. 8. D. Mills, Atheist universe: The thinking person's answer to References Christian fundamentalism. (Ulysses Press, Berkeley, CA, 1. D. J. Boorstin, The Discoverers. 2004). (Random House., New York, 1983). 9. J. H. Lesher, Xenophanes: Fragments. (University of Toronto Press, Toronto, 1992). EFTA_R1_01522101 EFTA02444864 Page 117 From Selfish Genes to Social Brains offspring also grow to maturity and reproduce. This leads to natural The Chicago Social Brain selection choosing those genes and Network was established to examine capacities that contribute to cooperation, how science might inform us about our reciprocity, attachments, and generosity. fundamental human nature, including the Over the millennia of human evolution, apparently irrepressible quest for this process has created the social brain connection with a higher understanding and made humans a unique social and organization. Science can describe animal. what religion does in rigorous ways that benefit religion, and religion can serve a meaning-making function that science itself disclaims. This is not to say that science can address the existence of God. Our Network instead focuses on the consequences of believing in such a mind and of seeing into that mind. In the next chapter, John Cacioppo, a social neuroscientist, draws on work on evolutionary theory, sociobiology, and evolutionary psychology to examine the implications of the selfish gene hypothesis for Homo sapiens. He shows how the notion of the selfish gene has been joined with political theory, consumerism, and economics to produce a dominant modern image of humans summarized by the phrase "what is best for me is best for the society." Without rejecting the selfish gene view, Cacioppo shows how it evolves in humans into what he calls the "social brain"— a large cerebral cortex and an interconnected limbic lobule that together are sensitive to the complexities of physical and social environments. Central to this complexity is the long period of dependency of the human infant and the interdependencies of adult humans for survival especially in hostile environments (e.g., warfare). For the selfish gene to contribute its DNA to the ongoing gene pool, the individual must not only reproduce but also cooperate with others to assure that his or her EFTA_R1_01522102 EFTA02444865 Page 1 18 The Social Nature of Humankind , I memaill•-- rvra.,,,,,, I I onelniness f; gene r7 t d ... I Social species. by definition. arc ._ 74+,0ll st.,0,ec is t , ..., pet212. u griciesbrain Con ectio ...7• -a et 1t Mr4 O1 i characterized by the formation of structures chaman-gr gp king ,"''" oisurvivitigenes[1 leonngstir smolt bArvior-E Tri, othesresit a%iniii 1.1u (e.g., dyads, families, tribes, cultures) that extend beyond an individual. Although we Jr ...am* humanil 51:711.tu fa! Ent= may revere the rugged individualist, we are it.'"•=ime i maim I . Et" . fundamentally a social species. I begin by discussing some of the invisible evolutionary forces that led members of our species to band Chapter 22 together to form such structures. I then consider how selfish genes (e.g., through 2 The lead author is John T. Cacioppo, Ph.D., the anthropomorphism, /) might have led to social Tiffany and Margaret Blake Distinguished brains and why the social connections and Service Professor in the Departments of structures created by humans are especially Psychology and Psychiatry and the Director of powerful and flexible. Finally, I describe a the Center for Cognitive and Social nonintuitive way of thinking about the Neuroscience at the University of Chicago. He is a co-founder (with Gary Bemtson) of the field absence of satisfactory social connections of social neuroscience, a past president of the (i.e., loneliness), mention how and why Association for Psychological Science and a chronic loneliness can be so harmful, and recipient of numerous awards including the discuss how our need for social connection National Academy of Sciences Troland Research motivates us to search for meaning and Award and the American Psychological Association Distinguished Scientific connections beyond ourselves and other Contribution Award. Cacioppo's research individuals. One implication that is explored concerns the neural, hormonal, genetic, and here, and in more detail in the essays to behavioral mechanisms underlying the operation follow, is that genetic and cultural adaptations, and maintenance of the emergent structures that not human ignorance, may be fueling the characterize social species generally and humans in particular. lie has published more than 400 search for meaning and connection with a scientific articles and 16 books, including transcendent entity or being. Loneliness: Human nature and the needfor Mythic Individualism social connection (2008, Norton Books) and Handbook ofneurosciencefor the behavioral For at least the past century, we sciences (2009, John Wiley & Sons). Cacioppo have celebrated the power and is also the Director of the Chicago Social Brain Network. intellectual might of the solitary genius. Cacioppo has been interested both in This includes individuals such as the similarities and the differences between Thomas Edison who brought electrical humans and other species. Human social power to individual households, cognition, emotion, behavior, and executive transforming night into day; Henry Ford functioning - that is, our social brain - are especially sophisticated compared to those found who introduced the mass production of in other species. Research in the neurosciences sometimes focuses so much on mechanisms divorced from the social settings and functions comparison to and knowledge of the rich they may have evolved to serve in social species benefits of human social interaction and feelings such as our own that the generalizations to of connection. This essay addresses this gap in humans are inaccurate. Animal models permit our thinking about the genetic, neural, and experimental control and interventions that hormonal processes that constitute our brain and cannot be carried out in humans, but body and in doing so provides a different understanding the implications of this work for perspective on who we are as a unique biological the human brain and biology depends on explicit species. EFTA_R1_01522103 EFTA02444866 Page 119 automobiles, changing how we to be a large, tumultuous ball with a transported and consequently how and mind of its own. The rule governing the where we worked and lived; Charles behavior of this dynamic and adaptive Darwin who argued that the difference in collective action can be explained mind between humans and other species, entirely in terms of self-interests. Each great as it is, is one of degree and not of fish is driven to swim to the middle, kind; and Albert Einstein who surmised where it is less likely to be eaten by the a relationship between energy and hungry predator. Sardines are born with matter, opening a universe of the capacity to swim, find food, and possibilities that previously was virtually avoid predators. If they survive long unimaginable. As a result, the cultural enough to reproduce, their genes will be focus moved from a focus on the social part of the gene pool for future group — the family, neighborhood, or generations. That is, if those who are society — toward the autonomous genetically predisposed to swim to the individual. middle are more likely to survive predation, then the genetic Forty years ago, the dominant predisposition to swim to the middle will metaphor for the human mind was the digital computer, complete with inputs, become a characteristic of a larger percentage of sardines in future filing and memory systems, limited generations. processing resources, and outputs. Evolutionary theory focused on the The sardine ball is an example of selfish gene and, by extension, on the a more general phenomenon, in which individual whose purpose for living was the choices made by members of a group to survive long enough to reproduce. endow the collective with properties that Milton Friedman influenced economic are consistent, predictable, and theory and government policies for purposive enough that we can speak of decades by positing that people, being them as "behaviors" of the group, even fundamentally rational, are motivated though the collective actions of the first and foremost by self interests, and group are not directed by any of the the adage of "united we stand, divided individual members. This phenomenon we fall" was supplanted by the notion can be called "emergent," because the that what is best for the me is best for the properties or behavior of the group are society. Moving from an economy not determined by any individual but based on manufacturing for the masses arises from the collective behaviors of to one based on catering to idiosyncratic the individuals who constitute the group. consumer interests further fueled a focus Social structures like the sardine ball on the preferences of the autonomous have evolved because the sardines individual. whose genes compelled them to swim to the middle in the presence ofpredators One can certainly find evidence in humans and other species for the view were more likely to survive to reproduce, thereby contributing these of life being best understood in terms of genes to this species' gene pool. self-interest. Sardines, for example, swim in what appears to be synchronized According to the National schools until approached by a predator, Science Foundation's Tree of Life at which time they dart about so project, there are anywhere between 5 chaotically that they create what appears million and 100 million species on EFTA_R1_01522104 EFTA02444867 Page 120 Earth, only 2 million of which have been less fit so that the group might survive. identified thus far. Most of the species Subsequent generations of evolutionary identified arc either born with the biologists realized that even though capacity to find sustenance and avoid genes might act as if selfish, the vehicle predation sufficiently well that some responsible for the transport of these survive long enough to reproduce, or genes to the gene pool occasionally they are born in such large numbers that extended beyond the individual or parent some survive long enough to reproduce. to kin and even to unrelated members of It is the ability of such organisms to groups. More specifically, in some cases reproduce that determines what genes the superorganismal structures formed constitute the gene pool for the future by social organisms represent naturally generations of that species. These genes, selected levels of organization above in turn, shape the structure and function individual organisms (4). of the organisms that constitute a Consider the example of the species. This reasoning led George Emperor penguin (Aptenodytesformed). Williams (2) to suggest a half century Emperor penguins typically reside near ago that traits (i.e., behavioral their food source of squid, shoaling fish, tendencies) which benefit the group at and small crustaceans but in early winter the expense of the individual would they gather into breeding colonies evolve only if the process of group- (rookeries) up to 60 miles inland in April selection was great enough to overcome and May during the Antarctic winter. selection within groups. He further They search for their mate from the suggested that group selection is nearly previous year, and go through a always weak, so that group-related courtship ritual before mating. The adaptations do not exist (3). Richard female lays only one egg in May or Dawkins (I) popularized the notion that June, which coincides with the start of traits which evolve arc adaptive at the the bitter Antarctica winter. The gene level through his use of the Emperor penguins are thought to have metaphor of the selfish gene. Genes developed this unusual winter breeding serve their own selfish interests in the behavior to permit the chick to grow to sense that whatever the contributions independence the following summer, made by a gene, or set of genes, to an when food is plentiful. Ensuring the organism's structure and function would chick survives that long is a collective be passed on to the next generation if enterprise, with the vehicle responsible and only if the gene made its way to the for the chick surviving long enough such gene pool. Survival of the fittest now that it too can reproduce not being solely had a biological basis. the mother or the father but also the United We Stand, Divided We Fall huddle. Charles Darwin did not know The birthing of the egg leaves the that genes were the mechanism through mother depleted, so she must return to which structures and behaviors evolved, the seaside to feed while the father but an important component of his assumes responsibility for the incubation original theory was the notion of of the egg during the winter. An egg survival of the fittest. Darwin was also from an Emperor penguin will quickly puzzled by the observation that many freeze if left exposed to harsh winter individual organisms made themselves conditions of the Antarctica, so the EFTA_R1_01522105 EFTA02444868 Page 121 transition of the egg from beneath the complexities facing the human species. warmth and safety of the mother to atop Indeed, the social brain hypothesis posits the feet and under a fold of feathered that the social complexities and demands abdominal skin of the father requires a ofprimate species contributed to the bit of coordination on the part of the rapid increase in neocortical (i.e., the two. Even this is not sufficient for the outer layer of the brain) connectivity and genes of this pair to find their way into intelligence (8). Warfare among the gene pool. The conditions of the ancestral hunter-gatherers appears to Antarctic winters are among the least have contributed to group selection for hospitable on earth, with winter human social behaviors, especially temperatures dipping below -60 degrees altruistic behaviors (5). As Darwin Celsius and winds reaching 120 mph. (1871) noted: To protect themselves from the wind and A tribe including many members cold, the male penguins huddle together, who, from possessing a high spending much of their time sleeping to degree of the spirit of patriotism, conserve energy. In this harsh fidelity, obedience, courage, and environment, survival of the chicks sympathy, were always ready to depends on the shared warmth and aid one another, and to sacrifice protection of the huddle, not the themselves for the common good individual. The group as a whole is would be victorious over most more likely to survive if each penguin other tribes; and this would be and chick shares in the warmth and natural selection. (p. 166) protection of the collective structure, which means selective pressures exist to Moreover, deducing better ways promote cooperation to maintain the to find food, avoid perils, and navigate integrity of the huddle. More generally, territories has adaptive value for large for species born to a period of utter mammals, but the complexities of these dependency, the genes that find their ecological demands are no match for the way into the gene pool are not defined complexities of social living (especially solely or even mostly by likelihood that in hostile between-group social an organism will reproduce but by the environments), which include: likelihood that the offspring of the parent recognizing ingroup and outgroup will live long enough to reproduce. As members; learning by social observation; in the case of the Emperor penguins, one recognizing the shifting status of friends consequence is that selfish genes and foes; anticipating and coordinating evolved through individual-level efforts between two or more individuals; selection processes to promote social using language to communicate, reason, preferences and group processes, teach, and deceive others; orchestrating including reciprocal social behaviors, relationships, ranging from pair bonds that can extend beyond kin relationships and families to friends, bands, and (e.g., 5). Examples of such selection coalitions; navigating complex social processes in humans exist, as well (e.g., hierarchies, social norms and cultural 6, 7). developments; subjugating self-interests to the interests of the pair bond or social The environmental challenges group in exchange for the possibility of facing Emperor penguins, as daunting as long term benefits for oneself or one's they are, pale by comparison to the group; recruiting support to sanction EFTA_R1_01522106 EFTA02444869 Page 122 individuals who violate group norms; run derives not solely from the and doing all this across time frames that reproductive success of individuals, but stretch from the distant past to multiple also from the success of their children to possible futures (9). Consistent with reproduce. Hunter/gatherers who did not this hypothesis, measures of sociality in form social connections and who did not troops of baboons have been found to be feel a compulsion to return to share their highly correlated with infant survival, food or defense with their offspring may and cross-species comparisons have have been more likely to survive to shown that the evolution of large and procreate again, but given the long metabolically expensive brains is more period of dependency of human infants closely associated with social than their offspring may have been less likely ecological complexity (9). to survive to procreate. The result is selection that strongly favors the ability Our survival depends on our to process information that could connection with others. Born to the most prolonged period of utter contribute to the formation and maintenance of social capacities and dependency of any animal, human connections — that is, a social brain. infants must instantly engage their parents in protective behavior, and the These social capacities evolved hand in hand with genetic, neural, and hormonal parents must care enough about their mechanisms to support them because the offspring to nurture and protect them. If infants do not elicit nurturance and resulting social behaviors helped humans survive, reproduce, and care for protection from caregivers, or if caregivers are not motivated to provide offspring sufficiently long that they too survived to reproduce (11-13). Relative such care over an extended period of to other animals, the striking time, then the infants will perish along development of and increased with the genetic legacy of the parents connectivity within the human cerebral (/0). Our developmental dependency mirrors our evolutionary heritage. cortex, especially the frontal and temporal regions, are among the key Hunter/gatherers did not have the benefit evolutionary developments in this of natural weaponry, armor, strength, flight, stealth, or speed relative to many regard. The cerebral cortex is a mantle of between 2.6 to 16 billion neurons with other species. Human survival depended each neuron receiving 10,000 to 100,000 on collective abilities, not on individual synapses in their dendritic trees (e.g., might. 14). The expansion of the frontal Selfish Genes, Social Brains regions in the human brain contributes to it is the gene that is obligatorily the human capacities for reasoning, selfish, not the human brain. Genes that planning, performing mental promote behaviors that increase the odds simulations, theory ofmind, and of the genes surviving are perpetuated. thinking about self and others. The One implication of this simple insight is temporal regions of the brain, in turn, are that evolution can be viewed as the involved with aspects of social competition between genes using perception, memory, and individuals and social structures as their communication. The means for guiding temporary vehicles. The genetic behavior through the environment constitution ofHomo Sapiens in the long emerged prior to neocortical expansion. EFTA_R1_01522107 EFTA02444870 Page I 23 The evolutionarily older systems also is surprisingly easy to overlook the play a role in human information evident. processing and behavior, albeit in a more Noticing the Unusual, Overlooking the rigid and stereotyped fashion. The Obvious intricately interconnected neocortical regions of the frontal lobes are involved On January IS, 2009, US in self control, which permits the Airways Flight 1549 departed from New modulation of these older systems and York's LaGuardia Airport for Charlotte, the overriding of organismal hedonistic North Carolina when it struck a flock of impulses for the benefit of others (15). geese during takeoff. Both engines were disabled, and the heavy aircraft quickly Evidence across human history lost the power it needed to stay aloft, but provides overwhelming support for the Capt. Chesley Sullenberger somehow supposition that humans are managed a controlled descent into the fundamentally social creatures (13). Hudson River. The media dubbed the Even in contemporary times in which ditching of the plane and the survival of autonomy is revered, the average person all 155 passengers and crew the miracle has been estimated to spend nearly 80% on the Hudson, and Sullenberger was of waking hours in the company of duly heralded as a hero. The ability to others, most of which is spent in small control the descent of an 84-ton plane talk with known individuals (16). These without engine thrust is not something estimates have been supported in more with which humans are naturally detailed assessment using the day- endowed. Sullenberger was not a reconstruction method to determine how novice, of course. He is a U.S. Air people spend their time and how they Force Academy graduate who flew F-4 experienced events in their lives on a fighter planes while in the Air Force, has daily basis (17). The results of these 40 years of flight experience, and holds a daily assessments indicate people spend commercial glider license and glider only 3.4 hrs alone, or approximately instructor rating. As remarkable as was 20% of their waking hours. The time his achievement relative to what one spent with friends, relatives, spouse, might normally expect in this situation, children, clients, and coworkers is rated however, Sullenberger's efforts were not on average as more inherently rewarding sufficient for the miracle on the Hudson than the time spent alone (17). to be achieved. Respondents indicate that their When Flight 1549 came to a stop most enjoyable activities are intimate in the frigid Hudson River, the relations and socializing — activities that passengers and crew scrambled to the promote bonding and high quality wings and inflatable slides of their relationships, whereas their least slowly sinking aircraft. Local enjoyable activities are commuting and commercial vessels from the New York working. These results are consistent Waterway and Circle Line fleets with survey data. When asked "what is responded almost immediately, with the necessary for happiness?" the majority first of the vessels reaching the plane of respondents rate "relationships with within four minutes. The crews of the family and friends" as most important various vessels worked together to (18), although we certainly do not rescue the passengers and crew of Flight always act like this is most important. It EFTA_R1_01522108 EFTA02444871 Page 124 1549, and various volunteers and aid of another, even a stranger, in dire agencies offered medical assistance. need led to public outrage. Decades of These rescue efforts were not motivated research led to the conclusion that the by personal or commercial self-interests, ambiguity of the situation and the and none of the commercial vessel diffusion of responsibility were captains was lauded as a hero. Their contributing factors. efforts received less attention because These two news stories illustrate, their actions were precisely what we in very different ways, how invisible expect of one another. forces sculpted by evolution and It is the unusual, not the cultivated by the environment act on our commonplace, that is noticed. On species. When commercial boat captains March 13, 1964, Kitty Genovese parked act against their own financial interests near her home in Kew Gardens, New to rescue others on a sinking aircraft, we York, and proceeded to her residence in think nothing of it because we believe it a small apartment complex. Winston is what any individual in the same Moseley, a business machine operator situation would naturally do. When who later confessed that his motive was observers of a brutal attack do nothing to simply to kill a woman, overtook aid the victim, we are horrified because Genovese and stabbed her twice in the we believe it goes against who we are as back. Genovese screamed, "Oh my a species. Humans are not motivated God, he stabbed me! Help me!", a call solely by self interests but rather we that was heard by neighbors. When one work together and help one another neighbor shouted at the attacker, "Leave when in need. We survive and prosper that girl alone," Moseley ran away. in the long term through collective Genovese, who was wounded and concerns and actions, not by solely bleeding, moved toward the apartment selfish pursuits (20). building slowly and alone. Moseley Danger Signals returned approximately 10 minutes later and searched for Genovese. Finding her The stories of the sardine ball nearly unconscious in a hallway of the and the penguin huddle suggest that it is building, he continued his knife attack dangerous to be on the social perimeter. on her and sexually assaulted her. The Living on the perimeter threatens the entire attack unfolded over about half an lives and genetic legacy of humans, as hour, and yet no one responded. The well. Epidemiological studies have first clear call for help to the police did found that social isolation is not only not occur until minutes following the associated with lower levels of final attack, and Genovese died in an happiness and well being but with broad ambulance en route to the hospital. The based morbidity and mortality (21). number of people who were aware of Moreover, humans are such meaning- some aspect of the attack was estimated making creatures that perceived social to be from a dozen to more than three isolation is at least as important a dozen. One unidentified neighbor who predictor of adverse outcomes on human saw part of the attack was quoted in a health and well being as is objective New York Times article as saying "I social isolation (22). Writers may spend didn't want to get involved." (19). The long periods by themselves, but the notion that people might not go to the envisioned readers make this time feel EFTA_R1_01522109 EFTA02444872 Page 125 anything but isolated. High school distinct is that these are broader social graduates who leave family and friends identities, linked to larger social groups for the first time to attend college, on the rather than individual members of the other hand, typically experience intense groups. When we examined the feelings of social isolation even though dimensions underlying loneliness/social they are physically around more people connectedness, we found the same three than before they left home. Caspi and basic dimensions (26): (1) intimate colleagues (23) found that perceived connection/isolation refers to the social isolation in adolescence and perceived presence/absence of anyone in young adulthood predicted how many your life who affirms you as a valued cardiovascular risk factors (e.g., body person; (2) relational mass index, waist circumference, blood connection/isolation refers to the pressure, cholesterol) were elevated in perceived presence/absence of quality young adulthood, and that the number of friendships or family connections; and developmental occasions (i.e., (3) collective connection/isolation refers childhood, adolescence, young to the perceived presence/absence of a adulthood) at which participants felt meaningful connection with a group or socially isolated predicted the number of social stimulus (e.g., school, team) elevated risk factors in young adulthood. beyond other individuals. When you perceive you are part of a valued group Perceived social isolation is known more colloquially as loneliness, (collective connection), for instance, you may be more inclined to agree with other which in early scientific investigations group members, even on beliefs that was depicted as "a chronic distress may seem irrational, than when you are without redeeming features" (24. p. 15). thinking of yourself as a unique Loneliness may feel like a painfully individual. miserable, hopeless, and worthless state, but we have found it has a specific Given that human survival and structure and a valuable adaptive prosperity depends on inclusion in and function. participation with a social group, especially in evolutionary time when Research on the ways in which food was scarce and dangers were people describe themselves when asked common, there is an adaptive benefit to the question, "Who are you?", reveals having the strong and aversive response three basic dimensions (25): (1) a of loneliness when an individual feels personal, or intimate, self the "you" of your individual characteristics; (2) a his or her social connections might be weakening or broken, just as there is a social or relational self, which is who benefit to having aversive signals for you are in relation to the people closest other conditions critical for survival. to you—your spouse, kids, friends, and Hunger, thirst, and pain have evolved as neighbors; and (3) a collective self, the aversive signals to prompt an organism you that is the member of a certain to change their behavior in a way that ethnic group, has a certain national protects the individual and promotes the identity, belongs to certain professional likelihood their genes will make their or other associations, and a member of way into the gene pool. The social pain the fan club for certain sports teams. of loneliness has evolved similarly — to Similar to the relational self, this part of serve as a signal that one's connections the self is social but what makes this self EFTA_R1_01522110 EFTA02444873 Page I26 to others are weakening and to motivate influences of gravity or magnetic flux. the repair and maintenance of the In the cases of team and school spirit, connections to others that are needed for this influence represents a specific form our health and well being as for the of social connection between an survival of our genes (27). Physical pain individual and an emergent structure. is an aversive signal that evolved to Perceived social connections are motivate one to take action that abstractions that can transcend time and minimizes damage to one's body. space. People may feel a connection Loneliness is an aversive signal that with their ancestors or family heritage evolved to motivate one to take action even if they are the only remaining that minimizes damage to one's social descendant, just as people can perceive body. personal connections with pets, cars, People differ dispositionally in television characters, celebrities, and their sensitivity to the pain of social unseen spiritual entities with whom they disconnection (i.e., feelings of do not actually interact. A potent loneliness; 28) just as people differ in component of spirituality (that does not sensitivity to physical pain. Ostracism depend on a specific religion) is the or objective isolation in most species is feeling of connection and purpose that associated with an early death (29). In come from forming a relationship with a humans, the chronic feeling of social higher being. A simple byproduct of our isolation, even when the person remains selfish genes and social brains may be among the protective embrace of others, our search for meaning in and is associated with significant mental and connection with broader organizations or physical disorders (30). Chronic hunger, beings. thirst, and pain can also have deleterious Conclusion effects for, like loneliness, their adaptive value lies in their effects as acute In 1939, the astrophysicist Sir Arthur signals, not as chronic conditions. The Eddington published a book entitled The opposite of feeling hunger, thirst, pain, philosophy ofphysical science (32). In it he or loneliness is feeling normal, and this describes a hypothetical scientist who sought is the state in which most people exist to determine the size of the various fish in the most of the time. sea. The scientist began by weaving a 2-inch mesh net and setting sail across the seas, The social connections formed repeatedly sampling catches and carefully by humans need not be based on genetic measuring, recording, and analyzing the similarities. The human species has results of each catch. After extensive evolved the capacity for and motivation sampling, the scientist concluded that there to form relationships not only with other were no fish smaller than two inches in the individuals but also with groups (e.g., a sea. The moral of Sir Eddington's analogy is Chicago Cubs or Boston Red Sox fan) twofold. First, scientific instruments are and nonhuman entities (e.g., through shaped by people's intuitive theories of the anthropomorphism, 31). Team spirit and phenomena to be investigated. Second, once school spirit are familiar notions, and developed, scientific expectations and although team or school spirit refers to instruments shape data and theory in ways an invisible influence, it is an invisible more powerfully and fundamentally than are influence that is no less open to rigorous often appreciated. scientific inquiry than are the invisible EFTA_R1_01522111 EFTA02444874 Page I 27 What is the relevance of this to the feel socially isolated (i.e., lonely) story of the social nature of humankind? Our compared to when they do not feel research findings have led me to believe that lonely, they are more likely not only to we all have made Eddington's error in the way perceive nonhuman objects as human- we have thought about, studied, and tried to like but to believe in the existence of deal with an invisible force that motivates us God (31, 36). To understand the full to seek and maintain our connection with capacity of and forces operating on others — including the loneliness one feels humans, we need to appreciate not only when we feel important social connections are the memory and computational power of threatened or absent. Historically, the the brain but its capacity for scientific perspective on loneliness was not representing, understanding, and only that it was a painful and miserable state, connecting with other individuals and but that it was an aversive state with no with the emergent structures, fictional redeeming features. All one needs to do is to and real, that the brain can represent. reflect on the last time one felt terribly lonely, That is, we need to recognize that we and one can appreciate the seemingly self- have evolved a powerful, meaning- evident truth of this characterization. But as making social brain and a need for social Sir Arthur Eddington's story shows us, the connection. obvious and intuitive can sometimes be very References misleading. It is now widely recognized that many structures and processes of the mind 1. Dawkins R. The Selfish Gene. operate outside of awareness, with only the 1976. end products sometimes reaching awareness. 2. Williams GC. Natural Selection, Humans have evolved to seek the Costs of Reproduction, and a connections with and validation from Refinement of Lack's Principle. other minds, and these social The American Naturalist connections represent an important set of 1966;100:687-90. invisible forces operating on our brain 3. Wilson DS, Wilson EO. and biology. The need for social Evolution "for the Good of the connection extends beyond kin relations Group". American Scientist and beyond face to face relations to 2008;96:380-9. include felt connections with superorganismal entities such as teams, 4. Holldobler B, Wilson Ea The political parties, nations, and God. The superorganism: The beauty, unseen forces compelling these elegance, and strangeness of connections can be quantified and insect societies. New York: W. investigated objectively independent of W. Norton; 2008. one's spiritual beliefs. Underlying these 5. Bowles S. Did warfare among aspirations are selfish genes that have ancestral hunter-gatherers affect produced a social brain which activates the evolution of human social reward regions of the brain when we behaviors? Science cooperate effectively with others (33) or 2009;324:1293-8. punish the perpetrators of social exploitations (34), and which activates 6. Haidt J, Patrick Seder J, Kesebir the pain matrix in the brain when we feel S. Hive Psychology, Happiness, rejected by others (35). When people EFTA_R1_01522112 EFTA02444875 Page I28 and Public Policy. The Journal of of man. J Comp Neurol Legal Studies 2008;37:S133-S56. 1966;128:17-20. 7. Wilson DS. Evolution for 15. Berntson GG, Norman GJ, everyone: How Darwin's theory Cacioppo JT. Evaluative can change the way we think processes. In Berntson GG, about our lives. New York: Cacioppo JT editors. Handbook Delacorte Press; 2007. of neuroscience for the behavioral sciences. New York: 8. Dunbar R. The Human Story. Wiley; 2009. London: Faber and Faber 2004. 16. Emler N. Gossip, reputation and 9. Dunbar RIM, Shultz S. Evolution adaptation. In F. GR, A. B-Ze in the Social Brain. Science 2007;317:1344-7. editors. Good gossip Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas Press.; 10. Beckerman S, Erickson PI, Yost 1994, p. 34-46. J, Regalado J, Jaramillo L, 17. Kahneman D, Krueger AB, Sparks C, Iromenga M, Long K. Schkade DA, Schwarz N, Stone Life histories, blood revenge, and AA. A Survey Method for reproductive success among the Characterizing Daily Life Waorani of Ecuador. Proc Natl Experience: The Day Acad Sci USA 2009;106:8134- Reconstruction Method. Science 9. 2004;306:1776-80. 11. Cacioppo JT, Amaral DG, 18. Berscheid E. Interpersonal Blanchard B, Cameron JL, Sue attraction. In G. L, E. A editors. Carter C, Crews D, Fiske S, The Handbook of Social Heatherton T, Johnson MK, Psychology. 3 ed. New York: Kozak MJ, Levenson RW, Lord Random House; 1985, p. 413-84. C, Miller EK, Ochsner K, Raichle ME, Tracie Shea M, 19. Gansberg M. Thirty-Eight Who Taylor SE, Young U, Quinn KJ. Saw Murder Didn't Call the Social Neuroscience: Progress Police New York Times New and Implications for Mental York; 1964. Health. Perspectives on 20. Gurerk O, Irlenbusch B, Psychological Science Rockenbach B. The Competitive 2007;2:99-123. Advantage of Sanctioning 12. Donaldson ZR, Young U. Institutions. Science Oxytocin, Vasopressin, and the 2006;312:108-11. Neurogenetics of Sociality. 21. House JS, Landis KR, Umberson Science 2008;322:900-4. D. Social relationships and 13. Lovejoy CO. Reexamining health. Science 1988;241:540-5. human origins in light of 22. Cacioppo IT, Patrick B. Ardipithccus ramidus. Science Loneliness: Human nature and 2009;326:74e1-8. the need for social connection. 14. Pakkenberg H. The number of New York: W. W. Norton & nerve cells in the cerebral cortex Company; 2008. EFTA_R1_01522113 EFTA02444876 Page 129 23. Caspi A, Harrington H, Moffitt 31. Epley N, Waytz A, Akalis S, TE, Milne BJ, Poulton R. Cacioppo JT. When we need a Socially isolated children 20 human: Motivational years later: risk of cardiovascular determinants of disease. Arch Pediatr Adolesc anthropomorphism. Social Med 2006;160:805- I 1. Cognition 2008;26:143-55. 24. Weiss RS. Loneliness: The 32. Eddington AS. The philosophy experience of emotional and of physical science : Tamer social isolation. Cambridge, MA: lectures. Cambridge: Cambridge MIT Press; 1973. University Press; 1939. 25. Brewer MB, Gardner W. Who is 33. Rilling J, Gutman D, Zeh T, this "we"? Levels of collective Pagnoni G, Berns G, Kilts C. A identity and self representations. Neural Basis for Social Journal ofPersonality and Social Cooperation. Neuron Psychology 1996;71:83-93. 2002;35:395-504. 26. Hawkley LC, Browne MW, 34. De Quervain DJF, Fischbacher Cacioppo JT. How Can I U, Treyer V, Schellhammer M, Connect With Thee?. Let Me Schnyder U, Buck A, Fehr E. Count the Ways. Psychological The Neural Basis of Altruistic Science 2005;16:798-804. Punishment. Science 2004;305:1254-8. 27. Cacioppo JT, Hawkley LC, Ernst JM, Burleson M, Bemtson GG, 35. Eisenberger NI, Lieberman MD, Nouriani B, Spiegel D. Williams KD. Does Rejection Loneliness within a nomological Hurt? An fMRI Study of Social net: An evolutionary perspective. Exclusion. Science Journal ofResearch in 2003;302:290-2. Personality 2006;40:1054-85. 36. Epley N, Waytz A, Cacioppo JT. 28. Boomsma DI, Willemsen G, On Seeing Human: A Three- Dolan CV, Hawkley LC, Factor Theory of Cacioppo JT. Genetic and Anthropomorphism. environmental contributions to Psychological Review loneliness in adults: The 2007;114:864-86. Netherlands twin register study. Behav Genet 2005;35:745-52. 29. Williams KD. Ostracism: The power of silence. New York: Guilford Press; 2001. 30. Cacioppo JT, Patrick B. Loneliness: Human nature and the need for social connection. New York: W. W. Norton & Company; 2008. EFTA_R1_01522114 EFTA02444877 Page 130 From Inclusive Fitness to Spiritual religion serves to extend love and Striving connection beyond kin. He further The notion of "selfish genes" argues that new developments in the sciences and long-standing traditions in (and, by extension, selfish organisms) theology constitute fertile ground on was popularized in Richard Dawkins' which to build new and testable 1976 book by that title. Not long hypotheses regarding our fundamental afterwards, an article appeared in human nature. Science that presented evidence that the most vicious members of a warlike tribe I. S. Beckerman et al., Proc. Natl. in South America had the most wives Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 106, 8134 and children. The underlying notion was (May 19, 2009). one of (genetic) survival of the fittest: Those warriors who were particularly vicious were more likely to contribute their genes to the gene pool. Methodological objections have left this an open question, however, and new evidence now exists that calls this interpretation into question (1): the most aggressive warriors may have more children but they have lower indices of reproductive success than their milder brethren in part perhaps because the most aggressive warriors and their offspring arc also more likely to be the targets of revenge killings. These new data are entirely consistent with John Cacioppo's argument that the content of the human gene pool has more to do with the reproductive success of one's offspring than one's own reproductive success. Cacioppo argued further that this genetic selection resulted in a social brain that seeks meaning and connection with individuals and with social entities (e.g., groups) that extend beyond other individuals. In the next chapter, theologian Don Browning also embraces the concept of inclusive fitness and, through the writings of Thomas Aquinas, shows how religion serves the human need for meaning and connection through the ethics they advocate, the congregations they form, the institutions they represent, and the God they serve. In his view, EFTA_R1_01522115 EFTA02444878 Page 131 years, new energy and fresh public interest have been injected into this conversation. This largely has come —1.throthr— -nr v t"'il:11.71-1-tt—trfitirseescrocei humans ClUln V Laislc-rn. cts 1 le.WinhZedorf fa so ...catt..n .2h absatigthriman-z"4 about due to the new insights into religion and ethics achieved by collaboration between evolutionary irwai T$4=71 :; ELI psychology and cognitive and social tr i —C neuroscience. What are the likely social Chapter 33 consequences of this new interest in the relation of science and religion? There are at least three possible answers. One Science, Religion, and a Revived might be the new atheism exemplified Religious Humanism by the writings of Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, and For over 150 years there has been Christopher Hitchens. I In this approach, a vital, and often contentious, dialogue the alleged defective thinking of the between science and religion. In recent world religions is exposed, and a worldvicw and way of life based strictly 3 The lead author is Don Browning, Ph.D., the on science are offered as replacement. A Alexander Campbell Professor of Religious second option might be the return of a Ethics and the Social Sciences. Emeritus, Divinity School, University of Chicago. He has hegemonic dominance of religion over interests in the relation of the social sciences to science. However, polarizing rhetoric religious ethics for the purpose of addressing from advocates for the exclusive various challenges facing modern life. His books interpretive priority of either science or include Generative Man (1973, 1975; National religion has long since ceased to be Book Award Finalist. 1974), Religious Thought and the Modern Psychologies (1987, 2004). the culturally or academically productive. co-authored From Culture Wars to Common Instead, through dialogue about common Ground: Religion and the American Family issues, scientific and theological thinkers Debate (1997, 2000), Christian Ethics and the may pose questions that lead to more Moral Psychologies (2006). and Equality and the sophisticated inquiry in both fields. Family (2007). He co-edited Sex, Marriage, and Family in the World Religions (2006), American Confidence in the productive Religions and the Family (2006), Children and possibilities of reciprocal questioning is Childhood in American Religions (2009), and a hallmark of the long tradition known Children and Childhood in World Religions as religious humanism. Here I illustrate (2009). He is the co-principal investigator with the potential contribution of religious Jean Bethke Elshtain of a Templeton Foundation funded $4,000,000 New Science of Virtue humanism by bringing recent project. psychological research into dialogue In this essay. Browning acknowledges with the religious concept of love. the antagonistic relationship that can be found between science and religion, but he proposes What would this religious that the dialogue between science and religion humanism be like? The major world can now be conducted on philosophical grounds religions would remain visible and that promote a new religious humanism that will viable as religious movements. But the honor the core ideas of the great religions, refine contributions of science would help their view of nature, and increase the values of health, wealth, education, and general well- these religions refine their interests in being. improving the health, education, wealth, EFTA_R1_01522116 EFTA02444879 Page I32 and overall well-being of their adherents. atheism, about the ultimate truth or In addition, the sciences would help falsity of religious phenomena.2 them refine their grasp of the empirical On the other hand, the religions world about which they are, like humans themselves can contribute to the in general, constantly making judgments, sciences. They can do this by offering predictions, and characterizations. In hypotheses about how social and my vision, the attitude of scientists religious ideas, behaviors, and rituals toward religion would be first of all can shape experience, even neural phenomenological; they would first processes, often for the good but attempt to describe and understand sometimes not. The religions can offer a religious beliefs, ethics, and rituals in more generous epistemology and their full historical context. But their ontology than science is inclined to find interest in explaining some of the useful for the tight explanatory interests conditions that give rise to religious of the laboratory or scientific survey. phenomena would not be inhibited by This too might generate new hypotheses either religion or the wider society. for scientific investigation. These would There are several different approaches to be some of the ground rules for how a phenomenology. The perspective that I dialogue between science and religion recommend follows the "critical might stimulate a revived religious hermeneutic phenomenology" of Paul humanism. Ricoeur. Ricoeur advocates beginning the study of religion with a Religious Humanisms of the Past phenomenology — a careful description — To speak of a revival suggests of the person's or community's words, that there have been many expressions of symbols, metaphors, and narratives used religious humanism in the past when to communicate the meaning of a some form of science, philosophy, and religious experience or practice. This religion creatively interacted. I will view assumes that we cannot describe limit myself to speaking primarily about experience directly but rather that Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. A experience is always mediated by synthesis between Greek philosophical symbols and metaphors. But Ricoeur's psychology and Christianity can be phenomenology does not stop with a found in the use of Stoic theories of description of these meanings. It builds desire by the apostle Paul, 3 the presence in a secondary place for science and of Aristotle's family ethic — with its explanation. It seeks through science to implicit psycho-biology - in the give explanatory accounts of the affects household codes of Ephesians and I and motivations that humans bring to Colossians, 4 and the gospel of John's these words, symbols, and metaphors. If identification of Jesus with the Platonic scientists followed Ricoeur's model, and Stoic idea of the pre-existent they would understand the importance of "Word." 5 A more intentional religious beginning with description, be hesitant humanism can be found in Augustine's to skip lightly over initial use of the neo-Platonic Plotinus, phenomenological meanings, appreciate especially in the philosophical yet grasp the limits of explanation, and psychology of remembrance developed be reluctant to plunge into speculations, in his Confessions. 6 But the most such as those of the new scientific dramatic example of a religious EFTA_R1_01522117 EFTA02444880 Page 133 humanism that spread simultaneously "Christian love" and all other forms of into Judaism, Christianity, and Islam can love, the tradition of religious humanism be found when the lost texts of Aristotle proposes that science clarifies the were discovered, translated, and workings of love in human societies and appropriated by scholars from these religion extends the scope of love three religions who worked at the same beyond its most immediate domain of tables in Islamic libraries in Spain and kinship. Sicily during the ninth and tenth There arc three major tensions in centuries. Richard Rubinstein in his theological discussions of Christian love. timely book titled Aristotle's Children They center around the two Greek words (2003) tells the story well. 7 This gave agape and eros and the Latin word rise to forms of Aristotelian religious caritas. A famous book titled Agape humanism in the works of Thomas and Eros (1953) written by the Swedish Aquinas in Christianity, Maimonides in theologian Anders Nygren traced the Judaism, and Averroes in Islam. On the debate through Christian history. 9 American scene, one sees another form Nygren believed that the truly normative of Christian humanism in the synthesis and authentic understanding of Christian of philosophical pragmatism, with all its love is found in the word agape, the influence from Darwin, and expressions Greek word used for Christian love in of liberal Christianity and the social the New Testament. It refers to a kind of gospel movement. 8 self-giving, even self-sacrificial, love Religious humanisms have not that is only possible by the grace of God. always flourished and are subject to 1° Nygren was particularly interested in attacks from both fundamentalists and arguing that Christian love did not build scientific secularists. They need on what the Greek philosophers called constant updating and vigorous eros. He claimed eros refers to the intellectual development. But at their natural desires of humans to have and best, they make it possible for societies unite with the goods of life. This to maintain strong religious communities includes the goods of health, wealth, as well as integrating symbolic affiliation, and pleasure but it also umbrellas that protect the productive includes the higher goods of beauty and interaction of the scientific disciplines truth. Nygren's point, however, was with the wider cultural and religious life. that Christian love does not build on or An Example: The Agape, Caritas, and incorporate eros — the natural aspirational strivings of humans. He Eros Debate believed he found this view of Christian Few words in the English love in the New Testament (especially language have such a range of everyday the writing of the apostle Paul) and meanings and of serious philosophical Martin Luther, the giant of the Protestant and theological consideration as the Reformation. word love. For this reason, it is an Nygren was particularly excellent candidate for scientific interested in dismantling the classical investigation that has potential benefits medieval Roman Catholic view of for religious practice and everyday life. Christian love that was often Although some theologians have sought summarized with the English word to create a sharp division between charity or the Latin word caritas. Why EFTA_R1_01522118 EFTA02444881 Page 134 did Nygren oppose the caritas view of from evolutionary psychology and social Christian love? The answer is that the neuroscience. meaning of love as caritas did exactly Moral Implications of Kin Altruism what Nygren thought Paul and Luther, and Inclusive Fitness his theological heroes, did not do. In the classic Roman Catholic view, love as As is well known, the idea of caritas builds on eros. Caritas was seen inclusive fitness was first put forth in to include natural desires for health and 1964 by William Hamilton. 12 affiliation. But the caritas view of love Hamilton's view of inclusive fitness also held that religious education and holds that living beings not only struggle God's grace built on and expanded these for their individual survival but for the natural inclinations to entail a self-giving survival of offspring and kin who also benevolence to others, even strangers carry their genes. Their altruism is and enemies — an idea so central to the likely to be proportional to the concept of Christian love. percentage of their genes that others carry. This insight was further All of this seemed too developed by the concept of parental naturalistic for Nygren. It seemed to investment. Ronald Fisher and Robert play down the importance of God's Trivers (1972) defined it as "any transforming grace. He joined other investment by the parent in an individual European neo-orthodox theologians of offspring that increases the offspring's his day such as Karl Barth and Rudolph chance of surviving...at the cost of the Bultmann in cutting off Christian love parent's ability to invest in other from eros,Il which in effect was to cut offspring." 13 These insights were at the Christian love from nature and desire — core of the emerging field of the very things scientists tend to study. sociobiology and were first brought to Beginning with Nygren's strong view of the wider public attention by E.O. agape and the strong supernaturalism of Wilson's Sociobiology: The New both Nygren and Barth, there was little Synthesis (1975). 14 room in these mid-twentieth century Protestant trends for a productive But the moral implications of the dialogue between Christian ethics and concept of inclusive fitness, parental the new scientific advances in moral investment, and kin altruism have psychology, evolutionary psychology, received competing interpretations. and neuroscience. Richard Dawkins in his The Selfish Gene (1976) turned these ideas into a defense At the same time, however, of philosophical ethical egoism and breakthroughs in these very disciplines argued that all altruistic acts are have led to a new reassessment of the disguised maneuvers to perpetuate our Catholic caritas model of Christian love. own genes. IS But there are other But before I review in more detail how interpretations. Social neuroscientist this model worked, especially in the John Cacioppo interprets our motives thought of the great medieval Roman toward inclusive fitness and kin altruism Catholic theologian Thomas Aquinas, let as the core of human intergenerational me turn to review some of the moral care and the vital link between sociality implications of insights into kin altruism and spirituality. In cooperation with his and inclusive fitness emerging today colleagues, his research on loneliness EFTA_R1_01522119 EFTA02444882 Page 135 uses evolutionary theory on inclusive and caring creatures we are. Sociality is fitness to order many of his findings. a fundamental characteristic of humans, From the perspective of this model of and, according to Cacioppo, spirituality, basic human motivations, loneliness can in its various forms, is an extension of be seen as a condition that "promotes sociality. Religion is generally, inclusive fitness by signaling ruptures in although not always, good for our social connections and motivates the mental and physical health - our heart, repair or replacement of these our blood pressure, our self-esteem, and connections." 16 According to his our self-control - just like having good interpretation of inclusive fitness, our friends and family or not being lonely gene continuity is not assured by simply are also good for our well-being. 18 having our own children. Our children Cacioppo and colleagues do not equate also must have children as well. And sociality and religion; they are fully this is a challenge entailing long-term aware that religions are complex expenditures of energy. To account for phenomena with many different this, Cacioppo writes something about doctrinal, ethical, ritual, organizational, human infant dependency that is very personal, and social features that require close to what both the Greek philosopher either rigorous experimental or clinical Aristotle and the medieval Roman population studies to sort out, even from Catholic theologian Thomas Aquinas set the perspective of how they affect down many centuries earlier. Cacioppo health. Nonetheless, he seems to hold says, that the sociality that most religions offer is a key reason for their efficacy in For many species, the offspring need human well-being. little or no parenting to survive and reproduce. Homo sapiens, however, Does Christian Love Build on Health? are born to the longest period of But my concern is the topic of abject dependency of any species. Christian love and not simply Simple reproduction, therefore, is not Christianity's contribution to mental and sufficient to ensure that one's genes physical health. Although Jesus is said make it into the gene pool. For an to have performed miracles of health, individual's genes to make it to the offering health in this world has never gene pool, one's offspring must been at the core of Christianity or, for survive to reproduce. Moreover, that matter, the other Abrahamic social connections and the behaviors religions of Judaism and Islam. they engender (e.g., cooperation, Bringing to maturity loving and self- altruism, alliances) enhance the giving persons has been the primary survival and reproduction of those concern of Christianity, whether or not involved, increasing inclusive this contributes to health and well-being. fitness. I7 But the question is, as I elaborated above, does Christian love build on eros According to this view, the - that is, our strivings for health and other goods - or come exclusively from twofold interaction between inclusive some trans-natural source as Nygren fitness and the long period of infant believes the normative tradition taught? dependency has shaped humans over the long course of evolution into the social And did Christianity ever identify eros and our deepest motivations with EFTA_R1_01522120 EFTA02444883 Page I36 something like inclusive fitness and kin father is preserved, by a kind of altruism? succession, in the person of the son, it is naturally befitting that the son succeed in Let me start with Aquinas. In the the things belonging to the father." 21 "Supplement" to his Summa Theologica Aquinas's main source for this insight 111, was Aristotle's Politics. In one place Thomas follows Aristotle and the Aristotle wrote, " In common with other Roman natural-law theorist Ulpian in animals and with plants, mankind have a asserting that humans share with all natural desire to leave behind them an animals an inclination to have offspring. image of themselves." 22 19 Having said this, he then introduces a However, in both Aristotle and very modem sounding commentary on Aquinas, such claims were not just about the uniqueness to humans of the long the importance of kin continuity, they period of infant dependency. Notice the similarity of his argument to the words were statements about the origin and need of long-term investments by of Cacioppo above. Aquinas writes, parents at the human level. In contrast Yet nature does not incline thereto in to his teacher Plato who, in his Republic, the same way in all animals; since had advocated removing children from there are animals whose offspring their biological parents in an effort to are able to seek food immediately overcome the civil frictions created by after birth, or are sufficiently fed by nepotism, 23 Aristotle counters with an their mother; and in these there is no assertion about the origins of human tic between male and female; care. Aristotle wrote, "That which is whereas in those whose offspring common to the greatest number has the needing the support of both parents, least care bestowed upon it." He although for a short time, there is a believed that in Plato's state, "love will certain tie, as may be seen in certain be watery....Of the two qualities which birds. In man, however, since the chiefly inspire regard and affection — child needs the parents' care for a that a thing is your own and that it is long time, there is a very great tie your only one ; neither can exist in such between male and female, to which a state as this."-4 This is an assertion tie even the generic nature inclines. 2° about the importance of kin altruism in human care. Although there is in this quote a Although Aquinas saw these description of how family formation natural inclinations as important for the emerges at the human level, there is an formation of long-term human care, he implicit argument for both the fact of believed that they were not sufficient for human infant dependency and what we mature parental love. Powerful social, today call inclusive fitness as well. But cultural, and indeed religious these ideas are even more evident in the reinforcements were also necessary for next quote, although stated very much stable parental investment to be realized. from the male point of view, a habit This, once again, is due, according to typical of his time. Aquinas says, "Since Aquinas, because of the many long years the natural life which cannot be of human childhood dependency; human preserved in the person of an undying children need their parents for a very long period of time and over the course EFTA_R1_01522121 EFTA02444884 Page 137 of many contingencies and challenges. treated "always as an end and never as a This leads Aquinas to develop his means only." 26 In Aquinas's view, theology of marriage as a way of acting on this belief, and with the consolidating and stabilizing parental empowering grace of God, made it commitment, especially paternal possible for Christians to build on yet commitment, to their dependent analogically generalize their kin children. 25 altruism to all children ofGod, even those beyond the immediatefamily, their Although neither Aristotle nor own children, and their own kin. These Aquinas presented the MI wider assumptions may be beyond the intergenerational scope of Cacioppo's competence of science to assess. They interpretation of kin altruism and entail a step toward metaphysical inclusive fitness — that it must extend to speculation of the kind science would do our children's children and not just our better to avoid. Nonetheless, in the view own — both perspectives comprehended of Christian love developed in Aquinas, the interlocking nature of kin altruism the seeds of a religious humanism — in and the well-spring of care, long-term this case a Christian humanism —began human commitment, and hence some of to form. the rudimentary energies of human morality. I have tried to illustrate how insights from Aristotle and Aquinas can Of course, Aquinas and those join with insights from evolutionary who followed him supplemented these psychology and social neuroscience to naturalistic observations with additional refine the Christian understanding of epistemological presuppositions that love. In pursuing this course, I join the may seem strange to scientists. These work of Stephen Pope and others in included the idea that God works presenting this option. 27 The kind of through nature as well as grace, hence Christian humanism found in Aquinas God is present in the kin altruistic makes it possible for Christianity to be inclinations of parents and grandparents. enriched by the modem sciences of He also assumed that in order for kin human nature. Aquinas's view is altruism to be stable, the additional strikingly different from Nygren's social reinforcements of institutional representation of Paul and Luther when marriage and God's strengthening grace Nygren contends that Christian love does and forgiveness were also needed. In not build on our own natural energies, addition, he held - and Christianity has always taught - that Christian love but "has come to usfrom heaven." 28 Or again, it is very different from Nygren's includes more than kin altruism and the view when he writes that the Christian is care of our familial offspring; it must "merely the tube, the channel through include the love of neighbor, stranger, which God's love flows." 29 The and enemy, even to the point of self- sacrifice. For the Christian, this was complete discontinuity in this statement between the downward love of God and made possible by the idea that God was the natural extension to nonkin of human the creator of all humans and hence each kin-altruistic impulses is stunning. And person was a child of God and made in such a view as Nygren's precludes the God's image (imago dei). For this possibility of a religious humanism of reason, as Kant would say on different the kind I have been describing. And it grounds, each individual should be EFTA_R1_01522122 EFTA02444885 Page I38 eliminates the possibility of the 2 For a discussion of these distinctions refinements to religious views of human between different forms of nature that the conversation between phenomenology, see Paul Ricoeur, religion and science can offer. Hermeneutics and the Human Sciences (Cambridge: Cambridge University Conclusion Press, 1981), pp. 63-100. My argument has been that a revived religious humanism can come 3 Will Deming, Paul on Marriage and about through the dialogue between Celibacy (Cambridge: Cambridge religion and science, particularly University Press, 1995). Troels Engbert- between religion and the psychological Perdersen, Paul and the Stoics sciences. I have illustrated this with the (Louisville, KY,: Westminster John issue of love in Christianity. I believe Knox, 2000). my argument could be illustrated with other religions, especially the Abrahamic °Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics (New York: Random House, 1941), Bk. VIII, religions of Judaism and Islam. As ch. 10. Aristotle's influence created a kind of religious humanism in these religions in 3 The Interpreter's Bible: Luke and John, the past, the broader dialogue between Vol. 8 (Nashville, TN.: Abingdon Press, science and religion may be able to do 1952), p. 465. this for them in the future. 6 Peter Brown, Augustine ofHippo But the contributions will not (Berkeley, CA.: University of California, simply flow from science to religion. Even in this short essay, a question for 1969), p. 178. science to investigate has arisen. It is 'Richard Rubinstein, Aristotle's this: how do religious and metaphysical Children (New York: Harcourt, Inc., beliefs extend the impulse of natural kin 2003) altruism, if at all? This goes beyond the issue of the relation of religion to health. sEdward Scribner Ames, Religion It raises the question of the relation of (Chicago: Holt, 1929). religion to expansive love for the distant 9 other. This is a good question that Anders Nygren, Agape and Eros comes from taking the claims of religion (Philadelphia, PA.: Westminster Press, seriously and an example of how 1953). religion can continue to feed and p. 57, 121-122. challenge scientific inquiry. References "Ibid., p. 101. Richard Dawkins, The GodDelusion 12William Hamilton, "The Genetical (Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Co., Evolution of Social Behavior, II" 2006); Daniel Dennett, Breaking the Journal of Theoretical Biology 7 God Spell (New York, NY.: Viking, (1964), pp. 17-52. 2006); Sam Harris, Letter to a Christian Nation (NY.; Alfred Knopf, 2006); "Ronald Fisher and Robert Trivers, Christopher Hitchens, God is not Great "Parental Investment and Sexual (NY.: Twelve, 2007). Selection," B. Campbell (ed.), Sexual EFTA_R1_01522123 EFTA02444886 Page 139 Selection and the Descent ofMan 28Immanuel Kant, Foundations ofthe (Chicago: Aldine Publishing Co., 1972), Metaphysics ofMorals (New York: p. 139. Bobbs-Merrill Co., 1959), p. 49. I.E.O. Wilson, Sociobiology: The New "Stephen Pope, "The Order of Love in Synthesis (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Recent Roman Catholic Ethics, " University Press, 1975). Theological Studies 52 (1991), pp. 255- 288. "Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 28Nygren, Agape and Eros, p. 734. 1976). "Ibid, p. 735. "John Cacioppo, "Loneliness: Conceptualization," (In press), pp. 4-5. p. 5. I8John Cacioppo and J. T. Brandon, "Religious Involvement and Health," Psychological Inquiry 13:3 (2002), pp. 99 19Larry Arnhart, "Thomistic Natural Law as Darwinian Natural Right," Ellen Frenkel, Fred Miller, Jeffrey Paul (eds.), Natural Law and Modem Moral Philosophy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), pp. 1-2. 20Aquinas, Summa Theologica, III, "Supplement," q., 41.1. 21Thomas Aquinas, Summa Contra Gentiles (London: Burns, Oates, and Washburn, 1928), 3, ii, p. 115. 22Aristotic, Politics, Richard McKeon (ed.) The Basic Works ofAristotle (New York: Random House, 1941), I, i. "Plato, The Republic (New York: Basic Books, 1968), Bk. 5, pp. 461- 465. 24Aristotle, Politics, Bk. 2, chpt. 3. "Aquinas, Summa Contra Gentiles, 3, ii, p. 115. EFTA_R1_01522124 EFTA02444887 Page 140 The Status of the Body Politic anti the reverberates throughout the human body, Status of the Body Itself and its absence—in loneliness—is likely to have long-term adverse effects on In the long history of personal health. conversations between science and religion, starting points matter. As Don Browning demonstrates through the example of Thomas Aquinas, when religions start with a desire to understand human behavior, such as the long-term human commitment between parent and child, they recognize that science might illuminate and refine that understanding. And religion, in turn, might shape social institutions that not only enhance the human drive toward social connection but also imaginatively extend its influence beyond direct kinship to influence ethical relations with neighbor and stranger. By starting with a shared interest in understanding what Browning calls "the rudimentary energies of human morality," creative conversation between science and religion thus prompts a religious humanism, in which religion partners with science to shape models of fulfillment for human sociality. Like Browning, Louise Hawkley starts with the human quest for social connection. As humans mature, Hawkley observes, they proceed from childhood dependence not toward independence but toward interdependence. But, whereas Browning pursued the implications of interdependence for the body politic, Hawkley wants to know the consequences of interdependence for the physical body. Her research focuses on the interplay between psychological and physical factors in the human sense of social connectedness, and Hawkley finds that "feeling wanted and accepted and like one belongs are as vital to our existence as the air we breathe. " A robust sense of social connection EFTA_R1_01522125 EFTA02444888 Page I41 -7.A.!aitSairr-WiCar-ir-a,„ in Way does not end with the physical linvistie'Stitekna severing of the umbilical cord but " (ten 1"WieVeiser nels " continues in a lengthy dependence on the Mit leakintriltS1 mother or primary caregiver(s) for food 41112XVIIY) _ua = sziioneimes Sificattits 8 rizr.z.-- r -lentigiSetedinP and safety. Years are needed for the infant to reach physical and reproductive maturation, but as Cacioppo notes, even more importantly these years are needed Chapter 44 for the infant to develop the social and Health by Connection: emotional skills necessary for survival in From Social Brains to Resilient Bodies a complex social world. We graduate We enter and leave the world from infantile dependence not to alone, but at no time do we exist independence but to interdependence disconnected from others. The (cooperation, trust, reciprocity, etc.). connection with the mother that begins That we are born to and for connection explains why feeling disconnected, 4 The lead author is Louise C. Hawkley, Ph.D., a isolated, and like we don't belong can be Senior Research Scientist (Assistant Professor), so painful. We call these feelings member of the Center for Cognitive and Social loneliness. Feelings of loneliness Neuroscience, and Associate Director of the Social Neuroscience Laboratory at the University function like physical pain or hunger or of Chicago. Her research is concerned with the thirst; they motivate us to alleviate the interplay of psychological and physiological social pain and to repair our sense of factors, and includes the study of autonomic, connectedness. This is an important neuroendocrine, immune, genetic, and behavioral adaptive function of loneliness because processes that contribute to physical and mental health and well-being in individuals differing in people who feel connected fare much perceived social connectedness. She has better than those who feel disconnected. published numerous articles and chapters on They are not only happier but also perceived social isolation (loneliness) and its healthier than their more lonely antecedents and consequences in young and counterparts. As we will see, the power aging adults. Hawkley finds awe in the significance of felt connectedness reverberates of what it means to be a social species. Atul throughout the human body. As was Gawande wrote, "We are social not just in the aptly stated by Frederick Buechner, trivial sense that we like company, and not just "You can kiss your family and friends in the obvious sense that we each depend on good-bye and put miles between you, others. We are social in a more elemental way: simply to exist as a normal human being requires but at the same time you carry them with interaction with other people" (The New Yorker, you in your heart, your mind, your March 2009). Hawkley believes that we are stomach, because you do not just live in social beings to our cellular core, and even that a world but a world lives in you."' We does not capture the full extent of our sociality. tend to take for granted our sense of For these reasons, she is increasingly uncomfortable with the term "loneliness," a term social connectedness, but that should not that is laden with popular definitions and blind us to its powerful, albeit invisible, understandings that only hint at the deeper influence on our lives. Its impact is best significance of our social nature. As she shows, exposed when we observe the effects of what the study of loneliness actually reveals is its absence (i.e., loneliness) on physical that feeling wanted and accepted and like one belongs are as vital to our existence as the air we and mental health and well-being. breathe. Nothing kills like being denied a Loneliness is a Health Risk, but How? socially meaningful existence. EFTA_R1_015221 EFTA02444889 Page 142 For research purposes, loneliness lonely individuals are actually more is typically measured on a continuum likely than nonlonely individuals to that ranges from not at all lonely (i.e., make use of health facilities and socially connected) to very lonely. It is physicians." informative, however, to get a sense of Most chronic diseases (e.g., the prevalence of loneliness when hypertension, coronary artery disease, assessed as present or absent. Loneliness diabetes) are the result of the interactive is a common experience; as many as 80 influences of genetic, environmental, percent of people under 18 years of age and behavioral factors on physiological and 30 percent of people over 65 years functioning. How do feelings of of age report being lonely at least loneliness penetrate to a level that affects sometimes. For most people, feelings of disease risk? Plausible pathways include loneliness are situational and transient poor health behaviors, stress-related (e.g., geographic relocation). For as processes, restorative "anti-stress" many as 15-30% of the general processes, and even differences in population, however, loneliness is a patterns of gene activity. In general, chronic state, and it is among these physiological systems exhibit individuals that loneliness wreaks its redundancies and compensatory greatest havoc. In a study of children processes that minimize the immediate followed through young adulthood, health effects of adverse heritable, those who were highly lonely at each of environmental, and behavioral factors. three measurement occasions (i.e., However, subtle changes in these childhood, adolescence, and at 26 years predisease pathways can be detected of age) exhibited a significantly greater prior to the onset of manifest disease and number of standard health risks. The may indicate the beginnings of a steeper chronically lonely individuals were more downward trajectory in resilience? likely to have higher body mass index Take health behaviors, for (BMI), elevated blood pressure, higher instance. Major risk factors for disease levels of total cholesterol, lower levels in Western society include high-caloric, of "good" HDL cholesterol, greater high-fat diets, and sedentary lifestyles, concentrations of glycosylated each of which contribute to being hemoglobin (an index of impaired overweight or obese. Feelings of glucose metabolism), and poorer loneliness have been associated with respiratory fitness than those who were greater incidence of these predominantly lonely at only two or one of the lifestyle risk factors. In a large cross- measurement occasions? In a study of sectional survey of adults 18 years and older adults, loneliness predicted older, the lonely group had a higher mortality over a 3-year period, and mean BMI and a greater proportion of increased mortality was explained by the overweight/obese individuals than did fact that lonely individuals had more the nonlonely group. Loneliness has chronic diseases and functional been associated with lower levels of limitations.3 Higher rates of mortality in physical activity in every age group from lonely individuals do not appear to be grade school to middle-age adults. In the attributable to inadequate healthcare latter study, lonely individuals were also utilization: even after accounting for the more likely to become inactive over presence and severity of chronic illness, time. Changes in health status also EFTA_R1_01522127 EFTA02444890 Page 143 predicted an increased likelihood of engagement. And to add insult to injury, becoming inactive, but the effects of loneliness increases sensitivity to and loneliness were independent of changes surveillance for social threats. Anxiety, in health status. Similarly, individuals low self-esteem, and fear of negative with fewer social connections (i.e., a evaluation elicit self-defensive behaviors smaller social network) were less likely and effectively tax cognitive resources to be physically active, but the effects of that would normally be available to meet loneliness on physical activity did not the demands of daily life stress. Thus, depend on the size of the social network. what might naively be thought of as a The invisible force of loneliness seems circumscribed problem—the feeling of to play a unique role in this particular loneliness and isolation—may be seen predisease pathway. by the sufferer as a world of inescapable Another commonly cited risk threat! factor for disease is stress. In reality, How might these cognitions and "stress" refers to a family of predisease perceptions influence physiology and pathways, each of which may be health? As Berntson shows in his vulnerable to the influence of lonely chapter, the brain regions involved in feelings. Loneliness is itself a source of emotional and perceptual processes are stress, but lonely individuals also differ intimately related to brain regions in their exposure to stressful events and involved in the regulation of circumstances. This is less evident in physiological systems. This is young adults than it is in older adults in particularly evident in alterations of the whom loneliness was associated with functioning of the cardiovascular system having experienced a greater number of in lonely individuals. In young adults, stressful life events in the past year (e.g., this alteration is apparent in increased death in the family, marital crisis, resistance to blood flow in small arteries change in employment status) and more throughout the body. Increased vascular sources of chronic stress (e.g., resistance is a precursor and employment stress, marital stress).6 In predominant contributor to age-related addition, lonely individuals perceive life increases in systolic blood pressure as more stressful and less gratifying than (SBP), a major risk factor for their socially connected counterparts, cardiovascular disease. In middle-aged even when objective indications are that adults, SBP is significantly higher in lonely and nonlonely individuals do not lonely adults than in their nonlonely differ in the types of activities and counterparts. Moreover, loneliness behaviors they engage in on a daily accelerates the rate of increases in SBP," basis. Good quality social interactions indicating a faster decline in typically ameliorate feelings of stress, physiological resilience and a heightened but because lonely people perceive their risk for chronic cardiovascular disease. interactions to be less positive than those It's as though loneliness accelerates the of nonlonely people, they fail to derive aging process. the same benefit. Good coping strategies By virtue of extensive can also ameliorate feelings of stress, but interconnections among the brain, lonely individuals are more likely to peripheral nervous systems, and respond to stress with pessimism and endocrine glands, the feelings of avoidance than with optimism and active isolation and loneliness have a broad and EFTA_R1_01522128 EFTA02444891 Page 144 deep reach. The hypothalamus plays a that loneliness is associated with key role in enabling communication increased risk of chronic conditions that from brain to periphery. Located in the are characterized by heightened lower central region of the brain, the inflammation (e.g., atherosclerosis, hypothalamus receives neural input on elevated cholesterol levels, heart disease, brain and body states (e.g., pain, diabetes, and even cognitive sadness, fear, hunger) and in response impairment). If cortisol dampens signals brain regions that control the inflammation, why might elevated levels autonomic nervous system and the of cortisol in lonely individuals be pituitary and adrenal glands. Signals to associated with more rather than less the autonomic nervous system permit inflammation? modulation of heart rate, blood pressure, It turns out that communication and numerous other factors that serve to among the hypothalamus, pituitary maintain homeostasis. Signals to the gland, and adrenal glands becomes pituitary gland (located at the base of the dysregulated when chronically brain, just below the hypothalamus) stimulated. Whereas cortisol effectively prompt the release of hormones that dampens immune and inflammatory ultimately permit modulation of almost responses on an acute basis, when every endocrine gland in the body, circulating cortisol levels are chronically including the adrenal glands (one is elevated, cells become resistant to its situated on top of each kidney). The immunosuppressant and anti- adrenal glands serve many functions, inflammatory effects. This alteration and one is to produce and secrete happens at the level of DNA where the cortisol. Cortisol is frequently referred to actions of genes in each cell of our body as a "stress hormone" because can be turned on (i.e., expressed) or off. circulating levels increase dramatically Recent evidence suggests that the effects in response to any stimulus that requires, of loneliness reach down to this level. or might require, metabolic resources. Circulating leukocytes (white blood Thus, cortisol increases blood sugar cells) from a small group of chronically levels, increases blood pressure, and lonely adults showed decreased reduces immune responses and expression of glucocorticoid response inflammation (hence the use of cortisone genes relative to expression rates in a cream or injections to control matched group of socially connected inflammation of the skin after exposure adults. These genes are important to poison ivy). This complex web of because they activate the production of physiological links may seem far proteins that "hear" the anti- removed from feelings of social inflammatory signal sent by cortisol. isolation, but loneliness has repeatedly Thus, despite higher levels of circulating been observed to be a risk factor for cortisol in the lonely group, the cortisol elevated levels of cortisol, especially in signal may still not be heard. The lonely the morning. For instance, in middle- group also showed increased expression aged adults, the more intense the degree of genes carrying pro-inflammatory of loneliness reported at day's end over elements which, together with reduced the course of three days in everyday life, expression of glucocorticoid response the higher the spike in cortisol the genes, provides a functional genomic subsequent morning. The conundrum is explanation for elevated risk of EFTA_R1_01522129 EFTA02444892 Page I45 inflammatory disease in individuals who twice as great in lonely than in experience chronically high levels of nonlonely individuals. In addition, loneliness.9 loneliness was associated with lower The effects of loneliness are not cognitive ability at baseline and with a limited to an increase in health- more rapid decline in cognition during threatening processes. Loneliness has the 4-year follow-up. Similar results also been associated with a decrease in were reported for a sample of 75-85- health-restoring processes. Sleep is the year-old individuals over a 10-year quintessential example. Much of what follow-up. feels stressful and depressing at the end The effects of loneliness on of a long day is perceived differently cognition are evident at an even more following a good night's sleep. Good fundamental level." Self-regulation, or quality sleep is the clincher. Lonely and the ability to regulate one's attention, non-lonely individuals do not differ in cognition, emotion, and/or behavior to the amount of sleep they get, but lonely better meet social standards or personal people have poorer sleep quality than do goals, is impaired in lonely individuals. non-lonely people. They experience For instance, among young adults, more micro-awakenings during the night instructions to shift auditory attention and they awake feeling more tired and from the dominant right ear to the non- less capable of meeting the demands of dominant left ear resulted in impaired the day. Poor sleep has been associated performance in lonely relative to with elevated blood pressure and nonlonely individuals. Loneliness also cardiovascular mortality, and this may alters emotion regulation. In middle- help to explain the poorer health aged and older adults, loneliness was outcomes of chronically lonely associated with a diminished tendency to individuals. In short, lonely days extend capitalize on positive emotions, and this into the nights and lessen the restorative explained why lonely individuals were nature of sleep. less likely than nonlonely individuals to Loneliness and I Icalt h: It's Not Just engage in physical activity. Impaired Peripheral cognitive regulation is evident in From this sampling of the experimental studies that manipulate widespread effects of loneliness on feelings of isolation. Participants who health, lifestyle behaviors, physiological receive feedback that induces a sense functioning, genetic transcription, and that they are doomed to a future of social sleep quality, it should be clear that the isolation perform significantly worse on invisible power of felt isolation has long tests of reasoning, behave more tentacles that have the potential to aggressively, and choose more tasty but influence all of physiology. Not only unhealthy foods than other participants physical health, but also cognitive health who receive feedback indicating a future is compromised. Indeed, one of the most of social connection or bad feedback of a sobering findings of recent years is that non-social nature, namely that their loneliness places people at risk for future will consist of general impaired cognition and dementia.10 In a misfortune.12 There seems to be 4-year prospective study of initially something uniquely threatening about dementia-free older adults, the risk of the prospect, and the reality, of feeling Alzheimer's Disease was more than EFTA_R1_01522130 EFTA02444893 Page 146 isolated, disconnected, and like one ensues from happiness is also apparent doesn't belong. in the effects of happiness on income. In terms of emotional health, the Happiness predicted increases in prospect for lonely people is increasing household income over a 2-year period misery, at least over the short term. in middle-aged adults. However, Loneliness and depressed affect tend to relationship satisfaction also predicted be thought of as synonymous, but the increases in household income over this two are conceptually and empirically time period and, remarkably, distinct. If loneliness and depression relationship satisfaction helped to were synonymous, increases in explain the effect of happiness on loneliness would have no capacity to income. It seems that happy people predict increases in depressive experience increases in income in part symptoms because increases in one because of the general good will that would be exactly paralleled by increases surrounds the socially contented in the other. Instead, longitudinal data individual and that elicits tangible and have shown that loneliness predicts an intangible positivity from others. increase in depressive symptoms but It is perhaps precisely because depressive symptoms do not predict an most people feel socially connected and increase in loneliness over a one-year happy that we take for granted the interval." Importantly, the influence of invisible force of social connectedness loneliness on depressive symptoms was and its stabilizing and nurturing not attributable to fewer social influence in all aspects of life. Only in connections, general negativity, stress, its absence do we begin to comprehend or poor social support. These data its power. Western notions of the suggest that the relevant intervention autonomous individual notwithstanding, target is loneliness, and that modifying human beings are "wired" for social the cognitions, perceptions, and connections and need social bonds to expectations of the lonely individual feel safe, valued, motivated, and could help improve quality of life and competent.14 Among the lamentations overall well-being. expressed by some in Western societies Social Connectedness: Invisible Forces is a concern that our autonomy and Made Visible independence come at the expense of At this juncture, having become meaningful social relationships and a acquainted with the burden of loneliness, sense of belonging to a larger social unit. it is helpful to remember that most Family members are no longer people, most of the time, feel socially obligatorily part of our social connected. They derive satisfaction and community, while Facebook friends, meaning from their social relationships, some of whom we know only through and this makes them happier and more electronic media, are deemed essential to satisfied with life. Interestingly, fulfilling our need for a sense of happiness leads to higher levels of connectedness and belonging.15 The relationship satisfaction, indicating that broadening of our social worlds has not happiness and relationship satisfaction been accompanied by maintenance, feed forward to foster spirals of much less improvement, of the quality of increasing happiness and relationship our social relationships. One national satisfaction. The general positivity that study showed a threefold increase EFTA_R1_01522131 EFTA02444894 Page X47 between 1985 and 2004 in the number of New York: HarperCollins Americans who reported no one with Publishers. whom to discuss important matters.16 2. Caspi, A., Harrington, H., We are a meaning-making species, and Moffitt, T.E., Milne, B.J., & relationships that offer security, comfort, Poulton, R. (2006). Socially trust, and pleasure, even if interactions isolated children 20 years later. are relatively infrequent, are much more Archives of Pediatric Adolescent effective at fostering a sense of Medicine, 160, 805-811. connectedness and belonging than are 3. Sugisawa, H., Liang, J., & Liu, more friends or more frequent X. (1994). Social networks, interactions that fail to meet these social support, and mortality standards. The challenge, especially for among older people in Japan. those of us who live in Western society, Journal of Gerontology, 49, S3- is to recognize that the invisible force of 13. social connectedness has benefits for 4. Cheng, S. (1992). Loneliness- health and well-being that we ignore at distress and physician utilization our peril. in well-elderly females. Journal Conclusion of Community Psychology, 20, The research on loneliness 43-56; Geller, J., Janson, P., highlights the need for and benefits of McGovern, E., & Valdini, A. human connections, but it speaks even (1999). Loneliness as a predictor more directly to the role of beliefs about of hospital emergency our connections. Loneliness, after all, is department use. The Journal of not about how many social relationships Family Practice, 48, 801-804. a person has, but is about a belief that 5. Hawkley, L. C., & Cacioppo, J. the existing social relationships fail to T. (2007). Aging and loneliness: satisfy a desired sense of social Downhill quickly? Current connectedness. All human relationships Directions in Psychological have a tangible existence in physical Science, 16, 187-191. interactions and an invisible existence in 6. Hawkley, L. C., Hughes, M. E., mental representations and beliefs. This Waite, L., J., Masi, C. M., human capacity expands the range of Thisted, R. A., & Cacioppo, J. T. possible relationships. For instance, (2008). From social structural humans form meaningful connections factors to perceptions of with pets, with television characters relationship quality and whom they have never met, and with loneliness: The Chicago Health, deities who lack a material existence. Aging, and Social Relations We have seen the health impact of the Study. Journal of Gerontology: invisible force of loneliness; do different Social Sciences, 638, 5375-5384. kinds of invisible forces have different 7. Cacioppo, J. T., & Patrick, B. effects? (2008). Loneliness: Human References nature and the needfor social 1. Buechner, F. (1977). Telling the connection. New York: W. W. Truth: The Gospel as Tragedy, Norton & Company. Comedy, and Fairy Tale (p. 3). 8. Hawkley, L. C., Misted, R. A., Masi, C. M., & Cacioppo, J. T. EFTA_R1_01522132 EFTA02444895 Page 148 (under review). Loneliness 14. Dunbar, R. 1. M., & Shultz, S. predicts increased blood (2007). Evolution in the social pressure: Five-year cross-lagged brain. Science, 317, 1344-1347. analyses in middle-aged and 15. Pappano, L. (2001). The older adults. Connection Gap: Why Americans 9. Cole, S. W., Hawkley, L. C., Feel So Alone. Piscataway, NJ: Arevalo, J. M., Sung, C. Y., Rutgers University Press. Rose, R. M., & Cacioppo, J. T. 16. McPherson, M., Smith-Lovin, L., (2007). Social regulation of gene & Brashears, M. T. (2006). expression in humans: Social isolation in America: Glucocorticoid resistance in the Changes in core discussion leukocyte transcriptome. Genonte networks over two decades. Biology, 8, R189.1-R189.13. American Sociological Review, 10. Wilson, R. S., Krueger, K. R., 71,353-375. Arnold, S. E., Schneider, J. A., Kelly, J. F., Barnes, L. L., et al. (2007). Loneliness and risk of Alzheimer's disease. Archives of General Psychiatry, 64, 234- 240. 11. Cacioppo, J. T., & Hawkley, L. C. (2009). Perceived social isolation and cognition. Trends in Cognitive Science, 13, 447-454. 12. Baumeister, R.F., DeWall, C. N., Ciarocco, N. J., & Twenge, J. M. (2005). Social exclusion impairs self-regulation. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 88, 589-604; Twenge, J.M., Baumeister, R. F., Tice, D. M., & Stucke, T. S. (2001). If you can't join them, beat them: Effects of social exclusion on aggressive behavior. Journal ofPersonality & Social Psychology, 81, 1058- 1069. 13. Cacioppo, J. T., Hawkley, L. C., & Thisted, R. (2009). Perceived social isolation makes me sad: Five year cross-lagged analyses of loneliness and depressive symptomatology in the Chicago Health, Aging, and Social Relations Study. Psychology and Aging, in press. EFTA_R1_01522133 EFTA02444896 Page X49 From Relationships to People and Groups to Relationships with God The extent and quality of our social connections can have profound consequences for our physical well- being. In her essay, Louise Hawkley explores in particular the consequences that feelings of inadequate social connection have on such physical outcomes as sleep quality, high blood pressure, reduced ability to respond to inflammation, cognitive health in aging, and cardiovascular health. While Hawkley emphasizes the relationship between the invisible forces of social connection and health and the biological mechanisms responsible for this relationship, Gary Bemtson takes things one step further by exploring a person's perceived connection with God and its effects on our basic biological systems. Many of our basic biological processes, such as breathing or maintaining sufficient blood pressure to oxygenate the brain, are reflexes that are so automatic that they become invisible to us. Bemtson shows that thoughts and beliefs alter not only behaviors, but also the regulation of these reflex-like mechanisms. And he suggests that the root of these effects may lie in the way that humans and other animals maintain biological equilibrium with regulatory mechanisms that, under ordinary circumstances, keep each other in check. This theory describes a biological mechanism that could explain why spirituality is associated with generally better health. EFTA_R1_01522134 EFTA02444897 Page ISO understanding. We consider the most common of these to be empirically 1=7-- le a `spiritualityInv acquired, learned facts, relations, ygcrpistt--,15,-, --assurrcontrolfra sirpiramriathigitrad_ associations, and perceptual and motor skills. Such learned associations serve as —syYfirat i tiele4011110er• powerful determinants of thought and behavior. But other sources of heaititter information and knowledge also affect our interaction with the environment, Chapter 55 including reflex-like (constitutionally Psychosomatic Relations: From endowed) circuits that are independent Superstition to Mortality of explicit teaming. Examples include central networks for pain withdrawal, People have many sources of hunger circuits for the ingestion of information, knowledge and essential nutrients, social affiliation networks, and neural systems that s The lead author is Gary G. Benison, Ph.D., a promote maternal bonding. Each of Professor of Psychology, Psychiatry and these sources of information or Pediatrics and a member of the Neurosciences knowledge can impact thoughts and Graduate Faculty at the Ohio State University. He is a co-founder (with John Cacioppo) of the beliefs, and thoughts and beliefs can field of social neuroscience, is a co-editor of the impact behaviors and other bodily Handbook of Psychophysiology and the functions. Handbook ofNeuroscience for the Behavioral Sciences, and is the President of the Society for "...a Maori woman who, having eaten somc fruit, was told that it Psychophysiological Research. Benison's research focuses on the evolutionary had been taken development of the neuraxis, with special regard from a tabooed place; she to levels of organization in neurobehavioral exclaimed that the sanctity of the chief systems, affective processes and autonomic had been profaned regulation. He has published over 200 articles in scientific outlets and six books. and that his spirit would kill Benison begins with the fact that her ... the next day ... she was knowledge, thoughts and beliefs can influence dead.11) our behaviors. Behaviors, of course, are physiological processes entailing neural operations and muscular actions. Here we see a "I have seen a strong young clear intersection between the psychological man die .... the same day he was tapued domain on the one hand (knowledge, thoughts (tabooed); the victims die and beliefs) and the physical domain under it as though their strength ran out (neuromuscular effector systems) on the other. as water... "( I ) But mind-body relations extend beyond the observable actions or skeletal muscles. The mind A superstition is a belief, based and its organ, the brain, also impact powerfully not on reason or knowledge, but on on internal bodily functions associated with the legend, magical thinking, or other non- autonomic nervous system, the endocrine rational basis. Beliefs color the way we system, and the immune system, to name just a few. Through these interactions, psychological perceive the world, they direct and shape processes can be translated in outcomes that have our actions, and define our personalities. powerful significance for adaptation and health. Beliefs are powerful determinants of Benison explores the processes by which action. A useful illustration of the power thoughts can manifest in fundamental changes in of beliefs comes from the parable of the internal physiology and health. EFTA_R1_01522135 EFTA02444898 Page I51 Sultan (who had studied psychology) Power of Beliefs and his "lie-detecting" donkey. Lore has Beliefs may be potent it that the Sultan was missing a valuable determinants of behavior, but can they vase from his estate and suspected that kill? And if so, how? How can these one of his servants had stolen the piece. invisible, intangible entities impact To identify the culprit, the Sultan health? In a now classic article published gathered his servants in front of a dark in the American Anthropologist in 1942, room in which a donkey was tied, and Walter Cannon, a leading Harvard then asked each of his servants if they physiologist and expert on the had stolen the item. Each said "no". The autonomic nervous system, proposed an Sultan explained that inside the room answer (1). Investigating phenomena was a magical donkey, specially trained such as voodoo practices of the Haitians to detect liars, who would bray when and "bone-pointing" among Australian slapped by someone who had lied. The aborigines, Cannon found a common servants were sent into the room, one by feature among the victims of such rituals one, and were instructed to close the was a strong belief in the curse and an door, slap the donkey and return. "When associated morbid fear of the outcome. the donkey brays," the Sultan That fear, he argued, could trigger a proclaimed, "I will have my culprit". "fight-or-flight reaction" (a phrase he The first servant was sent into the room had earlier coined), characterized by and returned shortly thereafter— powerful and exaggerated activation of tremendously relieved as the donkey had the sympathetic nervous system. The not brayed. One by one, the remaining resulting vascular constriction servants entered the room and returned. diminishes blood flow to critical tissues The donkey had not brayed and all the (i.e., ischemia), with consequent hypoxia servants looked quite relaxed. The (decreased oxygen) and disturbances in Sultan was sanguine -- he knew this normal metabolism and cellular donkey never brayed under any function. These reactions may be circumstances. The Sultan asked the exacerbated by the lack of food and servants to show him their hands. He water as the victim "pines away." then pointed to one of them and declared Cannon argued that these reactions could "we have our thief," instructing the become life-threatening—fulfilling the guards to take him away. How had he gruesome legacy of the ritual—based on identified the culprit? Rather than a belief in the supernatural, the veracity relying on a magical donkey, the Sultan, of which is largely irrelevant. More who recall was a student of psychology, relevant is the emotion triggered by the took a more rational approach. belief, specious as it may be. Understanding the impact of beliefs on behavior, the Sultan had surreptitiously Beliefs and emotions have infiltrated powdered charcoal into the consequences, both behavioral and donkey's hair. When the servants physiological. A recent example comes slapped the donkey, the charcoal marked from the contemporary medical their hands—with the exception of the literature. There is now a well- guilty servant who had not slapped the documented condition, sometimes donkey, out of a belief and associated triggered by something as innocuous as a fear that the donkey could detect a liar! spousal argument or a surprise birthday party, which entails the hallmark clinical EFTA_R1_01522136 EFTA02444899 Page 152 and physiological features of a heart for cold sores (HSV type I) and genital attack, including chest pain, herpes (HSV type II). Once contracted, abnormalities on the electrocardiogram, herpes virus infections generally remain and elevated cardiac enzymes (reflecting for life, although they are characterized damaged heart muscle) (2). The by periodic eruptions and remissions. condition has variously been termed During the latter, the immune system takotsubo cardiomyopathy, left- effectively dampens viral activity and ventricular apical ballooning, the virus retreat to a more or less myocardial stunning, stress dormant state. Although multiple factors cardiontyopailty, or in the more likely contribute to the reactivation of vernacular parlance of the New York HSV, one trigger appears to be stress— Times, broken heart syndrome the defacing cold sore that erupts, for (prompted by a medical review that was example, just before the prom or an published just before Valentine's Day). important date. Ohio State researchers In general accord with the speculation of sought an animal model of this Cannon, broken heart syndrome appears reactivation, so the underlying links and to be triggered by an exaggerated mediators could be studied. Try as they autonomic nervous system response, might, however, the research group was characterized by sympathetic activation unable to reactivate HSV infections in and high levels of the stress hormone mice with standard laboratory stressors, epinephrine (adrenalin) (3). It is such as restraint-stress or shock. In a important to note in these cases that collaborative effort, we pointed out that psychological states, as mild as they may the stressors that lead to HSV be, are able to induce a clear and reactivation in humans were often of a demonstrable organ pathology. social nature. indeed, for both humans Physiological abnormalities or and mice, social relations are central to dysfunctions underlie medical happiness, adaptation and even survival. In light of this, a social stressor was conditions, and indeed, constitute the defining features of disease states. An introduced into the project (changing the important question, however, is how housing groupings and thus disrupting those dysfunctions come to be. There are established social relations). The social many ways in which disease develops — stress, but again not physical stressors, traumatic injuries, biotic infections, resulted in significant HSV reactivation degenerative conditions — and the list (4). Psychological factors, and in this goes on. The fields of psychophysiology, case a specific social psychological psychosomatic or behavioral medicine, variable, uniquely impacted an important and health psychology arc particularly aspect of viral immunity. This early finding led to a series of studies that concerned with how psychological and behavioral factors impact physiological have elucidated physiological pathways that mediate the relationship between systems and thus health. Of particular interest are those psychological social stress, immune function and HSV dimensions that uniquely impact reactivation. But, what is it that makes social stress unique and distinct from physiology. physical stressors? An example comes from the We have identified a probable study ofHerpes Simplex viral infections. Herpes Simplex viruses are responsible general contributor to the differences EFTA_R1_01522137 EFTA02444900 Page I53 between lower-level physical or such as a decrease in blood pressure and homeostatic challenges and higher-level compromised circulation. psychological and social stressors. Basic Although this reciprocal mode of homeostatic reflexes, reflexes that keep regulation of the autonomic branches has in balance various critical bodily considerable utility, and is characteristic processes such as blood pressure, body of basic reflex organizations, it may not temperature, and blood sugar, are largely always be optimal. The autonomic hard-wired and organized at relatively nervous system provides the basic low levels of the nervous system, such as support for action and adjustment, and the brainstem and spinal cord. An although it figures prominently in example comes from autonomic nervous survival related functions, it also system regulation of cardiovascular provides the basic visceral support for function. The sympathetic division of the emotional and cognitive operations as autonomic nervous system is an well. It has long been recognized that activational, energy mobilization system cognitively demanding tasks elicit that comes into play in the face of greater autonomic activation than is adaptive challenges. Sympathetic needed to meet the metabolic demands activation increases heart rate and results of the tasks. Moreover, ascending neural in peripheral vasoconstriction, both of signals to the brain from visceral organs which tend to increase blood pressure. In such as the heart and blood vessels serve contrast, the parasympathetic division is to modulate and regulate cognitive an energy-conserving, deactivational activities (5). The notable early brake that generally opposes the psychologist, William James, proposed sympathetic system, yielding decreases that emotion is the experience of in heart rate and blood pressure. The somatovisccral sensory feedback. James baroreceptor heart rate reflex is a suggested that we do not run from the homeostatic reflex that functions to bear because we are afraid, but rather we maintain blood pressure within are afraid because we run from the bear homeostatic limits. Unique pressure (6). Although the strong form of this sensitive receptors in the heart and large theory has not been supported, it remains arteries detect changes in blood pressure, the case that ascending visceral signals and a decrease in blood pressure triggers can modulate learning, attention, and the baroreceptor heart rate reflex, cortical/cognitive processing (5). The increasing sympathetic activity and autonomic nervous system is not only reciprocally decreasing parasympathetic for lower level reflexive adjustments. tone. Both effects serve to increase heart Indeed, it is increasingly recognized that rate (and thus cardiac output) and there is a highly complex, even intricate, constrict arteries throughout the body, interaction between the autonomic thereby restoring the pressure nervous system and higher level brain perturbation. In basic reflexes, the two structures (e.g., frontal cortex) involved autonomic branches are generally in human behavior. Importantly, these regulated in this reciprocal fashion, and circuits and their interactions with the thus synergistically amplify the effects autonomic nervous system are highly of the other. This is a useful mechanism flexible and are not constrained by the to adjust to severe adaptive challenges simple organization rules that govern basal functions such as homeostasis and EFTA_R1_01522138 EFTA02444901 Page 154 reciprocal control of the autonomic of demographics, health behaviors, body branches. Rather, higher level systems mass index, blood pressure, and other engage in highly sophisticated "banter" potential explanatory factors. Short of with the autonomic nervous system. divine intervention, was there a rational explanation for this relationship? We In contrast to the reciprocal certainly know that psychological factors control characteristic of autonomic can impact autonomic control, among reflexes, higher level brain circuits exert other aspects of physiology. more flexible control over the autonomic nervous system. This can include the As considered above, when classic reciprocal control pattern, but can extreme or prolonged, sympathetic also include an independent control activation may have harmful pattern in which only the sympathetic consequences. Heightened sympathetic branch or only the parasympathetic activation is known, for example, to branch of the autonomic nervous system predict a poorer outcome after heart is activated, and a coactive control attack. In contrast, parasympathetic pattern in which both branches are activity may have beneficial or activated. This greater flexibility in protective effects. From the perspective control may have behavioral and health of a reciprocal model of autonomic significance. control, high parasympathetic/low sympathetic control would be optimal Beliefs about One's Relationship with whereas high sympathetic/low God and Autonomic Functioning parasympathetic control would be Recently, we used a population- considered a risk. But we also know that based sample of 50-68-year-old adults in higher level neurobehavioral systems the Chicago Health, Aging and Social may not be constrained to reciprocal Relations Study to examine risk factors autonomic controls. Moreover, it has for heart attack, a health outcome known been argued that more autonomic control to be influenced the autonomic nervous is better than little control, in that if system. We were particularly interested affords greater capacity for adjustment in whether spirituality influenced risk for of visceral functions. Could high levels heart attack. With very few exceptions, ofparasympathetic control, for example, everyone in our sample expressed a mitigate the negative effects of belief in God. However, individuals sympathetic activation and perhaps yield differed in how they perceived the an even more advantageous health quality of their relationship with God, outcome? much as individuals differ in how they To examine these questions. we perceive the quality of their relationships developed two quantitative measures of with other people. We defined autonomic control (7). The first was a spirituality as the degree to which a common metric of autonomic balance personal relationship with God was (Cardiac Autonomic Balance), which believed to offer safety, security, represents the relative dominance of the contentment, and love. One observation two branches along a single autonomic that emerged from this study was that continuum that ranges from purely spirituality was associated with a lower parasympathetic control to purely incidence of heart attack (7). This sympathetic control. This metric is remained true after ruling out the effects consistent with the classical model of EFTA_R1_01522139 EFTA02444902 Page I55 reciprocal control, characteristic of status and was associated with a lower reflex processes, where autonomic incidence of heart attack. Participants balance can be biased toward one or the who had low Cardiac Autonomic other of the autonomic branches. High Regulation were more likely to have scores indicate sympathetic dominance suffered from a heart attack. and low scores parasympathetic Could higher Cardiac Autonomic dominance. Independent estimates of Regulation scores explain why sympathetic and parasympathetic control spirituality was associated with less risk were obtained using standard for heart attack? That is, could a pattern measurement procedures, and the level of autonomic regulation associated with of parasympathetic control was spirituality explain the link between subtracted from sympathetic control to spirituality and heart attack? In order to derive a measure of Cardiac Autonomic address this question, we conducted Balance. A second metric was designed statistical tests of these linkages. As we to capture an alternative mode of already knew, both spirituality and autonomic control (Cardiac Autonomic Cardiac Autonomic Regulation are Regulation) that assesses the degree of associated with a lower incidence of relative coactivation (rather than heart attack. When the predictive effects reciprocal activation) of both branches. of spirituality were statistically This is a metric that taps into the non- extracted, Cardiac Autonomic reciprocal regulatory influences of Regulation continued to be a significant higher neural structures. Cardiac predictor of a lower incidence of heart Autonomic Regulation scores were attack. However, when the linkage test derived by essentially summing was reversed and the effects of Cardiac activities of the sympathetic and Autonomic Regulation were extracted, parasympathetic branches to afford a spirituality was no longer a significant measure of total overall autonomic predictor. This indicates that Cardiac cardiac control. High scores indicate Autonomic Regulation is a plausible high activation and low scores indicate mediator that may explain the low activation of both branches of the relationship between spirituality and autonomic nervous system. heart attack. In the 50-68-year-old adults in By capturing higher levels of our sample, spirituality was found to be parasympathetic control and the associated not only with a lower associated autonomic coactivation of the incidence of heart attack, but a higher sympathetic and parasympathetic level of Cardiac Autonomic Regulation. branches, Cardiac Autonomic That is, people who felt closer in their Regulation provided a critical metric that relationship with God exhibited higher permitted the study of a previously overall autonomic regulation—both "invisible" and mysterious link between sympathetic and parasympathetic. This spirituality and health outcomes. This in was associated, in part, with lesser no way diminishes the relationship diminution of parasympathetic control between spirituality and health, but and a greater degree of coactivation. rather offers an important hypothesis as Moreover, Cardiac Autonomic to how spirituality may impact Regulation (but not Cardiac Autonomic physiology and health status. Spirituality Balance) predicted better overall health reflects an important aspect of the EFTA_R1_01522140 EFTA02444903 Page 156 general domain of sociality and social 2. Wittstein, I.S. (2007). The broken relationships, a domain heavily heart syndrome. Cleve Clin JMed, 74, influenced by our genetic constitution as Suppl 1, S17-22. a social species. Indeed, the importance 3. Wittstein, Thiemann, D.R., Lima, of sociality may be more related to J.A., Baughman, K.L., Schulman, S.P., beliefs and aftitudes about the Gerstenblith, G., Wu, K.C., Rade, J.J., meaningfulness of relationships than Bivalacqua, T.J., & Champion, H.C. their existence or number. And again, (2005). Neurohumoral features of beliefs about social relationships also myocardial stunning due to sudden have real consequences. emotional stress. NEngl JMed, 352, Conclusion 539-48. Beliefs impact thoughts and 4. Padgett, D. A., Sheridan, J. F., Dome, actions. This may be reflected in J., Berntson, G. G., Candelora, J., & phenomena as diverse as biasing a Glaser, R. (1998). Social stress and the behavioral disposition (such as slapping reactivation of latent herpes simplex a donkey), coloring our perception of the virus-type I. Proceedings ofthe environment, or determining how we National Academy ofSciences, 95, 7231- perceive the quality of our social 7235. (including spiritual) relations. 5. Bemtson, G. G., Sarter, M. & Psychology can also impact physiology, Cacioppo, J. T. (2003). Ascending and physiology, in turn, can influence visceral regulation of cortical affective our thoughts and emotions. information processing. European Psychophysiology is the study of these Journal ofNeuroscience, 18, 2103-2109. relationships, and promises to illuminate the intricacies of psychosomatic 6. James, W. (1884). What is an relations and the heretofore "invisible" emotion? Mind, 9, 188-205. mechanisms that mediate these links. 7. Berntson, G. G., Norman. G., The relations between the mind and the Hawkley, L., & Cacioppo, J. T. (2008). body, the so-called mind-body problem, Spirituality and autonomic arc complex and still rather obscure. cardiovascular control. Annals of Nevertheless, the mind-body problem is Behavioral Medicine, 35, 198-208. yielding to science, and the problem it poses is progressively diminishing. 8. Bemtson, G. G., Norman, G. J., Among the components of the mind- Hawkley, L. C. & Cacioppo, J. T. body problem yielding to rigorous (2008). Cardiac Autonomic Balance vs. scientific inquiry are the effects of Cardiac Regulatory Capacity. spiritual beliefs including feelings of Psychophysiology, 45, 643-652. closeness to God. References 1. Cannon, W.B. (1942). "Voodoo" death. American Anthropologist, 44 (new series), 169-181. EFTA_R1_01522141 EFTA02444904 Page X57 The Mind and Body Are One the supra-individual source can be explained as shared motor The Cartesian view of the mind representations and ongoing monitoring as distinct from the body persists in of observed actions that, under certain twenty-first century discourse as the conditions, lead to dissolution of the mind-body problem alluded to by Gary boundary between self and other. The Bemtson. Berntson provides evidence resulting shared experience of unity and that the mind and the body, psychology collective identity may feel and physiology, are not independent of transcendental, but the mechanisms are each other but represent different levels as real and explicable as those governing of organization of human organisms. individual behaviors and experiences. Beliefs influence thoughts, behaviors, and physiology, and peripheral physiological processes signal central neural networks that influence cognitions and feelings crucial for the generation and moderation of beliefs. Spiritual beliefs are considered by some to be contentious candidates for scientific examination, yet Berntson argues that spiritual beliefs can be identified, measured, and subjected to scientific investigation in the same fashion as any other belief or invisible force. Accordingly, Berntson examines the effects of a specific spiritual belief — the belief that one has a close personal relationship with God. As documented by Bemtson, this belief is associated with rather profound physiological and health effects. Whereas Bemtson focuses on the influence of the mind es the body and vice versa, Gun Semin speaks of the mind in the body and, more specifically, in several bodies simultaneously. In his social cognition model, Semin challenges the limits of individual social cognition and argues that regulation and co-regulation of social behavior are distributed across brains. When several individuals exhibit spontaneous synchronized behaviors (e.g., hand- clapping), the human tendency is to invoke a "supra-individual" explanation. Semin describes a mechanism by which EFTA_R1_01522142 EFTA02444905 Page 158 individual within the group, the group 1•—•-•beluZe-thi i ... 11—_,,hiayt lfir t seems to be an entity of its own and the if hi Mier flp individual soldier seems to have become 71,eirizestyiritlivta :0;ateanTif illit st latOrna. 'tor a cog in the social machine. Mob behavior, crowds at sporting events, and soldiers in formation all suggest that Al ti 71-11bliatilit1 when we are organized to act together, the group becomes an emergent entity Chapter 66 that can submerge the sense of the individual self. This apparent social The Suspension of Individual absorption stands in contrast to our Consciousness and typical experience of being autonomous, The Dissolution of Self and Other self-aware agents in the world. The Boundaries dissolution of the boundary between the When we watch a group of self and the group is one manifestation soldiers marching in formation, we see of the social brain and the mechanisms the behavior of the group synchronized. that support our ability to connect with Although we can make out the others. Although not everyone has the 6 The lead author is Gun R. Semin, Ph.D., an experience of marching in a band or Academy Professor, Royal Netherlands running with a mob, most people have Academy of Arts and Sciences, at Utrecht University, The Netherlands. He is the founding been part of an audience at a concert or Scientific Director of the Kurt Lewin Graduate play. At the end of a particularly School , a past president of the European thrilling performance, an audience can Association of Experimental Social Psychology, be moved spontaneously as a group to and the Chair of the international Committee of clap wildly. In these situations, we the Association for Psychological Science. Semin's research is primarily driven by an know the feeling of surging to our feet as interest in communication, social cognition as a collective, hands clapping and faces jointly recruited process, and language and the beaming with approval. As the clapping diverse uses that language can be put to in social blooms, individual clappers merge into a interaction (ranging from the regulation of synchronized unit.l. 2 Similarly, prejudice to that of interpersonal relationships) as well as the embodied grounding of meaning thousands of individual sports fans have and communication. been observed to stand and raise their A puzzle that has occupied Semin much hands in a synchronized fashion to of his career is how it is possible to understand produce a collective wave that travels social behavior by explaining individual around the stadium. In both cases, processes. Another purzle has been why one should focus on stills when human behavior is a individual people act as a collective unit, movie: behavior is self evidently dynamic and a superorganismal structure, with highly responsive to contextual variations. capacities and behaviors beyond the Finally, Semin has been puzzled by how it is reach of any single individual in the possible to think that all there might be to group. psychological processes is some symbolic computation taking place somewhere between These examples are instances of the ears. As outlined in this essay, he has come behavioral uniformity in large groups. to conceptualize the social in terms of jointly What is distinctive about these examples recruited processes rather than individual ones, social behavior as situated, and psychological is that the observed behavioral processes as embodied. synchrony can be understood in terms of EFTA_R1_01522143 EFTA02444906 Page I59 a shared social goal. Sometimes the goal individual-centered reasons, motives, is spontaneous as in clapping to intentions, and causes may be at odds demonstrate appreciation and sometimes with some forms of spontaneously the goal is imposed by the situation (e.g., synchronized behaviors and group musicians following a musical score and action. instructions of a conductor, soldiers Towards a Biology of Social marching to the call of a drill sergeant). Interaction However, when we behave in synchrony with others, there is a sense of becoming Consider the perspective of an part of something larger than ourselves. engaged spectator at a singles tennis match. Although we may be sifting To the people engaged in distant from competitors, if we identify spontaneously synchronized behavior, with one of the players we are not there is a clearly identifiable and merely passive observers. On the seemingly individual 'cause' for their contrary, our observation of the events in emergent behavior. But when a group the game can serve to activate some of shares the same goal—demonstrating the same neural mechanisms that would approval—and engages in the same be active if we were playing the game action—clapping—the stage is set for rather than just observing it. We can feel such behavior to become coordinated the moves, feel the impetus to defend an and organized even without an external attack, and feel the urge to slam the ball agent (conductor or drill sergeant). How as if we ourselves are playing, albeit do those moments of spontaneous social without actually flailing our arms aggregation occur? How does the social around. We may even anticipate a move brain work to join with others to form by the opponent and imagine ourselves the emergent group? making the potential response. Research We have begun to understand the over the last I 0 years or so has revealed underlying dynamics of how and when that our brains can map the movements such phenomena are likely to occur and of other human beings onto our own even how such phenomena can be bodies almost as if we were making potentially engineered. New insights those movements. This ability to put afforded by developments in social ourselves in another person's shoes psychology, developmental psychology, makes it possible to identify with either and social neuroscience have suggested player. the way in which our brains respond to By comparison to the audience, the invisible force of social connection. consider how this ability can serve us as These scientific developments suggest one of the players. This capacity neural mechanisms that may be provides an important facility for important to the way we interact with anticipating our opponent's moves others. At the same time, the insights allowing us to plan a response even also reveal the likely conditions under before the opponent has completed a which individual self merges into the groundstroke. This kind of anticipation group. Such situations when the sense of does not depend on explicit reasoning or self is suspended contrast sharply with conscious reflection—it seems to operate the modern Western notion of the as an automatic mechanism 3' 4. This individual standing apart from others. kind of mechanism may facilitate Indeed, the traditional Western focus on EFTA_R1_01522144 EFTA02444907 Page 160 understanding the behavior of others. If the social brain includes monitoring and your brain mirrors the neural activity in motor systems that function in parallel. the brain of someone you see acting, this The mirror system puts the player in the could provide a basis for understanding opponent's shoes and monitors the the motivation for the action. If your opponent's actions in an anticipatory brain resonates to the observed action as manner. Other parts of the social brain if you were acting, this could call to maintain the distinction between player mind previous experiences acting that and opponent by shaping the way providing a memory for why you implementation of one's actions, namely acted that way. That is, our social brain by engaging a counteraction. may directly resonate to the actions of In sum, a tennis game or any others without reasoning explicitly about social interaction depends on a complex those actions. This kind of mechanism, network of brain regions that mediate through which intentions might be perception and action, and the inferred, could then prepare responses relationship between observed action quickly to facilitate the smooth flow of and one's own behavior. The overlap in social interactions whether in a game or brain regions responsible for these two a dialogue. Of course, a critical aspect important social functions suggests how of such a mechanism is to differentiate tightly coupled and coordinated social our resonance to other people's actions interactions can be. However, these two and the control of our own. This kind systems cannot operate in isolation from of neural system for mapping the actions our knowledge of the context in which and intentions of others has been behavior occurs. We, therefore, turn to identified with a network of regions this topic next. called the mirror neuron system 3, and this system may help to induce a degree The Social Context of reflexive similarity or identification In a tennis game or any social between self and other. The mirror interaction (e.g., dancing, conversation), neuron system appears to be the behavior of one individual continuously engaged unless it is constitutes a stimulus for others. If a actively suppressed by inhibition, so that behavior is meaningful, then neural this system may continuous monitor the mechanisms responsible for social behavior of `others' in our social perception and social interaction are environment. likely to be activated to engage in Of course, mapping the complementary action. In a competitive movements of the opponent is useful, context, such as the tennis game, the but certainly not sufficient to defend our motor system is engaged in the position, score a point, or win a match. preparation and execution of One needs to execute countermoves. complementary actions to those This is the domain of the motor system observed and anticipated based on the in the brain, which includes regions inferred goals and intentions of the involved in the preparation and competitor. However, if everyone shares execution of motor action. The motor the same goal, for example, as in an system is responsible for the audience clapping, the neural systems implementation of one's goals and for monitoring the actions of others and intentions to perform an action°. Thus, executing one's own actions can be EFTA_R1_01522145 EFTA02444908 Page 161 mutually reinforcing leading to else does not have personal significance synchrony. for an observer, the motor system does In any dynamic social situation not respond in the same way at all7. The observing one person's action can goal-dependent aspect of observing the initiate neural activity in another. Parts actions of others allows us to understand and respond quickly and effectively of the observer's motor system become activated, making it possible to respond without confusing what we do with what in synchrony. In fact, the specific actions we see. However, in some special cases, when a group of individuals all respond that are observed are not as important as the perceived goals or intentions of the together, the same motor system may operate differently. It is in these observed person. One consequence of this is that a person is sensitive to new situations when we arc neither observer actions in the social environment. A nor respondent but part of a flock or chorus that our sense of individuated self second is that significant actions by another person can quickly produce may begin to dissolve into the larger complementary motor responses. Thus, social group. adaptive social behavior is a product of The Social Parameters for Suspended perceptual monitoring and motor Self-Consciousness processes. The complexity of the social The dissolution of self-other environment necessitates selective boundaries is likely to be manifest under responding to socially significant a specific set of conditions, which features ofany social interaction. Such includes a strong feeling of identification selective responding depends on the with (i.e., connection between) oneself observer having particular goals for and a group of others, the absence of action. The identification of significant constraints to action by oneself or the stimuli (e.g., a threatening backhand observed others, a common goal shared smash) activates in the competitor's by the group, and the absence of a brain goal-driven decision processes that recognized external synchronizing signal operate in parallel with continuous social to which one can attribute any monitoring and lead to a counteraction synchronized behavior. Clapping in (e.g., a defensive lob) produced by the unison following a rousing performance motor system. However, a linesman is a more common example. This collecting a ball during a tennis match remarkable phenomenon is evidenced does not constitute a significant action despite considerable individual for the competition and, even if differences in clapping tempos. The observed, does not initiate any transition to entrained clapping, whereby counteraction. each clapper affects the surrounding Let us now return to the other clappers both locally and globally, perspective of a spectator at the tennis enhances the noise intensity at the match. While the specific movements moment of the clapping even though it driving the tennis match have significant leads to a decrease in the overall average implications for the players' actions, noise intensity in the room. these movements have a different Synchronized behavior occurs implication for the spectator from whom rhythmically and one way of capturing no overt responses are warranted. If an its regularities is to model its cycles, observed action produced by someone periods, frequencies, and amplitudes L . EFTA_R1_01522146 EFTA02444909 Page 162 Depending on the particular behavior performance somehow produces and interaction in question, behavioral synchronous clapping. cycles of interpersonal entrainment can There is preliminary evidence range from milliseconds to hours. that even with no externally imposed Indeed, this kind of interpersonal demands prolonged synchronization entrainment is a pervasive phenomenon emerges within pairs of people not specific to human social behavior interacting or dyads9. What one finds is atones. that despite individual differences in When does synchronized movements, participants entrain (tap clapping occur? The distinctive feature together in time) rapidly when of such an event is a convergence participants can perceive the behavior of between the neural mechanisms others'. Extensive research in underlying the monitoring of the coordination dynamics has demonstrated movement of others and the execution of that such entrainment does not depend one's own movements. The specific on the intention to coordinate behavior factors responsible for the tipping point 10' II. Studies have repeatedly shown that from asynchronous to synchronous there is a spontaneous propensity to clapping are not yet known, but mimic other people (generally observed descriptively each individual shifts the in dyads). One implication this kind of timing of his or her subsequent clap to behavioral synchrony is the emergence the perceived timing of claps by the of affective bonding — such as a feeling whole collective. Thus, a continuous of rapport — both in the case ofmimicryl- adjustment process emerges in the form and between the synchronized partners". of a collective behavior (synchronized One might conjecture that positive clapping) to which each individual feelings are even stronger when more contributes and no single individual people are synchronized. controls. Such continuous monitoring of The conditions that lead to the collective rather than individuals behavioral synchrony can vary. It is within the collective and the adjustment interesting that people may be more of one's own movements to synchronize likely to experience the dissolution of one's behavior with that of the collective self-other boundaries when result in a continuous loop of performing synchronization is produced without any the very same action leading to obvious external director and is dissolution between self and other and continuous. Prolonged spontaneous and the emergence of an entrained unit. The unintended entrainment among three or resulting effect is the materialization of a more people may introduce this feeling, supra-individual behavioral because the emergence of synchrony phenomenon, namely extended cannot be attributed to a single external behavioral cycles that are locked cause. together in time. Although the emergence of clapping in unison can be Conclusions regarded as a phenomenon worthy of Social interaction involving more detailed understanding, it does not extended periods of synchronized induce in its performers the necessity of behavior are not part of our daily searching for an explanation since the experience, particularly when they readily available account is that the involve more than two people. How do EFTA_R1_01522147 EFTA02444910 Page 163 we understand this kind of synchrony Coordination. In G.R. Semin & E.R. when it occurs? In the Western Smith (Eds.), Embodied grounding: intellectual tradition, we have a strong Social, cognitive, affective, and tendency to search and explain events in neuroscientific approaches (pp. 119- terms of individual agency and 148). New York: Cambridge University causation. Press Social events are generally 4 Semin, G. R. & Cacioppo, J. T. (2009). understood in terms of contributions of From Embodied Representation to Co- the individual and the situation itself. Regulation. In J. A. Pineda (Ed.). The degree to which the person or the "Mirror Neuron Systems: The Role of situational constraints shape the nature Mirroring Processes in Social of the event will vary greatly. However, Cognition." (pp. 107-120). Humana spontaneous and prolonged entrainment Press. among three or more people introduces an experience that is difficult to explain 5 Iacoboni, M., Woods, R. P., Brass, M., by these more traditional accounts. Bekkering, H., Mazziotta, J. C., & These experiences cannot be easily Rizzolatti, G. (1999) Science, 286:2526- reduced the actions of a single person, so 2528 an account has to be found in some source that goes beyond the individual. 6 Elsinger C. L., Harrington D. L., & The powerful sense of unity and Rao S. M. (2006). From preparation to belonging that emerges from this kind of online control: Reappraisal of neural experience almost demands a different circuitry mediating internally generated kind of explanation than we generally and externally guided actions. consider. Indeed, such feelings Neurolmage 31:1177-1187. emerging from the synchrony of 7 Baldissera, F., Cavallari, P., Craighero, behavior may provide some of the L., & Fadiga, L (2001). Modulation of foundation for the cultural interpretation spinal excitability during observation of of a transcendental experience. hand actions in humans, European References Journal ofNeuroscience, 13, 190 -194. Ne'da, Z., Ravasz, E., Brechet, Y., 8 Strogatz, S. (2003). Rhythms ofnature, Vicsek, T., & Barabasi, A. L. (2000a). rhythms ofourselves. London: Allan The sound of many hands Lane. clapping'Tumultuous applause can transform itself into waves of 9 Tognoli, E., Lagarde, J., DeGuzman, C. synchronized clapping. Nature, 403, D., Kelso, J. A. S. (2007). The phi 849_850. complex as a neuromarker of human social coordination. PNAS, 19, 8190- 2 Nesda, Z., Ravasz, E., Vicsek, T., 8195. Brechet, Y., & Barabasi, A. L. (2000b). Physics of the rhythmic applause. • O. & Kelso, J. A. S. (2009, in 10 Oulher, Physical Review E, 61, 6987_6992. press). Coordination from the perspective of Social Coordination 3 Semin, G. R. & Cacioppo, J. T. (2008). Dynamics. Encyclopedia ofComplexity Grounding Social Cognition: and System Science., 1-29. Synchronization, Entrainment, and EFTA_R1_01522148 EFTA02444911 Page 1 64 11 Jim, V. K., & Kelso, J. A. S. (2004) Coordination Dynamics: Issues and Trends. Springer, New York. 12 Dijksterhuis, A, & Bargh J. A. (2001). Advances In Experimental Social Psychology, 33, 1-40. 13 Hatfield, E., Cacioppo, J. T., & Rapson, R. L. (1994). Emotional contagion. New York: Cambridge University Press. EFTA_R1_01522149 EFTA02444912 Page 165 Howard Nusbaum specifically You and I as One discusses a different invisible social Any social group can be thought force that has evolved with the power to of as either a collection of individuals or bind people into a collective—language. as a single new entity with emergent, Language is the richest social signal that unified group behavior. When a mob has the power to move people to act and forms to surge together down a street to move groups to act together. In order one way and then another; when a flock for language to act as a force, it must of birds wheels about together, closely somehow affect people with sufficient clustered as they fly without colliding; social and emotional impact. As and when an orchestra performs with Nusbaum discusses the impact of highly coordinated timing, we language, it operates at a social and momentarily forget about the individuals emotional level similar to that discussed and see the collective behavior as a new, by Semin rather than exclusively single social entity. Indeed, as Cacioppo through the inferences drawn from discusses, many species seem to gather, meaning. flock, and coordinate to form such collectives. For humans there are many situations from flash mobs and sports teams to choirs and audiences, when people congregate in this way. The drive for people to affiliate and group is not sufficient on its own to produce the coordinated behavior that emerges from such a collective. Sometimes an organizing signal, like the conductor of an orchestra, can synchronize the behavior. Other times common goals and behavioral constraints can synchronize a group, as in a flock of birds. In his chapter, Gun Semin discusses how such synchrony may be self-organizing — that is, it is achieved without intention, effort, or awareness by our social brains, even when there is no clear signal or constraint. In cases of such human sociality, the group may act as though it has a single mind. Indeed, Semin approaches this issue to relate the collective behavior as an embodied consequence of individual social forces that jointly operate to satisfy our need to affiliate, and to consider how connecting behavior through synchrony may create a collective mind. EFTA_R1_01522150 EFTA02444913 Page 1 66 Language is one of the most Vmbok connection— important ways in which the social brain g understandin makes connections, enhances UM..." "act-getlhicalon•-.4I Fr connections, and severs connections tail gua rtem tieirot among people. Language is our primary medium of social exchange, grounding auarr u- a— "age --ilfrsgrechr"- wever — f and elaborating our selves and our relationships in every conversation. Chapter 77 However, language goes well beyond personal connections to connect us Action at a Distance: The Invisible culturally through stories, songs, and Force of Language shared manners of speech. Language also provides the formal framework that defines many of our social institutions. The lead author is Howard Nusbaum, Ph.D., Language gives form and substance to Professor of Psychology and Computational the governance and behavior of every Neuroscience, and co-director of the Center for social institution from education to law Cognitive and Social Neuroscience at the to religion. Clearly there arc many ways University of Chicago. He has served as the in which language serves to knit us Chair of the Psychology Department since 1997. He has served as the editor for the International together both formally and informally. Journal of Speech Technology and is on the For a linguist, all of these uses can be editorial board of Brain & Language. and has analyzed in terms of the structure of edited several books on spoken language sentences and their content. However, processing. His research interests include structure and content do not, on their spoken language use, mechanisms of learning and attention, and the role of sleep in learning. own merits, provide a complete picture His recent research has investigated the social of how language can have the impact it use of language and the evolution of language. does on our sense of social connection. In addition, he has been working on neural How does language move us to act, mechanisms of reward and economic decisions. change our feelings, and connect us to We often think about language in terms of the information in newspapers or speeches or others? It seems unlikely that the impact reports. However, language is basis of all our of language is simply the result of social relationships and institutions. We reward dispassionate rational inferences and and praise with language and we shun and conclusions drawn from a logical punish with language, perhaps more often than analysis of sentences. with any other medium. In the recent election, Democratic candidates actually gave speeches In 1976, Barbara Jordan, a outlining different views of the importance of Congresswoman from Texas, gave the language in our society. One candidate held that words are simply words and only have the force commencement address at Brandeis that we give to them by reasoning about them. University. Listening to her speak about The other candidate argued that speech has the the importance of public service and the power to move people to connect and act. importance of using talent and ability in Nusbaum was struck by this debate because it service of one's country was an seems to him that the power of language goes well beyond what linguists and psychologists impressive experience. Her delivery was talk about as "meaning" and that understanding clear and not particularly dramatic and the meaning of language may depend on yet the force of her speech was riveting. understanding the social and emotional impact of It was sufficient to turn a graduating language. In this chapter, the idea of the impact senior's mind from graduate school in of language at a distance is explored. EFTA_R1_01522151 EFTA02444914 Page 167 psychology to (at least momentary) congregation, to wrench them from consideration of a career in government complacency with images of torment. A service. A student with the long-held sermon delivers a message, but it can do intent of becoming a researcher and with so in calm tones of instruction or with no interest in politics, government, or fire and brimstone. The choice and public service might seem to be an poetry of words and the cadence and immovable object. And yet, in that intonation of speaking can draw the moment, Jordan's speech had sufficient listener in slowly or seize the listener impact to make government service suddenly, the very sounds of speech seem like the only path one would want painting images in the mind while to take or should ever consider. igniting new inferences with literal and Although her points were argued metaphoric descriptions. well, the impact of Jordan's speech was In the realm of the spiritual, there not simply rhetorical. John F. are few corporeal manifestations that can Kennedy's "Ask not what your country be perceived directly. Neither heaven can do for you...." and Martin Luther nor hell, neither God nor the Devil can King, Jr.'s "I have a dream...." affected be seen or heard or touched. Preaching listeners deeply well beyond the is needed to spell out the work of unseen cognitive strengths of a good argument. hands and will and illuminate the power Moreover, while all these speeches were of the unseen. The force of that which is delivered beautifully and from the heart, not seen can only be felt when it is not the performance of these transmitted directly through speech. speeches alone that can move listeners to In Phaedrus, Plato described act on behalf of others. The rhetoric as the art of leading the soul. performance alone cannot give substance Thus it is not surprising that, while at the to an empty message. While there are core of religion is a collection of beliefs cases in which a great performance may and concepts and canons, the fabric and suggest briefly that there was content of form of religion is language. Symbols import even in the absence of a real and icons are certainly important, but message, it is more likely the language is the medium through which conjunction of message and delivery that the force of theology is actualized in moves people. In these speeches is a prayers, benedictions, sermons, and clear demonstration of the power of teaching. Language can reach across language. Language is more than words time and space to change minds, and more than delivery. Indeed, Cicero, feelings, and behavior, encoding laws in De Oratore, said that rhetoric conveys and beliefs and presenting them with a information, persuades listeners, and concrete reality in the here and now. evokes emotion. This is one kind of impact from author to "In the beginning was the word...." audience in which a kind of connection is constructed bridging minds. If "the word made flesh" is taken metaphorically, the power of language At the same time, in religious can be made visceral in sermons. practices, another kind of connection is Consider the power of Jonathan formed within a congregation. Joint Edwards' sermon, which Clark Gilpin's recitation, responsive reading, collective chapter discusses, to terrify a listening, and understanding may serve EFTA_R1_01522152 EFTA02444915 Page 168 to connect people in a religious service. linguists, the emphasis is on the Although joint participation in any event information contained within an (such as sports or theatre) may have utterance and the structure and form by some of the same effect as discussed by which this information is presented. Gfin Semin, the content of language and Research questions often focus on the the intent of the messages in religious variety of ways the same message can be practice is often focused on developing framed and how listeners interpret such and strengthening social and spiritual messages. But little of this work connections. addresses the impact of the message itself. Everyone knows someone who moved to another country, or to another The standard view of language part of their own country where speech processing is that we hear the sounds of patterns differ. After a period of time, in speech (acoustic patterns) that we the context of novel speech patterns, translate mentally into words. The some people adopt the speech patterns meanings of these words are determined around them. This kind of linguistic and then the meanings combined convergence is well documented and is (through our knowledge of sentence moderated by social factors such as the structure) to result in sentence meaning. desire to be accepted or the attempt to be Given that a sentence typically occurs in persuasive.1 When people talk together, a context of other sentences (e.g., a one person's speech can impact the way sermon) or in response to other speech another person talks in order to promote (e.g., a conversation), this context is then social connection. Indeed, the same kind used to frame and reinterpret the of behavioral convergence is found over sentence meaning. the course of conversations for other Metaphor, irony, sarcasm, and kinds of non-linguistic actions as well.2 other figures are generally thought of as Information, impact, and being understood later in this process understanding although in Gilpin's chapter the immediate power of these to affect us is How does language bind us quite clear. Emotion and attitudes are together and compel us to action, thought of as not understood until after thought, and feeling? When we talk, the linguistic message has been sound vibration is transmitted from determined. The impact of language on mouth to ears. Facial expressions and attitudes through persuasion is viewed manual gestures punctuate, illustrate, and illuminate our speech. These by cognitive psychology and linguistics as occurring after the message has been acoustic and visual signals travel over understood. However, this does raise the space and time to the eyes and ears of question about whether a "message" (to the audience. The impact of such be understood) is simply the linguistic communication is true action at a properties of a sentence or the impact of distance. the linguistic form on an audience. This notion of language as action A very different view of at a distance is relatively well accepted language might come from considering in the scientific study of language. But vocal communications that often have a in research on language and direct impact on an audience. communication by psycholinguists and EFTA_R1_01522153 EFTA02444916 Page 169 Sometimes just listening to laughter Edwards to the passionate speeches of compels listeners to laugh. Sometimes Obama and Kennedy and King. hearing a cry of terror directly imputes In listening to speech that has an instantaneous feeling of fear. impact, language has created a state in Hearing someone weep can produce a the listener that reflects the intention of feeling of sorrow and perhaps even the speaker. Whether it is fear or cause one to cry. This suggests that connection, somehow language can some forms of vocal communication can operate as the medium by which social elicit direct empathic sharing as Decety and emotional psychological states get discusses in his chapter. transmitted to an audience. But how These forms of vocal does this impact get created in the social communication can produce direct brain? results in listeners without following a Language impact in the social brain route of symbolic reference and interpretation.3 Language has typically Understanding spoken language been viewed as operating by the more has typically been viewed as an analytic symbolic route because of the linguistic process in which sound patterns are claim that symbols are not the things translated into linguistic symbols by the they stand for and thus must be brain. However, an alternative theory is understood—words and sentences are that we understand spoken language by not felt. However, the right insult or using our motor system to simulate what angry words delivered in the right way might have been said. The idea is that or the right praise seems to be felt trying to mentally produce the speech directly, perhaps through the same kind internally (without talking) might help of mechanisms by which empathic us understand what is said, when speech sharing occurs. is not clear. However, this theory did not have much neural plausibility. But how is this achieved? This People do not generally move their kind of impact of language is not a result mouths overtly or even covertly while of understanding the content of speech. listening. It reflects social goals and motives. To the extent that this kind of social impact The discovery of mirror neurons, may parallel empathic processes, we examined at greater length by Steve might find that similar mechanisms are Small in the next chapter, suggested one involved. Some kind of resonance must kind of mechanism that might instantiate be established between a speaker and this kind of process. In certain parts of hearer, and language can serve to the brain, involved in the control of establish this resonance and lead to action, some neurons that respond when subsequent action by the hearer. This making certain actions also respond idea of a resonance in an audience does when observing the same actions. This seem more compatible with the effects led to the inference that these neurons of vocal behavior such as laughter or are involved in understanding the crying on a listener than the symbolic behavior of other people. The reasoning interpretative view. This notion of is simply that neural activity in the resonance may also be useful in observer's motor system that results understanding other kinds of language when seeing a behavior essentially impact from the fiery sermon of establishes the brain state that would EFTA_R1_01522154 EFTA02444917 Page I70 correspond if the observer were doing description. Understanding language the same thing. Another way to say this may take place by invoking such is that there is a resonant response in an resonant past experiences in the brain. observer's motor system to observing a For example, when listening to behavior and this may potentiate a sentences about hockey action, hockey degree of social coordination and players show neural activity in their connection, as discussed in Semin's motor system which is not seen for chapter. This kind of neural resonance people who are naïve to hockey.' has been shown to play a role in Experience playing hockey recruits the understanding speech when seeing a motor system in service of talker's mouth move, even if the listener understanding hockey sentences as if does not actually make any mouth one were watching or playing hockey movements. when only listening to speech. This Mirror neurons demonstrate that suggests one way in which language can observed action can produce a resonant have a direct impact on a listener. response in an observer's brain. Seeing Rather than making inferences about a talker's mouth move creates a motor- actions based on the meanings of resonant response that aids in sentences, understanding a sentence may understanding speech sounds. However, be a resonant motor system response in these two observations are very different the listener to a description of an action. from the idea that the meaning of If this idea is extended more broadly, sentences can create a resonant response language impact may come from such in the listener's brain. In the case of resonant responses. Language speech, mouth movements are the understanding and the impact of actions that create speech. This might language may result from processes seem like a very special case. The more similar to the effects of hearing traditional linguistic view of language is laughter. Hearing a sentence may create that words and sentences are symbolic: in a listener a set of resonant responses Language describing action is not action very similar to the patterns that itself. Language describing emotion is correspond to the actual situations being not the emotion itself. The entire described. concept of a symbol is that a symbol Such resonant responses need not denotes something, stands for be confined to the motor system and something, but the symbol is not the actions. Emotions such as fear or joy thing itself. But it now appears that this may be empathically evoked in listeners long-held notion may be wrong. by speech just as a scream or laughter The idea that seeing an object or might. Verbal expression of attitudes event gives rise to brain states that may produce similar attitudinal resonate with previous experiences of responses in listeners. Moreover, if a that thing suggests a mechanism for listener's resonant response is strong, language understanding to go beyond there may be increased empathic overlap symbolic interpretation. Given that there with the speaker, which may serve to is a brain mechanism for re-experiencing increase social connection. To the actions or sensations, this same extent that people speak together and mechanism may operate even when share feelings, social connection may there is just a symbolic linguistic increase as well. EFTA_R1_01522155 EFTA02444918 Page I 71 Evolution of social connection by symbols ultimately leading in the communication direction of a sign language. The human social brain However, this kind of manual constructs connection and understanding language has one major drawback. by anthropomorphic projection as Communication depends on visual discussed by Nick Epley in his chapter. contact. In order to understand a When we observe the behavior of gestural message it is necessary to see nonhuman entities, anthropomorphic the hand movements. This limits the projection may form a feeling of social distances over which communication can connection. Social connection depends take place. Moreover, a communication in part on empathic responses to system that is effective for a group observed action. It has been argued that should not depend on face-to-face this same foundation is the basis for the dyadic interaction, but allow for more evolution of language as well--observed broadcast communications. There is a action may be the foundation for great survival advantage in being able to language. maintain social connection and convey information over distances that go well A mirror neuron theory of the beyond face-to-face communication. evolution of language starts with the assumption that we understand others by Many species of fish, observing their actions. Communication amphibians, reptiles, birds, and depends on the regularization of typical mammals commonly exchange actions that can be pantomimed. In information at a distance through principle this could lead to a kind of vocalizations. The learned songs (and manual gestural system of some calls) of songbirds are particularly communication akin to sign language. rich sources of information conveying, Hand and arm movements can depict a to the receiver, individual identity and a wide range of actions both by first- host of other characteristics of the person depiction of an action such as sender. Some mammals exchange screwing the top onto a jar and by third- information at great distances through person depictions such as using the calling behavior. Humpback whale fingers to portray a person walking. vocalizations are perceived over Hand and arm postures can depict extremely long distances and may be objects such as a cupped hand used to maintain social groups at representing a bowl. Combining distances as great as 5 km. African sequences of such object and action elephants can recognize friends and depictions can communicate relatively relatives from their calls at a distance of complex messages even without a 2.5 km. Human sheepherders keep each formal language. This is a far cry from other company from the top of one sign languages in which the mapping mountain to another in the Canary between hand shapes and movements is Islands using a whistled language called not visually transparent in this way. But Silbo Gomero. Whether for purposes of as the pressure to communicate a mating, threat, warning, or social broader range of messages increases, a organization, conveying information manual gestural language would have to regarding location, identity and be modified to reflect more abstract motivation, and directed at one individual or towards far-flung groups, EFTA_R1_01522156 EFTA02444919 Page I72 vocal communication plays an important even when we have strong empathic role in the social connection and responses, we can distinguish such behavior of a great number of vertebrate created experiences from those that species. Thus while human vocal occur in the real world. The stronger the communication is enhanced substantially language, the richer the imagery, the in face-to-face interaction, the evolution more intense the delivery, the more of speech has resulted in a system that salient the mentally created experience. can function even in the absence of One impact of language may be to create direct visual observation. The sound of real feelings and sensations, imagined a threat or warning or distress can have movement and behavior.? When substantial impact even at a distance language hurts us through criticism, from the speaker. rejection or insult, it may do so by Social impact and embodied language activating our experiences ofreal pain. When we are soothed by language, it Many animals use vocalizations may produce the same kind of endorphin to maintain social group structure and to effect that placebo treatments can provide information relevant to a group. invoke. When language binds us Even very young children use the way together, it may do so by creating the people speak as a marker of their social kind of shared emotional states that affiliation.6 Such vocalizations are characterize empathy. typically not viewed as symbolic forms In many respects, the linguistic that must be decoded and interpreted. view of language use does not engage Instead these vocalizations are mapped these ways in which language functions. onto internal states more directly, much Linguistics treats language as consisting as human laughter may be. Although linguists and psychologists have often of patterns of symbols divorced from their origins in a human mouth, almost tried to differentiate human language like print on a page rather than speech. from these kinds of vocalizations, But it is spoken language that the social language can impact us in much the brain evolved to use—print is a very same way. Perhaps language is less modern invention which did not play any symbolic and more direct than scientists role in our evolution. In contrast, speech have thought. is produced from a coordinate action of What does it mean for language muscles compressing lungs and moving to have impact? If we take laughter as tongue and jaw under the control of our model, perhaps it means that neurophysiology and hormones. Unlike language gives rise to responses that the shape of printed letters, the sound of have a direct effect on our perceptual speech is shaped by attitude and emotion and motor systems. Sermons may terrify and intent, and its impact may be to because they create worlds inside of the transfer specific embodied states from listener that seem real. We can see and the speaker to the listener. hear torment and imagine the feelings of Conclusion pain and suffering. This is not a symbolic interpretation but a real Although physicists have debated experience created from language. the possibility of action at a distance for However, just as we can distinguish the quite some time, the biological form of pain we feel from the pain of others, action at a distance is well established, EFTA_R1_01522157 EFTA02444920 Page I73 achieved through vocal communication 6. Kinzler, K. D., Shutts, K., in an extremely broad range of behaviors Dejesus, J., & Spelke, E. S. (2009). and settings. The force of language is Accent trumps race in guiding children's carried by the form, content, and social preferences. Social Cognition, 27, delivery of a message. And the impact 623-634. of this force may be created in the minds 7. Shintel, H., & Nusbaum, H. of an audience by the resonant C. (2007). The sound of motion in invocation of past real experiences. Real spoken language: Visual information pain and sorrow, real comfort and joy, conveyed by acoustic properties of real love and caring, are all part of our speech. Cognition, 105, 681-690. shared human experience. The impact of language may come by invoking resonant past experiences that can create a platonic mental moment that flickers with the shadows of those experiences. In order to understand how this process works, we need to study how brain mechanisms operate to translate the sounds of speech into the impact of language. References 1. Giles, H. (1973). Accent mobility: A model and some data. Anthropological Linguistics, 15, 87-105. 2. Lakin, J., & Chartrand, T.L. (2003). Using nonconscious behavioral mimicry to create affiliation and rapport. Psychological Science, 14, 334-339. 3. Foroni, F. & Semin, G. R. (2009). Language that puts you in touch with your bodily feelings. The multimodal responsiveness of affective expressions. Psychological Science, 20, 974-980. 4. Beilock, S. L., Lyons, 1. M., Mattarella-Micke, A., Nusbaum, H. C., & Small, S. L. (2008). Sports experience changes the neural processing of action language. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105, 13269-13272. 5. Rizzolatti, G., & Arbib, M.A. (1999). Language within our grasp. Trends in Neurosciences, 21, 188-194. EFTA_R1_01522158 EFTA02444921 Page 174 as a result of the resonance. in the next Systems and Signals for Social Coordination essay, Steve Small discusses these neural mechanisms and how they may be How do we understand each other important in helping us understand as people? Do we take people at their spoken language and possibly in word, or do actions speak even louder? understanding social behavior. When moved to affiliate and to act in concert with other people as a group, we need to understand the communications and actions of others. Language can move us to action even across great distances but how does it do so? While we can observe the behavior of groups of people as coordinated, the mechanism of achieving this coordination is unseen. We may be driven socially to form groups but how does that drive function in the individual to cause us to cohere. In order to go beyond the observation and experiences we have with groups and group behavior, we need to understand what makes the engine of social connection run. At one level, we can talk about language as a force itself, as Howard Nusbaum does. We can talk about the synchronization of individual behavior as Giin Semin does. However, both of these arc observations about the way individuals may become part of a group. To go beyond this we must look to our biology to understand how the machinery underneath our sociality leads to connected minds. Semin suggested one way our brains may seek to connect. Some neurons in an area of the brain that is involved in the control and planning of our actions also respond when we observe actions we have performed. Such neurons might be thought to "resonate" when seeing someone act or speak with our own experiences. Neurons that mirror actions and behavior have been thought to play a role in the process of understanding that behavior and the social connection that may form EFTA_R1_01522159 EFTA02444922 Page I75 v v a+ 7.04well 4 Hidden Forces in Understanding is 1-. .1 .., ...r• 1,104 i wait . ' Cr. a ky il l iTH .fla aa 1-7-t itmonket iLt7p- - 07.— Others: 2 .:...-4 . --Ku- = ra 1Thobserving — vainxigrstanos r "":.:Zt li Mirror Neurons and Neurobiological ilszt mrite de ctiari sdifi eg '- ° w aYL 2 activity Underpinnings n'iL-7 anan. 6 arm:7hr -4-) 4 nav - 9.attirlitila r a r- dA C)% 1- It is one thing to perceive objects -h- -r—othenneurons E in the environment and another to understand what is perceived. A rodent Chapter 88 that senses an apple definitely has a notion that this represents something ° The lead author is Steven L. Small. M.D., edible. A monkey might realize that the Ph.D., a Professor of Neurology and Psychology, apple can be eaten but also can be Associate Chair for Research in Neurology, thrown. A human might perceive it as a Member of the Committees on Neurobiology and food, an object to be propelled, a Computational Neuroscience, and Senior Fellow, Computation Institute, at The University of temptation that should be resisted, or Chicago. Ile is currently Director of the Human something that falls out of a tree at a Neuroscience Laboratory and was founder of the specific acceleration. For each individual Brain Research Imaging Center. He is an elected animal or person, understanding an apple member of the American Neurological means to take the sensory perceptions of Association, a fellow of the American Academy ofNeurology, and Editor-in-Chief of the the apple and to use previous experience international journal Brain and Language. and knowledge to fit it into an overall Small's research concerns the neural basis of context. In this way, understanding a human language and its breakdown after injury. particular apple depends on our lie has published more than 120 scientific previously having seen, touched, and articles, primarily about human language, from the perspectives of artificial intelligence, smelled apples, eaten them, read about cognitive psychology, computational them, and perhaps even been hit by a neuroscience. human systems neuroscience, and falling or thrown apple. All of our clinical neurology. previous experiences come to bear every I luman language represents a unique time we encounter a new perception that product of our social species and the tremendous evolution of the primate cerebral cortex we must make sense of, and of course, simultaneously supported the development of this represents virtually every moment of both. Language is the defining feature of our our waking lives. species: In his 126' century volume, Guide to the Perplexed, Maimonides viewed it as tautological Our perceptions vary enormously that man is a speaking animal, i.e., "there is no from seeing simple objects (e.g., apples), third element besides life and speech in the taking in more complex entities (e.g., definition of man". But how does the brain restaurants, neighborhoods), hearing implement this unique function in the context of its common ontogeny with social function? The noises or speech, and seeing actions current essay discusses the possibility that the (e.g., simple manual actions, sporting recently discovered "mirror neurons" of the events). A major question for brain cerebral cortex of macaque monkeys play a research is how we can possibly special role in the ability of humans to understand all these different kinds of understand each other with language by using a mechanism of observation and covert emulation. input, and what brain circuits are used to If the neurobiology of language were partly do so. We assume that such an grounded on such systems of visual observation understanding means taking these inputs, and imitation, this would overlap integrally with weighing them against our previous the biology of the social brain. EFTA_R1_01522160 EFTA02444923 Page 176 experiences in some way or other, and by feeling the emotion, I can understand then integrating in some way the new it. The closer my previous experience is and old together. This integration to the perceived one, the better the requires constant and dynamic changes "understanding". This principle holds to the brain structures that represent whether one is trying to understand what we know and how we use it. I One objects or people. An important way this could happen is that when we distinction between people and objects perceive something new, we actually re- when trying to understand their actions enact in our mind's eye the previous is that people, but not objects, have related perceptions. For example, if we intentions. encounter an apple — having encountered The Social Brain many previously — perhaps we actually imagine (seeing) one or more previous The critical question for apples or episodes involving apples, or neurobiologists is how does the brain imagine (performing) one or more understand. In particular, we want to instances of biting an apple or throwing know whether the same brain circuits one, and/or imagine tasting and smelling that are used when we experience things one. We might also imagine hearing the personally are also used when we try to word "apple", producing the sounds of understand another person having the the word, seeing the written form of the same experiences, whether these word, or even hearing, seeing, or experiences are concrete, like grasping a producing synonyms or related words in cup or hitting a baseball, or more our first (e.g., "Granny Smith") or abstract like feeling sad or fearful or in second (e.g., "pommel languages. We pain. We also want to know whether propose that understanding an apple is understanding the simple concrete tantamount to executing this entire set of perceptions and these highly complex processes, and thus, that the circuits for emotional states are mediated similarly understanding are very complicated and in the brain. Further, we are interested in take up a large portion of the brain. the overlap between conscious and unconscious understanding and shared or Of course, not all of what we personal understanding. One way to understand is directly available to the address these questions is to examine the senses; we can clearly understand beliefs brain structures responsible for specific and emotions as well as physical objects types of personal sensations, actions, and and overt actions. Brain researchers cognitive processes, and to see if these generally take the view that previous same ones play a role when individuals experience guides understanding of attempt to understand these functions in abstract concepts in much the same way others. Using modem techniques of that it guides the understanding of the physiology, experiments of this type more concrete entities. For example, we have been conducted in both monkeys can understand the emotional states of and humans, with some surprising other people by imagining being in those results. states ourselves. When I see someone feeling happy or sad. I can evoke It is now possible to measure examples from my own previous brain activity of humans while having a experience of feeling happy or sad wide range of different kinds of (perhaps even for the same reasons), and experiences. Such human neuroimaging EFTA_R1_01522161 EFTA02444924 Page 177 experiments have suggested that Trinidad, who had played soccer his understanding actions and objects invoke whole life. The instructions he gave the some of the same brain structures used kids were quite different: "Follow me to perform the actions and to act on the and do what I do". There were no objects. With respect to actions in suggested foot flexions or extensions, particular, humans sometimes use their and no specific leg movements own motor repertoire in interpreting proposed. The kids learned the skills, actions, possibly by imagining or and won all their games. Why? The kids mentally simulating the perceived learned by observing a good model and action. When people arc asked to then imitating what they observed the observe the actions of others, person doing, which appears to be a way particularly goal-directed actions to learn motor skills that is far stronger involving the hands or mouth, they seem than that of explicit motor instruction. to activate brain regions for moving the When people have strokes, a part hands or mouth. Thus, there is a link of their brain dies, and they can lose the between observing actions and executing ability to speak or use a hand properly. actions. This has a relevance to We arc now using this idea of imitation education as well: "Understanding by in a treatment program to re-educate doing" (i.e., by observing and then people with strokes to use their hands executing) has a long and valued better and to pronounce words better. tradition in American education-, and For these imitation-based treatments, these recent scientific results might help people first observe a particular hand us understand why this is effective. action or speech sample on a video When my son was 5 years old, he monitor, and then they try to produce it. was a member of a kids' soccer team in In fact, they observe it over and over Hyde Park, on the campus of the again for a while before they even try to University of Chicago. His coach was a do it at all. They are never told how to professor of history at the university, a move their hands or mouths; they are woman who had never played soccer, just told to copy what they see. Over the but was a voracious reader, and in her course of six weeks, people with hand readings on the subject, took careful note problems progress from imitating a of all the methods needed to play soccer simple grasp of a cup to picking up a as well as the rules and regulations. She telephone and dialing a number to methodically took the kids through all picking up a toothbrush, brushing their the (theoretically relevant motor) steps teeth, and returning the brush to the sink. needed to dribble the ball, to pass, and to Those with speech problems progress shoot — flex your foot this way, bend from imitating simple words of a single your leg that way, keep your arms this syllable to longer less common words way, etc. The kids tried to follow the and even short phrases. We have already verbal instructions but their motor shown that these therapies have performance was less than stellar — they beneficial effects in a number of people learned a little bit, but they lost all of and are now trying it out more their dozen games, for a depressing 0-12 extensively. record. The next season, the same team There seems to be an important was coached by another volunteer link between observing and executing parent, this time an engineer from actions. Similarly, there is a link EFTA_R1_01522162 EFTA02444925 Page 178 between observing action and brain known to coordinate movements. understanding emotion. This link has These recording machines note brain been most clearly demonstrated in the activity both visually, as a graph on a case of facial expressions — if I observe screen, and auditorily, by a loud series of the muscles of the face in a position to clicks, indicating the firing of a neuron. convey an emotional state, clearly I Rizzolatti and his team were focusing on perceive the emotion. What has been a particular region in the front of the shown recently is that observing such brain, and were having the monkey facial expressions leads to two kinds of perform all sorts of hand, mouth, and brain activations in the observer: The eye movements to see how the brain first set of regions activated are those cells were organized to make these that would be used by the observer to movements happen. One day (or so the execute the identical face movements, story goes), one of the researchers just as with hand or mouth movements. returned from lunch while the electrical However, additional regions arc also recordings were being made, and was active, and these are precisely the ones finishing off a cone of superb Italian that would be involved if the observer gelato, when all of a sudden the were to feel the observed emotion recording device starting making a loud personally. Thus the circuitry for action series of clicks. The returning scientist observation in the human brain is stopped licking his ice cream cone to see interdependent with parts of the brain what was going on, and the noise critical for understanding more complex stopped. When he restarted licking his nuanced aspects of the world. gelato, the clicks resumed, and when he Mirror Neurons stopped again, they stopped. The investigators had discovered a type of It turns out that there may be neuron that was sensitive to the monkey cellular building blocks in the brain that observing a particular human action. are particularly important for observing and executing actions, and may It was not surprising that ultimately lead to an explanation of following training to perform an action, action understanding and imitation- some neurons in the motor region of the based learning. In fact, such structures brain responded while performing that would contribute to any form of action, when the same neurons would understanding that could be partly not have responded beforehand. explained by imagined re-enactment of However, it was extremely surprising to find that some of those neurons also perceived actions (e.g., seeing an emotional facial expression, hearing a responded vigorously when the monkey cry ofpain). The cells under discussion observed the very same learned actions. Through a methodical and systematic are a type of nerve cell, or neuron, discovered in the front part of the approach, this group was able to make a monkey brain by Professor Giacomo more elaborate and far-reaching set of Rizzolatti and his colleagues at the observations. For a small subset of University ofParma. The scientists neurons, if a monkey had learned to trained monkeys to perform specific reach for a particular object, seeing actions like grasping an object or licking another monkey reach for the same their lips, and were performing electrical object would cause the neuron to fire. recordings in regions in the front of the For a different subset of neurons, if the EFTA_R1_01522163 EFTA02444926 Page 179 monkey had learned to pucker up his attribute our past experience as the lips, the neuron would fire both when the interpretation of the present observation. monkey did this or when the monkey Imitation when observing an action observed another monkey (or even a might occur because our motor system is human) doing this. These motor neurons stimulated by observing an action. have been dubbed "mirror neurons", Coordination of action could occur since they respond during both execution because in representing others' actions of action and during observation of the as if they were our own, our brains may same action in a mirror-like fashion? be able to compute the time when we Mirror neurons are not active during can act without disrupting the other observation of an appropriate action if person. This is just the kind of process there is no goal (i.e., the object is absent) that is described in Gun Semin's chapter or when an appropriate object is when he describes how groups of people presented alone. Mirror neurons have can synchronize their actions like been discovered both for mouth actions clapping together. and hand actions, and for both visual and From monkey brains to human auditory perception of actions. intention Seeing a previously learned Of course, relating responses in action performed by someone else seems monkey brains to human brains is to resonate in some neurons in the motor neither direct nor simple. Parts of the system almost as if the action were being monkey brain and and parts of the performed by the observer. It is as if the human brain that putatively correspond, observed action stimulates some motor while similar, are not identical in neurons to "remember" what it was like number or size or location, and probably to perform action. Of course, this is not do not do exactly the same things, since memory in the overt sense of conscious monkeys and humans have evolved to recollection, but rather that the have somewhat different capacities and experience of execution changes the behaviors. Furthermore, the study of response of the neurons to observation. mirror neurons in monkeys is based on Not all the motor neurons respond this recording the responses of individual way but a small number have been neurons, which is not generally possible shown to respond when performing and in humans except in rare cases of observing an action. Such mirror medical necessity. The measures we can neurons could provide a correspondence make on intact human brains come from between the experience one has of the responses of many thousands of performing an action and seeing the neurons, so it is difficult to make claims same action performed by others. about neurons that respond in producing These mirror neurons might an action and perceiving the same provide one basis for understanding action. This means that any claims about action. Relating actions we observe to human mirror neurons depend on a actions we have carried out seems like degree of good faith and inference rather an important component for than specific empirical demonstration comprehension. After all, we knew what that individual neurons respond both to we were doing when we performed an observing and executing action. action. If that experience is somehow reinstated during observation we might EFTA_R1_01522164 EFTA02444927 Page 180 Researchers have measured the sight of the action with the object human brain responses using a variety of present show different patterns of brain methods such as functional magnetic response. The fact that such different resonance imaging (fMRI), which visual experiences lead to different demonstrate reliable effects of changes patterns of brain activity does not in neural activity by changes in blood provide clear evidence that intentions or flow. Although slower to respond than goals are somehow part of the mirror measures of electrical activity, fMRI neuron response to observed action. provides evidence about where neural Understanding spoken language as activity in the human brain occurs. This action understanding kind of research does show that observing action produces activity in The potential ambiguity of action areas of the human brain more typically is perhaps clearest if we consider associated with executing action. While language. Talking is a form of action and there may be some disagreement about understanding speech might be a form of which motor areas of the human brain action understanding. In talking, mouth are active while observing or imitating movements are made in such a way as to action and how these would correspond create sounds that will have some affect to areas in the monkey brain, there is on the listener, as discussed in Howard good agreement that the human motor Nusbaum's chapter. Listeners must system responds for observation and understand what was meant by making imitation of action.° those sounds. However, if someone says, "It's hot in here," or "You are a great There is quite a difference friend," there can be ambiguity about the between recognizing an action and meaning. Such sentences could be understanding that action. We can see a straightforward observations as they hand move through space with an open seem to be or they could be something palm oriented with the flat of the palm very different. We can ask to have a moving toward the surface of an object window opened or we can make a and predict where the hand will strike negative social comment using exactly the object and that it will apply force to the same sentences. the surface of that object. But understanding the same general action as Nonetheless, there is good reason pushing a door open with the intent to to believe that the human action system enter and slapping a person in the face is is involved in understanding speech as quite different. A ball can be thrown in a well as producing it. While some game of catch or as a missile intended to ambiguities in speech or behavior simply do harm. The actions may be similar but cannot be resolved without broader the intentions are different. Therefore it contextual knowledge, the motor system is important that some researchers have may be important in understanding. If argued that mirror neurons respond to you try to have a conversation in a noisy the intention as well as the action? bar, looking at your friend talking makes However, to date there has been no clear it easier to understand what is being said. evidence that such neurons respond to We have shown that the motor system intention -- just that the sight of the contributes to this process of recognizing action of reaching without an object to speech. When listeners can see grasp, the sight of the object alone, and someone's face while talking, mouth EFTA_R1_01522165 EFTA02444928 Page I81 movements increase activity within the In understanding other people, motor system measured using fMRI. we start with what we understand about Furthermore, it is possible to show that ourselves. As Nick Epley describes in the same parts of the motor system can his chapter, we take this kind of be active in talking and in understanding egocentric perspective in understanding speech. By analyzing which parts of the other people or pets or God or the brain are active and when they become behavior of inanimate objects. We know active, it is possible to show that when what we meant when we say something motor system activity in the frontal lobe or do something and we make the same of the brain precedes activity in other attribution to others, even nonhuman regions (e.g., the temporal lobe), others. While this may be a good starting listeners have a better understanding.6 It point for religions to help people feel is as if the motor system "recognizes" connected to God, as discussed by Clark the speech before other parts of the brain Gilpin, it may not be uniformly when the talking mouth is visible to the informative about human behavior. listener. Behavior is not transparent for the intention of that behavior. The fact that This study shows that more any particular action is not necessarily information about the action of unique to the intent behind it is the basis producing speech (visible mouth of a great deal of misunderstanding in movements) can activate the motor areas daily interactions. As a result, even if of the brain during understanding of mirror neurons help our brains recognize speech. But it is also the case that actions and sometimes interpret them, understanding speech without seeing the there are real limits to how experience- speaker depends on the motor system. producing actions can correctly inform Hockey players arc experts at hitting social understanding. slap shots, blocking passes, and whacking each other in the head with In spite of this limitation, we hockey sticks. They have done these may often do just this—assume we things in the real world just as monkeys understand another's actions because of in Parma have learned to reach for what we would intend were we to do the certain objects. When hockey players same thing in the same circumstance. listen to sentences describing hockey Human social understanding does suffer action, even without seeing the speaker egocentric limitations often and to the or the action, motor areas are active extent that it does, something like a during sentence understanding and these mirror neuron system may play a role. same motor areas are not active in For example, as discussed by Jean people without hockey experience! Decety in his chapter, our ability to Understanding described actions appears understand the pain of others may derive to be influenced by the motor systems of in part from the neural systems involved people who have experience with those in our experience of pain, but goes actions. Understanding action may be beyond this starting point. The social influenced by the experiences of our brain is on one level perhaps a very motor systems. egocentric brain. But the fundamental motivation to connect with others has Reading minds through action resulted in systems built on top of these egocentric foundations. If social EFTA_R1_01522166 EFTA02444929 Page I82 understanding depended entirely on past biological explanation of experiences of our own intentions and anthropomorphism, as discussed by actions, there might be much more Epley and Gilpin. Of course as humans misunderstanding and cynicism in the we have the ability to go beyond these world. However, the capacity to reason, strict egocentric limitations and hypothesize, and model possible futures recognize and respond to our social may increase social understanding connections more explicitly. This ability beyond the anchor of purely egocentric to go beyond the more basic grounding perspective. We can conceive of of the way we understand others may alternatives to our own goals and subscrve part of the goal of some motives and relate those alternatives to religions, discussed by Kathryn Tanner, the actions we observe. To some extent, in fostering a more abstract view of our this process might also involve the motor connection to others. While a mirror system by mentally simulating actions neuron system might help form the basis and anticipated responses. By imagining for some aspects of social understanding, how we might act in some situation to there may well be other invisible forces achieve a goal or the alternative ways we at work supported by these and other may act given some intention, it may be neural systems in our social brain. possible to go beyond the limits of our References own experience. Such constructive imagery may well depend on the motor I. Hasson, U., Nusbaum, H. C., & Small, S. L. system, along with other neural systems, (2009). Task-dependent organization of but currently there is no scientific brain regions active during rest. Proceedings evidence that such a system might be ofthe National Academy ofSciences ofthe linked with the operation ofmirror United States ofAmerica, 106(26), 10841- neurons. 10846. Conclusion 2. Dewey, J. (1903). Democracy in Education. The Elementary School Teacher, 4(4), 193- We are equipped to understand 204. the world around us by relating what we perceive to our own experiences. With 3. Gallese, V., Fadiga, L., Fogassi, L., respect to actions in particular, our & Rizzolatti, G. (1996). Action brains have specialized circuitry to relate recognition in the premotor cortex. previously executed actions to newly Brain, 119 (Pt 2), 593-609. perceived ones, possibly by performing 4. lacoboni, M., Woods, R. P., Brass, an internal (imagined) simulation of M., Bekkering, H., Mazziotta, J. C., them. There is evidence too that we & Rizzolatti, G. (1999). Conical might understand the emotional states of mechanisms of human imitation. others by a similar kind of process, Science, 286(5449), 2526-2528. whereby our brains activate circuits for experiencing the emotion as a way to 5. Iacoboni, M., Molnar-Szakacs, I., understand that emotion in others. These Gallese, V., Buccino, G., Mazziotta, brain mechanisms might also apply (to a J. C., & Rizzolatti, G. (2005). greater or lesser degree) when we try to Grasping the intentions of others understand actions or feelings by non- with ones own mirror neuron human animals or even inanimate system. PLoS Biology, 3, 529-535. entities. This could be a partial EFTA_R1_01522167 EFTA02444930 Page 183 6. Skipper, J. I., van Wassenhove, V., Nusbaum, H. C., & Small, S. L. (2007). Hearing lips and seeing voices: how cortical areas supporting speech production mediate audiovisual speech perception. Cerebral Cortex, 17, 2387-2399. 7. Bcilock, S. L., Lyons, I. M., Mattarella-Micke, A., Nusbaum, H. C., & Small, S. L. (2008). Sports experience changes the neural processing of action language. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105, 13269- 13272. EFTA_R1_01522168 EFTA02444931 Page 184 and the brain machinery that supports Connecting and Binding Social Brains this important capacity by providing a and Minds resonant response to the observation of We evolved as social organisms another person's distress. Although in the context of face-to-face interaction. sympathy may motivate helping others, Much of our human biology was empathy may be one of the social glues established before the technology of that binds us together as a collective email and cell phones. As a result, our social organism. biological nature is tuned primarily to social signals and interaction that occurs in the presence of another. It takes just a moment of observation for us to know a lot about another person as a social being. We can understand other speakers easily within tens of milliseconds of experience. Our brains have developed to make this kind of social connection quickly and easily, whether through language or action. In order to understand someone else, we need to be able to understand their goals and intentions. Moreover we need to relate their behavior to our own individual and personal experience. Steve Small discusses some of the brain machinery that may allow us to translate our perception of language and observation of behavior into a form that can be related to our own use of language and action. This kind of resonance with experience, rather than elaborate inferences, may allow us to connect quickly with others, satisfying our drive for sociality. But understanding behavior and communication is not all there is to forming social connections. It is one thing to read intentions and another to feel someone's pain. If we only could understand action and communication, an important element of human connection would be missing. In forming a collective mind, as Gun Semin discusses it, we need to have collective emotional responses. Jean Decety discusses the foundations of empathy EFTA_R1_01522169 EFTA02444932 Page 185 daycare is being ignored by the other children with the exception of one little fiernpah,paza affectlaill boy who takes her hand and includes her in all his activities. These modest 1.1111wpilomii er.air l eS ane J i beginnings signal the important and twibmzga:c&tes LOS" al `"'• ongoing role of empathy for surviving Iir'24-t—ite and flourishing in our social world. Empathy has been suggested to be Chapter 99 essential to navigating the social world; it enhances our understanding of others, Empathy and Interpersonal improves the effectiveness of our social Sensitivity communication, and fosters mutually A young girl, after watching a satisfying social relationships. televised documentary account of child Conversely, lack of empathy or its hunger and suffering in Bangladesh, maladaptive use causes social pleads with her parents to "do relationships to falter and fail. something" to help them. A new child in Empathy refers to our natural capacity to quickly and automatically 9 The lead author is Jean Decety. Ph.D., the relate to the emotional states of another Irving B. Harris Professor in the Departments of person. Rudimentary forms of empathy Psychology and Psychiatry, and co-director of appear early in the life course, and with the Brain Research Imaging Center at the University of Chicago Medical Center. He is the maturation, empathy can be experienced editor of the journal Social Neuroscience. His by simply reading about or imagining interests include the investigation of the someone else's emotion. Empathy neurobiological mechanisms underpinning comes so naturally that physicians must interpersonal sensitivity, particularly empathy learn to dampen their empathic pain and sympathy. His recent work focuses on developmental neuroscience with both typically responses when inserting a needle into a developing children and adolescents as well as in patient (1). Just because empathy comes children with deficits in empathic responding naturally does not mean, however, that it such as antisocial behavior problems. Decety has is instantiated in a discrete brain module published more than 115 scientific papers, and that is automatically activated when one recently edited the Social Neuroscience of Empathy (2009, MIT press), and Interpersonal witnesses another's distress or suffering. Sensitivity: Entering Others' World (2007, Rather, the experience of empathy is Psychology Press). underpinned by the combined activity of Empathy and sympathy play crucial several dissociable psychobiological roles in much of human social interaction and are systems. Further, empathy can be necessary components for healthy co-existence. Sympathy is thought to have a key role in modulated by various contextual, motivating prosocial behavior, guides our dispositional, and interpersonal factors. preferences and behavioral responses, and The study of empathy, using provides the affective and motivational base for sophisticated methods from psychology, moral development. Although the study of these neurology, neuroimaging, and abilities has traditionally been examined using behavioral and clinical methods, recent work in neuropsychology, provide a unique social neuroscience has begun to provide opportunity to understand the invisible compelling and novel insights on the neural power of empathy in shaping our mechanisms involved in interpersonal obligatorily gregarious social nature. sensitivity. These developments are explored in this essay. Defining empathy and its functions EFTA_R1_01522170 EFTA02444933 Page 186 Empathy can be defined as our intermediate forms of empathy exist natural capacity to share, appreciate, and between the extremes of mere agitation respond to the affective states of others. at the distress of another and full This capacity is essential for the understanding of their predicaments (3). regulation of social interactions. For Many comparative psychologists view instance, empathy is believed to empathy as a kind of induction process motivate prosocial behavior and inhibit by which emotions, both positive and aggressive behavior (2). In addition, our negative, are shared, and which increase ability to share the emotions of those we the probability that the protagonists will observe binds us to each other and subsequently engage in similar behavior. fosters a collective social identity. Though certain non-human Empathy's invisible power is that it primates may share feelings between moves us to cooperate, coordinate our individuals, humans seem to have the behaviors, and provide the needed care unique ability to intentionally "feel for' for one another. Notably, however, and act on behalf of other individuals empathic concern does not necessarily whose experiences may differ greatly lead to empathic behavior. First, from their own. Such a capacity may empathy poses a paradox, as sharing of help explain why empathic concern is feelings does not necessarily imply that often associated with prosocial behaviors one will act or even feel impelled to act such as helping kin, and why it has been in a supportive or sympathetic way. considered the foundation for altruism, Second, the complexity of the social and the expression of empathy and caring for emotional situations eliciting empathic those who are not kin. Evolutionary concern influences the probability and biologists have suggested that empathic nature of the help provided. Whether and helping behavior evolved because of its how empathic actions are expressed contribution to genetic fitness (kin depends on the feelings we perceive in selection). In humans and other the other, our relationship with that mammals, an impulse to care for individual, and the context in which we offspring is almost certainly genetically share an emotional state. hard-wired. Less clear, however, is Empathy is critical for complex whether an impulse to care for siblings, human interactions, but this does not more remote kin, and similar non-kin is mean that empathy and prosocial genetically hard-wired. The emergence behavior have suddenly appeared with of altruism is not easily explained within Homo sapiens. If empathy is a potent the framework of neo-Darwinian invisible force generated by the social theories of natural selection (but see brain, some form of emotion-sharing Cacioppo's chapter on this point). Social should also be evident in other social learning explanations of kinship patterns species such as non-human primates. in human helping behavior are thus Indeed, field observations conducted by highly plausible. Indeed, one of the most comparative psychologists and striking aspects of human empathy is ethologists suggest that behaviors that it can be felt for virtually any homologous to empathy can be found in "target," even targets of a different non-human primates (2). Some have species (animals included). We can see argued that empathy is not an all-or- a deer hurt by a passing car or the dogs nothing phenomenon, and that many locked in crates at a shelter and feel EFTA_R1_01522171 EFTA02444934 Page 187 strongly for their pain or confinement distressed shortly after another infant and future. In part, this kind of empathic begins to cry. Facial mimicry of basic extension may be motivated by the kind emotional expressions also contributes to of anthropomorphic attitudes we have affective sharing, and this phenomenon about non-human entities as discussed starts very early in life, by by Nick Epley in his chapter. The fact approximately 10 weeks of age. This that we are adept at "feeling for" very primitive mimicry mechanism, which different others whom we can observe may be based on mirror neurons, which but not truly understand suggests that we are sensorimotor neurons found in the possess a capacity to cognitively re- premotor, motor, and posterior parietal represent others in our mind in a way we cortex of the brain that become active can understand. Indeed, second-order when observing as well as when representation is a key component of enacting a behavior as discussed in empathy in humans, and may be a useful Steven Small's chapter. This kind of adaptation for human survival because it mechanism may contribute to the maximizes the range of individuals with development of empathy in the early whom we can form a social bond. preverbal period, and continues to operate past childhood. There is The Components of Empathy evidence that when we perceive The psychological components emotions and actions of others, we use that make up full-blown empathy are the same neural circuits as when we supported by distinct and separable produce the same emotions and actions psychobiological systems. Empathy can ourselves (e.g., watching another be decomposed into an affective individual being disgusted and component that includes the perception experiencing disgust in oneself activate and sharing of an emotional state similar neural circuits). For instance, observed in another individual, and a viewing facial expressions triggers cognitive component that includes the expressions on one's own face, even motivation and intention to respond. without explicit identification of what Closely related is a regulatory we're seeing (4). component that involves adjustment of The cognitive component of one's emotional and behavioral empathy is closely related to processes response. The affective, cognitive, and involved in "theory of mind" (i.e., the regulatory aspects of empathy involve ability to attribute mental states to others interacting, yet partially non-overlapping and to understand that others' mental neural circuits. The initial component in the overall process leading to empathy states can differ from one's own) and self-regulation. The capacity for two draws on somatic mimicry, also known people to resonate with each other as "emotion contagion." This affective emotionally, prior to any cognitive component of empathy develops earlier understanding, is the basis for than the cognitive component. Affective developing shared emotional meanings, responsiveness is present at an early age, but it is not enough for mature empathic is involuntary, and relies on mimicry and understanding and concern. Such an linking of actions perceived in others understanding requires the observer to with actions in oneself (i.e., perception- form an explicit representation of the action coupling). For instance, feelings of another person, a process that newborns and infants become vigorously EFTA_R1_01522172 EFTA02444935 Page 188 involves additional mechanisms beyond account for our ability to perceive and the sharing of emotion and includes self- understand the pain of others. In the case regulatory mechanisms to modulate the of pain, individuals are predisposed to observer's experience of negative find distress of others aversive and learn arousal. Specifically, in order to to avoid actions associated with this understand the emotions and feelings of distress. This is even the case in many others in relation to oneself, second- mammalian species, including rodents. order representations of the other must For instance, rats that had learned to be consciously available and must not press a lever to obtain food would stop confuse the other with the self. The doing so if their response was paired medial and ventromedial prefrontal with the delivery of an electric shock to cortices are known to play crucial roles a visible neighboring rat (6). in decoupling first-person and third- Recently, a handful of functional person information and maintaining neuroimaging studies performed with representations of the other as distinct healthy human volunteers revealed that from the self (5). the same neural circuits implicated in The regulatory component of processing the affective and motivational empathy, especially regulation of aspects of pain in oneself account for the internal emotional states and processes, perception of pain in others (7). In one is particularly relevant to the modulation study, participants in a magnetic of vicarious emotion and the experience resonance imaging (MRI) scanner either of empathy as well as sympathy. received a painful stimulus or, in other Empathy is unlikely to lead to helping trials, observed a signal that their behavior if the observer is incapacitated partner, who was present in the same by strong empathically evoked emotions, mom, would receive the same stimulus. which is why emotional regulation is an First-hand experience of pain resulted in important component in empathy. activation of the somatosensory cortex, Indeed, children high in effortful control which encodes the way we feel aspects show greater empathic concern, and the of a noxious stimulus such as its bodily tendency to experience empathy and location and intensity. Furthermore, the sympathy versus personal distress varies anterior medial cingulate cortex (ACC), as a function of their ability to regulate and the anterior insula were activated their emotions more generally. during both first-hand pain and the How We Perceive Other People in anticipated experience of pain in Pain someone else. These regions are responsible for the affective and When witnessing another person motivational processing of noxious experiencing pain, the scope of an stimuli such as those aspects of pain that observer's reaction can range from pertain to desires, urges, or impulses to concern for personal safety, including avoid or terminate a painful experience. feelings of alarm, fear, and avoidance, to A number of other neuroimaging studies concern for the other person, including of empathy for pain in adults as well as compassion, sympathy, and care-giving. in children have demonstrated that the The existence of the perception-action somatosensory cortex is not activated coupling mechanism apparent in only during first-hand pain but is also emotional contagion also seems to activated with the perception of other EFTA_R1_01522173 EFTA02444936 Page 189 people in pain. Altogether, there is and resistance to interference), functions strong evidence to suggest that that are predominantly centered in the perceiving the pain of others triggers an prefrontal cortex which continues to automatic somatic sensory-motor mature from birth to adolescence. mirroring mechanism between other and Theoretically, imagining the other is self, which activates almost the entire distinct from imagining the self the neural pain matrix including the former may evoke empathic concern periaqueductal gray, a major site in pain (defined as an other-oriented response transmission and for processing of fear congruent with the perceived distress of and anxiety, and the supplementary the person in need) while the latter motor area that programs defensive induces both empathic concern and movements in response to anticipated personal distress (i.e., a self-oriented pain. Such a neural resonance aversive emotional response such as mechanism provides a functional bridge anxiety or discomfort). This distinction between first-person and third-person has been supported empirically. When information. It is grounded in the individuals are asked to imagine how equivalence of self and other, which they would feel in reaction to emotion- allows for analogical reasoning, and laden familiar situations and to imagine offers a possible, yet partial, route to how a known person would feel if she understanding others. was experiencing the same situations, common neural circuits are activated Of course, human empathic both for the self and the other. However, abilities arc more sophisticated than relative to imagining the self, imagining simply yoking perceptions of the self the other results in specific activation of and other. In the eighteenth century, parts of the frontal cortex that are Scottish philosopher and economist implicated in executive control—the use Adam Smith proposed that through of attention and working memory and imagination, "we place ourselves in his decisions—and an area of the brain at situation... enter as it were into his body, the interface of the temporal and parietal and become in some measure the same person with" (8). By means of lobes of the brain that is a key component of a larger network of neural imagination we come to experience circuits involved in attention (sometimes sensations which are generally similar called the temporoparietal junction). to, although typically weaker than, those of the other person. This capacity to Some researchers have engage in role-taking has been hypothesized that the role of the frontal theoretically linked to the development lobes and the temporoparietal junction is of empathy, moral reasoning, and more to hold separate perspectives or to resist generally, prosocial behavior. Unlike the interference against attention to one's motor mimicry and emotional contagion own perspective. In a recent functional aspect of empathy, perspective-taking brain imaging study (9), participants develops later, possibly because it draws were shown pictures of people with their heavily on the maturation of executive hands or feet in painful or non-painful functions (i.e., processes that serve to situations with the instruction to imagine monitor and control thought and actions, themselves or to imagine another including self-regulation, planning, individual experiencing these situations. cognitive flexibility, response inhibition, During perception of painful situations, EFTA_R1_01522174 EFTA02444937 Page 1 90 both the self-perspective and the other- level of empathic response, therefore, perspective were associated with seems to be influenced by motivational activation in the neural network involved factors as well as the interpersonal in pain processing. These results reveal relationship between the target and the the similarities in neural networks observer. representing first- and third-person Altogether, these findings information. In addition, however, the demonstrate that the similarities between self-perspective yielded higher pain affective representations of the self and ratings and involved more extensive the other stem from shared neural activation of some circuits in the pain circuits that can be emulated either matrix than did the other-perspective, automatically or intentionally by the act thus highlighting important differences of perspective-taking. Importantly, these between self- and other-perspectives. findings also point to some distinctions Neuroanatomical regions and between these two representations, circuits form the foundation for the distinctions that contribute to our experience of pain in others, but they are capacity to detach ourselves from others not sufficient to explain variability in sufficiently to make considered interpersonal sensitivity. Although responses to their pain. empathetic brain circuits are activated by Conclusion the mere perception ofpain in others, activity in these circuits can be Empathy, the natural capacity to modulated by social, motivational, and share, appreciate, and respond to the cognitive factors. For example, affective states of others, plays a crucial observing pain in likable others (i.e., role in much of human social interaction those who played a game fairly) resulted from birth to the end of life. As would be in an enhancement of empathic brain expected if empathy functions to responses, whereas pain in dislikable enhance social cohesion, social non- others who played unfairly did not. human primate species also exhibit Another functional MRI study (10) rudimentary versions of empathy. What found that participants showed humans have in abundance are higher- significantly greater responses in neural level cognitive and social abilities regions that are involved in pain (language, theory of mind, executive perception when observing the pain of functions) that can be deployed to people who were not responsible for modulate empathic responses, and that their stigmatized condition (i.e., are amenable to modulation by lower- individuals who contracted AIDS as the level processes such as emotional result of a blood transfusion) than either contagion and mimicry. These levels of controls (healthy individuals) or people processing enable empathy to have an who were held responsible for their impact on a wide variety of human condition (i.e., those who contracted behaviors. From motivating prosocial AIDS through illegal drug use). In behavior to providing the affective and addition, participants expressed more motivational bases for moral empathy and personal distress in development, empathy is an invisible response to the pain of people who were force to reckon with when considering not responsible for their stigmatized how humans behave toward each other. condition as compared to controls. The References EFTA_R1_01522175 EFTA02444938 Page I 91 1. Cheng, Y., Lin, C., Liu, H.L., Silvio M. Soares. MetaLibri, Hsu, Y., Lim, K., Hung, D., & 2005, v1.0p. Decety, J. (2007). Expertise Jackson, P.L., Brunet, E., 9. modulates the perception of pain Meltzoff, A.N., & Decety, J. in others. Current Biology, 17, (2006). Empathy examined 1708-1713. through the neural mechanisms 2. De Waal, F. (2009). The Age of involved in imagining how I feel Empathy: Nature's Lessons for a versus how you feel pain: An Kinder Society. New York: event-related fMRI study. Harmony Books. Neuropsychologia, 44, 752-61. 3. De Waal, F. B. M. (2009). 10. Decety, J., Echols, S.C., & Darwin's last laugh. Nature. 460, Correll, J. (2009). The blame 175. game: the effect of responsibility and social stigma on empathy for 4. Meltzoff, A.N., & Decety, J. pain. Journal of Cognitive (2003). What imitation tells us about social cognition: A Neuroscience. Epub ahead of print. rapprochement between developmental psychology and cognitive neuroscience. The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. London. 358 491-500. 5. Decety, J., & Sommerville, J.A. (2003). Shared representations between self and others: A social cognitive neuroscience view. Trends in Cognitive Sciences. 7, 527-533. 6. Church, R. M. (1959). Emotional reactions of rats to the pain of others. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 5, 132-134. 7. Decety, J., & Lamm, C. (2009). Empathy and intersubjectivity. In G. G. Berntson & J. T. Cacioppo (Eds.), Handbook of neuroscience for the behavioral sciences (Vol. 2, pp. 940-957). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. 8. Smith, Adam. The Theory of Moral Semtiments. Edited by EFTA_R1_01522176 EFTA02444939 Page 192 Seeing into My Mind and Other consequences for the way we feel and think about and behave toward others. Minds Empathy is defined by Jean Decety as "the natural capacity to share, appreciate, and respond to the affective states of others." Empathy rests on our ability to see into the mind of another while distinguishing it from one's own to be in a position to cooperate, coordinate, and provide the needed care for others. The possession of empathic capacity is not sufficient to determine the precise nature of the response toward others, however. As Decety points out, whether an individual attends to and responds empathically upon observing emotion in another individual depends on, among other things, dispositional tendencies, the relationship between the individuals, and contextual constraints. Motivation to help another is also influenced by the amount of cognitive effort we are willing and able to exert to take the perspective of the other. Perspective-taking is essentially an attempt to see into the invisible mind of another. What we can't see, we model based on our own mind and like-minded individuals. Nick Epley shows that seeing into and connecting with other minds is such a frequent operation of the social brain that the absence of others inclines people to see human minds in nonhuman entities. Whether it's a tree, a pet, or God, ascribing mind to others endows them with the capacity to experience the same affective states we experience. This shared capacity evokes in us a tendency to feel and express empathic concern for their well-being. Unfortunately, humans do not grant all individuals, much less non-human entities, an equivalent degree of mind. Epley articulates how differences in the capacity to see mind in others have EFTA_R1_01522177 EFTA02444940 Page 193 passengers were rescued, cold, wet, and almost completely unharmed. Explained — d 4.,capasi one passenger, "God was certainly looking out for us." New Orleans Mayor stfatatilthr s"°--QI Elikely— Ray Nagin offered a very different i- a wkvoid e assessment of God's mind following the 'sn-se-SW experience.loneSt.tri = d-'1t p sttattilind devastating impact of Hurricane Katrina 1 ~ peosptle when he explained that, "Surely God is mad at America. Surely he's not approving of us being in Iraq under false Chapter 1010 pretense. But surely he's upset at Black Seeing Invisible Minds America, too." Shortly after taking off from Depending on your own beliefs, LaGuardia airport in the dead of winter, such statements will seem somewhere the engines of US Airways flight 1549 between insane and insightful. To failed after inhaling several large geese. psychologists, they seem impressive. The pilots glided their plane onto the They seem impressive not because they Hudson River, where all of the reveal a keen sense of causal inference, but rather because they reveal what may be the most impressive capacities of the 1° The lead author is Nicholas Epley, Ph.D., a social brain—the ability to reason about, Professor of Behavioral Science at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. His or "to see," what other minds see. research investigates people's ability to reason Introspection enables you to know your about others' minds, from knowing how one is own intentions, report on your own being judged by others to predicting others' thoughts, feel your own pain, and attitudes, beliefs, and underlying motivations, recognize when you are feeling shame and the implications of systematic mistakes in mind reading for everyday social interactions. rather than guilt. Other minds, however, His research has appeared in more than two are inherently invisible. You cannot dozen journals, has been featured by the Wall know what it is like to be another person Street Journal, CNN, Wired, and National Public on the inside because your skull gets in Radio, among many others, and has been funded the way. by the National Science Foundation and the Templeton Foundation. Epley has written for the The inherent invisibility of other New York Times, produced lectures for the minds poses a major problem for hard- Financial Times, been elected as a Fellow of the nosed philosophers, who skeptically note Association for Psychological Science, and is the winner of the 2008 Theoretical Innovation Prize that people cannot infer that other minds from the Society for Personality and Social exist at all. Although it is surprisingly Psychology. difficult for philosophers to reject the Other minds are inherently invisible. skeptical conclusion from the "other You cannot see an attitude, smell a belief, or minds problem," almost everyone else touch an intention, and yet you can nevertheless "see" these mental states in other people with casts it aside altogether some time great case. You can even see them in agents around the age of five. At this point ranging from pets to gadgets to gods. How you people have developed such a strong are able to see other minds, and how they capacity to think about other minds that become visible, matters because it marks the they not only see minds in other people, difference between treating others as human beings worthy of moral care and concern versus but they seem to see other minds almost treating others as objects or animals. everywherel. Gods can be caring or EFTA_R1_01522178 EFTA02444941 Page 194 callous. Pets can be thoughtful or involves the capacity for devious. And every now and then, metacognition—the capacity to think computers can have a mind of their own. about one's own thoughts or emotions— exemplified in experiences such as Having the capacity to reason confidence and doubt, or in secondary about other minds enables people to emotions such as shame, guilt, joy, or form deep social connections with hope. People seem to represent these others, to empathize with others' pain two capacities in others quite and share in their joy, and to anticipate independently. A sociopath, for others' actions. But having a capacity instance, can appear to act with a high and actually using it are two different degree ofmindful agency but no mindful things. People are not naturally inclined experience, whereas a baby might appear to see invisible things in the full of mindful experience with environment. People do not relatively little mindful agency. Seeing automatically see into other minds, either, but instead do so only under other agents as mindful essentially means seeing them as able to certain circumstances and with some consciously think and/or to feel. psychological effort. This chapter will Because you arc aware of both your own describe how people come to see other thoughts and feelings, you likely minds, how other minds can become consider yourself—like most people more or less visible, and why the visibility of other minds matters for do—to be very mindful. everyday life. Making Other Minds Visible Kinds of Minds Introspection provides a kind of flashlight that seems to provide direct Studying how people understand access to one's own agency as well as other minds first requires understanding experience. Although research how people intuitively define another demonstrates that introspection is mind. Research suggests that people think of minds as having two distinct actually a process of indirect inference, it appears to us that introspection dimensions, the ability to act (agency) provides direct access to the workings of and the ability to feel (experience)2. Mindful agency involves the cognitive our own brain. It seems that we can look on the inside andfeel when we arc activities that enable action, such as the suffering, know when we are capacity to plan, to have intentions, to experiencing regret, or be aware of our engage in deliberate self-control, and to intentions to lose weight. We can use pursue one's own goals. Conscious our introspective abilities to make preferences, attitudes, and beliefs follow inferences about what others are likely from these capacities. Mindful thinking or feeling (and we very often experience, in contrast, involves the do), but such inferences are likely to cognitive activities involved in reacting seem inherently less direct, less to the external world, such as the immediate, and less illuminating. We capacity for self-awareness, and the cannot see into other minds as clearly as experience of basic psychological states we seem able to see our own. (like hunger, thirst, or pain), and other- oriented emotions (such as empathy or When something is difficult to sympathy). Mindful experience also see, people may doubt whether it EFTA_R1_01522179 EFTA02444942 Page 195 actually exists, or may not see it at all. therefore share his or her attentional This is true of the relative difficulty that focus, and recognize that other people people have seeing other minds may have preferences that differ from compared to one's own, in ways that are one's own. By age two, children's sometimes very subtle and surprising. social ability to read other minds seems For instance, we tend to evaluate to have already surpassed that of our ourselves by consulting our mindful nearest primate relatives, and over the intentions, but we evaluate others (and next two years they pick up what appear their intentions) by observing their to be uniquely human mind-reading actions. We may consider ourselves to capacities. By age five, children be conscientious if we planned to buy demonstrate the most sophisticated of our spouse a birthday gift, but need to mind-reading abilities—the capacity to see an actual gift to infer that our spouse recognize that others' beliefs may differ is equally conscientious. 3 We tend to from one's own and to use those believe that we are more likely to differing (sometimes mistaken) beliefs to experience complicated mental emotions predict the other agent's behavior. like shame, guilt, or embarrassment than Variability from age five onward comes are others.° We tend to believe that our from learning more specific details about own behavior will therefore be guided how other minds actually work, largely by moral sentiments like empathy, guilt, gathered from personal experience, or compassion whereas others' behavior religious practice, or broader cultural is more likely driven by the relatively norms. mindless motives of self-interest.6 Other Many psychologists and minds are more opaque than our own, neuroscientists speculate that learning to and some learning, attending, seeking, read other minds comes from the deeply and projecting is required for our brains social tendency, present at birth, to to become fully social and see into them. mimic others' actions. For example, Here's howl . Steve Small examines a neurological Learning. Children do not enter underpinning for mimicry, and Jean the world able to think about other Decety argues in his essay that an inborn minds, but they learn to do so fairly capacity for mimicry underlies the quickly. At around three months of age, human capacity for empathy. Looking children start preferentially attending to where others look and copying their animate objects compared to inanimate actions is a reasonable way to copy their objects, and at around six months of age likely mental states as well. This start to distinguish between intentional egocentric method of using one's own (goal-directed) and unintentional mental experience as a guide to other (accidental) action. At this age, for minds continues to be employed instance, children will look reliably throughout adulthood, and can give longer at a person who is reaching for a insight into others' mental states but can cup than to a person who is making the also lead people to overestimate the same reaching motion in the absence of extent to which others' minds are similar a cup. Over the next 18 months, to one's own. These biases tend to be children become more likely to mimic called egocentric when reasoning about intentional than unintentional actions, to other people, and they tend to be called follow the gaze of another person and anthropomorphic when reasoning about EFTA_R1_01522180 EFTA02444943 Page 196 nonpeople such as a god or a gadget or a partner's thoughts before making their pet. choice, only 27% chose to cooperate. If Attending. People rarely notice people had already been thinking about things in their environment unless they others' thoughts, as it seems like they would naturally be doing in this arc specifically attending to them. Other situation, then a simple instruction to minds likewise tend to be relatively consider others' thoughts would have no invisible unless attention is specifically effect on people's own behavior. That is drawn to them. For instance, take a not the case. This simple experiment moment to think about how happy you shows that people may not naturally are compared to the average American... consider other minds even when it No really, please take a moment..if you appears that they should. Thinking just spent some time thinking about how about other minds requires attentional happy you are and no time thinking about how happy the average American effort. It does not necessarily come automatically. Indeed, as Tanya is, then you are no different from the Luhrmann describes in her chapter, majority of people in psychology people may have to work very hard to experiments who do likewise/3. People discern other minds, such as the mind of can consider others' thoughts, feelings, God, even when they are actively beliefs, or emotions, but doing so looking for them. requires mental effort that is in short and limited supply. Consider, for instance, a Seeking. If seeing other minds simple experiment in which you are requires attention, then other minds are playing a game with another person9. especially likely to become visible when Both you and the other player in this people are motivated to think about game must first choose privately to them. There arc many reasons why cooperate or compete with each other. If people might try to get into the mind of you both choose to cooperate, you both another agent, from a spouse to a pet to a earn $5. But if the other player chooses god, but two arc reasonably well- to cooperate and you choose to compete, supported by existing research. First, then you win $10 and your partner gets people tend to think about other minds nothing. If you, however, choose to when they are trying to form a social cooperate and the other player chooses connection with others. 1° Making to compete, you win nothing and your people feel lonely or isolated, for partner wins $10. If you both choose to instance, increases the tendency to compete, you both win a measly $2. It describe one's pet as thoughtful, seems obvious in this situation that you considerate, or sympathetic (all mindful should consider both what you would traits). And those who arc made to feel like to do, but also consider what the lonely are also likely to report believing other player is likely to be thinking. in mindful supernatural agents, such as Experimental evidence suggests that God. Second, people tend to think about people do indeed think about the former other minds when they are trying to but spend little time thinking of the achieve some understanding and control latter. In a basic version of this over their environment or over another experiment, 60% of people chose to agent's behavior.' Concepts ofmind, cooperate. However, when people were including attitudes, beliefs, goals, or simply asked to think about their desires, can provide compelling cause- EFTA_R1_01522181 EFTA02444944 Page 1 97 and-effect explanations of behavior that mind of it's own, that a mayor believes give a sense of predictability and that God punished his city by sending a control. A meteorologist may know that hurricane, or that you truly believe that a hurricane may strike here or there your pet poodle is thoughtful and depending on environmental conditions. considerate. Some of these attributions Lacking such knowledge, a hurricane ofmind seem purely metaphorical and that strikes here rather than there may therefore unimportant, as ways of lead people to invoke a mindful agent— speaking rather than ways of believing, such as a God—to explain that action. whereas others seem to represent genuine beliefs about the real presence Projecting. If introspection makes your own mind visible, then you or absence of another social mind. But metaphors have a way of influencing might assume that those who look behavior in ways that are consistent with similar to you on the outside might look believing the metaphor to be literally similar to you on the inside as well. Indeed, animals that move at a true. People metaphorically refer to feeling dirty after behaving unethically, humanlike speed (such as a horse) seem and yet washing one's hands actually more mindful to people than do animals that move either much slower (such as a reduces the guilt that people report feeling from engaging in unethical sloth) or much faster (such as a actions." People are surely just hummingbird)." And an agent that look speaking metaphorically when they refer humanlike, such as a computerized avatar with human face, seems more to rejection as being given the cold shoulder, and yet research demonstrates mindful than avatars that do not look humanlike. Any parent knows how well that people do indeed report feeling that a room is colder after someone has just toy makers love to capitalize on this rejected them than after someone has tendency. But it is the converse of this just accepted them.14 And surely people effect that is even more interesting— other minds become less visible as the are only speaking metaphorically when they refer to the stock market as anxious agent becomes less similar to the self. or jittery, and yet describing the market Others that differ from you in their as mindful leads stock traders to believe interests, nationality, or social status are that trends are likely to continue whereas likely to be seen as less mindful—less describing the market as mindless leads thoughtful, less likely to experience traders to predict more random complicated emotions, less able to variability." Whether metaphorical or experience pain or suffering—than those literal, seeing other agents as mindful that are similar to you. It is little matters because people tend to treat the wonder, then, that the history of human agent as if it has a mind. That matters conflict is filled with instances ofpeople for at least three major reasons. dehumanizing radically different others, treating them like mindless animals or First, mindful agents have both objects.12 intentions and the capacity for self- control. Mindful agents can therefore be Why Minds Matter held responsible for their actions. It may not be obvious to you why Possessing a guilty mind Omens real is it matters that your neighbor, every now necessary for being held criminally and then, thinks that her computer has a responsible for a crime in the US, a EFTA_R1_01522182 EFTA02444945 Page 198 precedent found in courts around the than when in the presence of their world dating back to the Middle Ages. relatively more mindful spouse22. In times past and cultures in which Finally, other minds matter people did not so naturally restrict because mindful agents become moral intentional capacities to other humans, agents worthy of care and compassion7. animals (such as rats) and objects (such The principle of autonomy captures this as "possessed" statues) were common most basic of human rights—that targets of criminal prosecution16'17. because all people have the same Increasing the extent to which other minimal capacity to suffer, deliberate, agents seem mindful also increases the and choose, no person can compromise praise or blame that they receive for the body, life, or freedom of another their actions. And even diminishing the person. Agents with mindful extent to which people feel in mindful experience, the capacity to suffer, control of their own behavior (e.g., by deliberate, and choose, become those undermining people's belief in free will), that evoke empathy and concern for well leads people to behave in ways that are being, whereas agents without mindful consistent with diminished self-control experience can be treated simply as (such as by cheating on an exam when mindless objects. From debates about tempted to do so).1 abortion to animal rights to euthanasia, Second, other minds arc capable the mindful experience of the agents in of thinking, and may therefore be question is often either the explicit or thinking about you. Being under implicit focus of debate. Making scrutiny by mindful agents has two basic invisible minds visible, and hence more effects on human behavior. One is that like one's own, enables people to more mindful agents become sources of social readily follow the most famous of all influence, increasing the extent to which ethical dictates—to treat others as you people behave in socially desirable would have others treat you. ways20. Imagine, for instance, how you Conclusion might behave if you found a magic ring that made you invisible... and you'll get It is impossible for scientists to the point. This ability for mindful examine whether God was looking out surveillance to control behavior has been for the passengers of flight 1549 or proposed as one of the reasons, if not the punishing the residents ofNew Orleans primary reason, why religious systems with Hurricane Katrina, but it is very that posit an omnipresent deity are able possible to examine why people might to maintain such large-scale cooperative make such inferences. These societies. The other effect of mindful examinations have revealed a surveillance is that it is mentally taxing remarkable capacity to look beyond the to monitor others' thoughts. This visible behavior that the environment effortful monitoring can diminish a provides to reason about a completely person's performance on other invisible world of intentions and goals, cognitively demanding tasks21. And of motives and beliefs, of attitudes and while waiting for a stressful event, such preferences—an invisible world of other as giving a speech, people show less minds. Understanding when people are stress-related responses when in the likely to recognize other minds (and see presence of their relatively mindless pet into them) and when they are not is the EFTA_R1_01522183 EFTA02444946 Page 199 key to understanding when people may 7. Epley, N., & Waytz, A. (in press). be likely to invoke natural versus Mind Perception. In S.T. Fiske, D.T. supernatural explanations, when gadgets Gilbert, & G. Lindsay, (Eds.), The can seem to have minds of their own, Handbook of Social Psychology (5th and when people are likely to treat their ed.). New York: Wiley. pets as people and their enemies as 8. Kruger, J. (1999). Lake Wobegon be animals. A mind like our own, with the gone! The "below-average effect" capacity to see into other minds, is and the egocentric nature of essential for an agent to be, as we are, comparative ability judgments. fundamentally social. Journal of Personality and Social References Psychology, 77, 221-232. 1. Epley, N., Waytz, A., & Cacioppo, J.T. (2007). 9. Epley, N., Caruso, E.M., & Bazerman, On seeing human: A three—factor theory of M.H. (2006). When perspective anthropomorphism. Psychological Review, taking increases taking: Reactive 114, 864—886. Egoism in social interaction. Journal 2. Gray, H.M., Gray, K., & Wegner, of Personality and Social D.M. (2007). Dimensions of mind Psychology, 91, 872-889. perception. Science, 315, 619. 10. Epley, N., Akalis, S., Waytz, A., & 3. Kruger, J., & Gilovich, T. (2004). Cacioppo, J.T. (2008). Creating Actions, intentions, and trait social connection through inferential assessment: The road to self- reproduction: Loneliness and enhancement is paved with good perceived agency in gadgets, gods, intentions. Personality and Social and greyhounds. Psychological Psychology Bulletin, 30, 328-339. Science, 19, 114-120. 4. Lcyens, J.P., Paladino, P.M., II. Morewedge, C.K., Preston, J., & Wegner, D.M. (2007). Timescale bias in the Rodriguez, R.T., Vaes, J., Demoulin, attribution of mind. Journal of Personality S., Rodriguez, A.P., & Gaunt, R. and Social Psychology, 93, 1-11. (2000). The emotional side of prejudice: The role of secondary 12. Haslam, N., & Bain, P. (2007). emotions. Personality and Social Humanizing the self: Moderators of Psychology Review, 4, 186-197. the attribution of lesser humanness to 5. Van Boven, L., Loewenstein, G., & others. Personality and Social Dunning, D. (2005). The illusion of Psychology Bulletin, 33, 57-68. courage in social predictions: 13. Zhong, C.B., & Liljenquist, K. Underestimating the impact of fear (2006). Washing away your sins: of embarrassment on other people. Threatened morality and physical aganizational Behavior and Human clensing. Science, 313, 1451-1452. Decision Processes, 96, 130-141. 14. Zhong, C.B., & Leonardelli, G.J. 6. Epley, N., & Dunning, D. (2000). (2008). Cold and lonely: Does Feeling "holier than thou": Are self- social exclusion literally feel cold? serving assessments produced by Psychological Science, 19, 838-842. errors in self or social prediction? Journal of Personality and Social 15. Morris, M.W., Sheldon, O.J., Ames, Psychology, 79, 861-875. D.R., & Young, M.J. (2007). EFTA_R1_01522184 EFTA02444947 Page 1100 Metaphors and the market: Consequences and preconditions of agent and object metaphors in stock market commentary. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 102, 174-192. 16. Berman, P. S. (1994). Rats, pigs, and statues on trial: The creation of cultural narratives in the prosecution of animals and inanimate objects. NYULaw Review, 69, 288-326. 17. Sunstein, C.R., & Nussbaum, M.C. (2004). Animal rights: Current debates and new directions. New York: Oxford University Press. 18. Vohs, K.D., & Schooler, J.W. (2008). The value of believing in free will: Encouraging a belief in determinism increases cheating. Psychological Science, 19, 49-54. 19. Norenzayan, A., & Shariff, A.F. (2008). The origin and evolution of religious prosociality. Science, 322, 58-62. 20. Buss, A. H. (1980). Self- Consciousness and social anxiety. San Francisco, CA: W.H. Freeman. 21. Beilock, S. L. & Carr, T. H. (2005). When high-powered people fail: Working memory and "choking under pressure" in math. Psychological Science, 16, 101-105. 22. Allen, K. M., Blascovich, .1., & Mendes, W.B. (2002). Cardiovascular reactivity and the presence of pets, friends, and spouses: The truth about cats and dogs. Psychosomatic Medicine, 64, 727-739. EFTA_R1_01522185 EFTA02444948 Page 1101 Inferring Minds Where None social brain to achieve an understanding Can Be Seen of God and what God wants. This kind of anthropomorphism can be taken to The social brain seeks different metaphoric extremes in connections with others. But what is the personifying God as father or friend. foundation that we use to build such But an overly concrete personification connections? We experience empathy as may have costs perhaps diminishing the a form of emotional resonance and universality and pervasiveness of God in understanding of other people. This other religions. Thus religions may connection allows us to comfort and differ in theological perspective on the support and celebrate with others. Being value of the anthropomorphic impulse in tune with emotional states of others inherent in the social brain. allows us to respond in ways that strengthen a group. But how do we understand the thoughts and goals of others? How do we predict choices and decisions to facilitate cooperation in groups? Anthropomorphism is the basis for predicting behavior and thoughts and goals. Nick Epley discusses how anthropomorphism is rooted in an egocentric view of others. Moreover our view of others is not confined to the others that are people. It is perhaps reflective of the deep and fundamental nature of anthropomorphism in the social brain that its anthropomorphic inferences about agents can be derived from observed behavior, allowing us to understand "minds" where none may exist, as in mechanical toys or alarm clocks. Of course we tend to understand those minds by thinking they are just like us. Even when there is no agent to be seen, events in the world may be understood by attributing them to unseen agents. During World War II, the bombing of London was demonstrably random, but citizens of London could not help but discern intentional patterns in the attacks. As Epley points out, hurricanes and floods are even today attributed to the hand of God, perhaps an angry God. Clark Gilpin discusses how religions may use this aspect of the EFTA_R1_01522186 EFTA02444949 Page 1102 thirties, mounted the narrow steps into the pulpit on July 8, 1741, the sermon he = God aaellebst- h Ur rnangag ifithailatim —dtphigingisrenlvaz, was about to preach would become one 41riitz- of the most famously electrifying orations in American history, "Sinners in rararnEdwrzn9filitinianmsdern,11— 2 the Hands of an Angry God." Edwards Proizdefli ima plithania E tt7- 7-- rel preached this sermon during the massive 31 -1 it transatlantic religious revival that gave rise to Methodism in England and came Chapter I In to be known in the American colonies as "the Great Awakening." This was not Anthropomorphism: Human the familiar pulpit of his congregation in Connection to a Universal Society Northampton, Massachusetts, but rather When Jonathan Edwards, an the church at Enfield, a town that had angular New England minister in his late gained notoriety for stubbornly resisting the exhortations of previous preachers of spiritual awakening. From his scriptural " The lead author, Clark Gilpin, Ph.D., is the text—"their foot shall slide in due time" Margaret E. Burton Professor of the History of (Deut. 32: 35)—Edwards drew the Christianity at the University of Chicago Divinity School. Clark studies the cultural doctrine that "there is nothing that keeps history of theology in England and America wicked men, at any one moment, out of from the seventeenth century to the present. hell, but the mere pleasure of God." From 1990 to 2000, he served as dean of the Sinners living here and now, Edwards Divinity School, and from 2000 to 2004 he declared, were "the objects of that very directed the Martin Marty Center. the Divinity School's institute for advanced research in all same anger and wrath of God, that is fields of the academic study of religion. His expressed in the torments of hell," and current research projects include a book with the that wrath was an annihilating fire that working title Alone with the Alone: Solitude in already "bums against them; their American Religious and Literary History, which damnation does not slumber; the pit is explores ways in which the spiritual discipline of solitary writing—autobiographic narratives, prepared; the fire is made ready...to journals, and letters—shaped the careers of receive them." In a notorious image, major New England intellectuals of the Edwards portrayed God dangling the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. sinner's soul over the fires of hell like a Anthropomorphic representations of spider on a single, slender filament of its God make many modem people very nervous, including many religious people. Attributing web. The sermon achieved stunning human-like ideas and emotions to the results, as recorded in the diary of one of comprehending powers of the universe not only those present, Stephen Williams: seems out of step with modem science but also a "before the sermon was done, there was presumptuous confinement of the world within a great moaning and crying out merely human needs and capacities. Yet, the impulse to speak anthropomorphically about our throughout the whole house—what shall **ultimate environment" has vigorously persisted I do to be saved; oh, I am going to hell; into the modem age. Rather than dismissing oh, what shall I do for a Christ." The anthropomorphism as an outmoded way of "shrieks and cries were piercing and thinking, this essay adopts a historical approach amazing," Williams reported, and the to rethink why anthropomorphism exhibits this perennial capacity to focus the human ethical scene was so tumultuous that Edwards imagination on our relations with and obligations had to stop before finishing his sermon.' to the universe within which we live. EFTA_R1_01522187 EFTA02444950 Page 1103 As the classic American example interpretations of influence on the course of fire-and-brimstone Protestant of nature by divine ideas and purposes. preaching, "Sinners in the Hands of an Since the late nineteenth century, many Angry God" depends, for its effect, on instances of the so-called "warfare" anthropomorphism: ascribing human between science and theology have form and attributes—hands, emotions, turned on the issue of whether any and purposive agency—to nonhuman scientific plausibility could be attached phenomena. Anthropomorphism has to concepts of a divine mind, purpose, or been a hotly debated feature of religion intention that guided or ordered the since classical antiquity. But, in the structure of the universe.' According to modem world, religious the philosopher Charles Taylor, the anthropomorphism has become transition from perceptions of a divinely especially controversial, while, at the ordered, purposive universe to an same time, also becoming a crucial "impersonal order" of nature marked a concept in modem theories about the pivotal change that, especially since the very nature of religion." Modem eighteenth century, has shaped "a secular objections to anthropomorphism have age" among the societies of the modem taken two major forms. First, traditions West.' In short, anthropomorphism has within Judaism, Christianity, and Islam not only become a source of tension have long opposed the worship of within religions but also something of an "idols," and regarded anthropomorphism impasse between religious and scientific as a dangerous assault against genuine interpretations of the universe. piety and properly theological Nonetheless, anthropomorphic understanding of existence. In the assumptions remain vigorously present modem period these religious objections in many of the modem forms of against anthropomorphism have theology, spiritual practice, and religious eventuated not only in sophisticated art, a persistence that suggests the intellectual polemics against strength of the psychological and social anthropomorphic concepts of God but functions performed by also in popular movements of anthropomorphic representation. iconoclasm, which protested against In light of these longstanding anthropomorphic representations of the controversies about religious divine and sometimes physically anthropomorphism, the graphically destroyed anthropomorphic images. anthropomorphic, spider-dangling deity Second, the rise and development of of Edwards's sermon would seem to modem science has emphasized the offer a good test case for understanding regularity of the processes that structure how anthropomorphic religious language the natural world. And even when these works in the modern era. Such an orderly processes were described as understanding begins with one of the natural "laws"—a term with obvious central themes of this book, namely, the anthropomorphic connotations—they powerful human motivation to establish have generally been understood in ways and maintain social connections. that are thoroughly impersonal and Anthropomorphism extends this drive lacking any intrinsic purpose or design. for social connection beyond the Hence, modem science has generated boundaries of human societies by numerous questions about religious attributing human characteristics to EFTA_R1_01522188 EFTA02444951 Page 1104 nonhuman phenomena. In this way, ofmind in other agents, including the anthropomorphic language incorporates presence of goal-directed agency, human society in a web of ethical emotions such as anger, guilt, or pride, a obligations that connect to the natural capacity for self-awareness, and free environment and, by imaginative will. As Nick Epley demonstrated in the extension, to the universe as a whole. preceding chapter, the perception of Although the drive toward social these distinctively human traits—"seeing connection is a general human trait, invisible minds"—is a psychological however, persons neither seek nor find mechanism with tremendous influence satisfaction in a generalized sense of on the way humans order and understand connection. Instead, satisfying social their social environment. connections are sought and experienced Mind perception is such a in terms of the social norms and values powerful tool of inductive inference, of particular historical and cultural however, that it regularly crosses the line settings. Likewise, anthropomorphism, it has itself drawn between the human as an inferred social connection to the and the nonhuman. Scholars from a nonhuman, takes shape and becomes wide array of disciplines have long persuasive in terms of historically and observed humans' anthropomorphic culturally specific assumptions about tendency to see nonhuman things or society and social relations. This events as humanlike, imbuing the real or chapter will, therefore, step back from imagined behavior of nonhuman "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," phenomena with human motivations, in order to describe how contemporary agency, and emotions. By perceiving scholarship in social neuroscience and in the world in terms of human capacities the history of religions provides a fresh and social relationships, point of view on the workings of anthropomorphism builds a complex anthropomorphic perception and then system of analogies that uses knowledge test that interpretive model by of what it is like to be a person, in order reappraising Edwards's famous sermon to interpret the behavior of animals, the in its historical context. function of technological devices, the The Boundary of the Human operation of complex social systems such as "the market," or natural The line between the human and occurrences such as violent weather the nonhuman is, perhaps, the most patterns or catastrophic events: Hence, consequential presupposition that any anthropomorphism, as a process of society, group, or individual adopts inference that not only draws but also about life in the world. The way various crosses the line between the human and cultures draw this line, between "us" and "the other," has shaped civilizations and the nonhuman, has very substantial consequences for the human sense of their goals as well as the norms of connection to nonhuman animals, to personal conduct and identity. Although larger ecological systems, and to the concepts of the human have a long and structure of the universe taken as a contentious philosophical history, people in their everyday lives show remarkable whole. consensus in the features they use to Contemporary psychological define "human." Central to this process research has created an intellectual space of perceiving the human is a perception that opens the phenomenon of EFTA_R1_01522189 EFTA02444952 Page 1 105 anthropomorphism to fresh possibilities nonhuman phenomenon, the person for interpretation that are especially nonetheless continues to perceive it as important for understanding its role in nonhuman. When, for instance, a pet the human spiritual traditions in owner observes a dog's reliability and modernity, as well as the controversies infers that this behavior arises from the surrounding that role. This research dog's faithfulness, the owner does not go proposes that a single set of on to say that the dog is human. Indeed, psychological mechanisms is likely to an indispensable aspect of an explain when people perceive a mind at anthropomorphic way of seeing Fido's work in an encountered phenomenon, faithfulness is that the person also regardless of whether the thing in continues to see Fido as a dog. This dual question is a god, a machine, an animal, perception is even more pronounced in a another person, or an uncanny sequence parallel illustration: a person observes of events. From this perspective, the the everyday reliability of gravity and psychological process of infers that this arises from faithfulness at anthropomorphic inference works in the heart of the natural order. Both concert with two other motivational illustrations indicate a close connection mechanisms: the need to interact of anthropomorphism to metaphor, in effectively with nonhuman phenomena which persons understand one kind of in our environment and the desire to thing in terms of another by identifying a establish social connections with other feature that bridges their difference humans." The phrase anthropomorphic without eliminating it. The specific inference fails to capture, however, the feature, in this casefaithfulness, posits a interactive dynamism that infuses a point of comparison that enables a person's perception that a mind is at familiar human capacity for loyalty to work in another agent. Put more enable interpretation of another, strongly, our sense that mind is present unfamiliar or alien phenomenon. The in the other is, in no small measure, the illustrations further suggest that Fido's sense that we are communicating. The faithfulness is what could be called weak absence of this communicative anthropomorphism, because one could dimension of mind perception is plausibly argue that dogs and humans precisely the tragedy in the family of an actually do share a capacity for Alzheimer's patient—the loss of faithfulness. We perceive that, as reciprocal recognition. As Tanya mammals, they exhibit many behavioral Luhrmann vividly illustrates in the next similarities. By contrast, the perception chapter, religious anthropomorphism of faithfulness as an attribute of the builds on the notion that this natural order is strong communicative reciprocity extends anthropomorphism, because it makes a beyond the boundary of human society far more daring inference in its effort to into the wider environment and includes draw an analogy that produces insight or social connection and communication knowledge about the communicative with the divine. reciprocity of the human and the nonhuman. Religions, as Edwards's Anthropomorphism adds an sermon illustrates, build primarily on obvious but important twist to these strong anthropomorphism in order to psychological mechanisms: whenever a propound communicative social person ascribes human attributes to a EFTA_R1_01522190 EFTA02444953 Page 1106 connection with the nonhuman world. difference and the other accentuating The metaphorical and analogical identity, have varied according to social reasoning so characteristic of religious circumstance, rhetorical purpose, and interpretations of the world is not merely political ramifications. "Sinners in the a rhetorical flourish but is, instead, Hands of an Angry God" illustrates, in closely tied to general psychological one historical context, how processes in which self-knowledge and anthropomorphic language crosses the knowledge of other humans function as boundary of the human in order to the most readily accessible starting interpret human ethical responsibility to points for inferences we make about both the human and the nonhuman human connections to the most environment. comprehensive and consequential forces The Rhetoric of Divine Wrath at work in the nonhuman world.'" Clearly, Edwards's Anthropomorphism's dual anthropomorphic rhetoric destabilized in perception of nonhuman phenomena—as a terrifying way the Enfield simultaneously both like and unlike congregation's complacent perceptions human persons—has shaped modern of the world. It did so by starting from religious and spiritual perceptions in two an assumption that Edwards and the especially intriguing directions. In one congregation shared: that humanity's case, it has fastened on the difference ultimate environment should be between the human and the divine and construed, anthropomorphically, as a cultivated iconoclastic perceptions of the cosmic society held together by a spiritual in which anthropomorphic covenant that God had made with the representation is regarded as a whole of creation. The sermon induced dangerously misleading, albeit terror among the congregants by necessary, accommodation to the graphically portraying their own limitations of human reason?."" In the responsibility for disrupting the other case, it has emphasized the point of harmonious order of this all- metaphorical identity between the human encompassing society and provoking and the nonhuman. Thus, an ancient divine wrath for their rebellion against idea held that the physical universe was the covenant. a macrocosm mirroring the human microcosm, and this included what The primary evidence for this literary critics have named "the pathetic divine wrath came not, however, from fallacy," that is, a sympathetic response the external orders of nature and divine in nature to the affective states of providence, which Edwards imagined humans. The early modem political working together to maintain the philosopher Hugo Grotius (1583-1645), harmonious order of the world. Instead, for example, described how human wrath had arisen from a clash between disobedience to divine law prompted an the benign will of the world and the anthropomorphic emotional response rebellious human will: "there is laid in from nature: "with sad motion the very nature of carnal men a wheeling, let the sky lament and foundation for the torments ofhell: mourn."" In the modem history of there are those corrupt principles, in religions, these two modes of reigning power in them, and in full anthropomorphism, one accentuating possession of them, that are seeds of hell EFTA_R1_01522191 EFTA02444954 Page 1 107 fire." For the present God restrained contrary to their nature and end." A human wickedness "by his mighty rebellious humanity antagonized the rest power, as he does the raging waves of of creation, "and the world would spew the troubled sea," but, if God should you out, were it not for the sovereign withdraw that restraining power, hand of him who hath subjected it in humanity's willful self-regard would hope." overturn nature. The most dangerous The just order of the cosmos fire in creation was not, therefore, the would rightly destroy humanity for its fire of hell but rather the hellfire bursting willful rebellion against the order of the forth from an unrestrained human will: whole, and the fact that this had not "The corruption of the heart of man is a already happened was the expression of thing that is immoderate and boundless something like the self-restraining mercy in its fury; and while wicked men live of a monarch who does not order the here, it is like fire pent up by God's execution of a traitor who has offended restraints," but, should God ever relax the royal honor: "The bow of God's his governance, humanity's boundless wrath is bent, and the arrow made ready fury "would set on fire the course of on the string, and Justice bends the nature." arrow at your heart, and strains the bow, The turmoil stirred by human and it is nothing but the mere pleasure of willfulness, like a violent storm at sea, God, and that of an angry God, without threatened to capsize the ark of the any promise or obligation at all, that universe, and the earth responded to this keeps the arrow one moment from being threat in a terrifying version of the made drunk with your blood." pathetic fallacy, in which not empathy The Great Awakening was but enmity arose between humans and coterminous and interactive with the their natural environment. eighteenth century development of the Consequently, except for "the sovereign modern physical sciences, especially pleasure of God, the earth would not building on the work of Isaac Newton bear you one moment," and Edwards (1642-1727). Edwards's assumptions warned the Enfield congregation that about the harmonious order of creation "the creation groans with you" and combined the science of his day with the resented its subservience to human aristocratic social order of eighteenth- usurpation: "the sun don't willingly century society. In warning the town of shine upon you to give you light to serve Enfield that it had transgressed the sin and Satan; the earth don't willingly cosmic order, Williams was also yield her increase to satisfy your lusts; asserting that it had violated the societal nor is it willingly a stage for your aspect of that order; as minister, he wickedness to be acted upon; the air called the town to task for both don't willingly serve you for breath to violations. maintain the flame of life in your vitals, while you spend your life in the service Conclusion of God's enemies. God's creatures are good, and were made for men to serve Edwards imagined the God with, and do not willingly subserve Newtonian universe as an aristocratic to any other purpose, and groan when social hierarchy held in harmony by they are abused to purposes so directly sovereign law, at once moral and natural. EFTA_R1_01522192 EFTA02444955 Page 1108 In this hierarchy one member—the References human—had stepped beyond its In the interests of clarity, I have assigned place in the cosmic society and slightly rearranged and modernized this now lived in an unwitting complacency, quotation. It and all quotations from ignoring the precarious finitude of a life Edwards's sermon are taken from Jonathan being pursued by a radical judgment: Edwards, Sermons and Discourses, 1739- "'tis nothing but [God's] hand that holds 1742, ed. Harry S. Stout and Nathan O. you from falling into the fire every Hatch, with Kyle P. Farley, The Works of moment: 'tis to be ascribed to nothing Jonathan Edwards 22 (New Haven: Yale else, that you did not go to hell the last University Press, 2003). 404-18. night; that you was suffered to awake Social scientific analysis of the relation again in this world, after you closed your between anthropomorphism and religion is eyes to sleep: And there is no other summarized by Steward Elliot Guthrie, who reason to be given, why you have not argues "religion is anthropomorphism" in dropped into hell since you arose in the his book Faces in the Clouds: A New morning, but that God's hand has held Theory ofReligion (New York: Oxford you up." University Press, 1993), 178. The most lucid and succinct historical treatment Like his contemporaries, the remains Frank E. Manuel, The Eighteenth deists and religiously inclined scientists Century Confronts the Gods (Cambridge: such as Newton himself. Jonathan Harvard University Press. 1959). Edwards assumed the "Newtonian world I have in mind such authors as John machine," operating with the William Draper, History ofthe Conflict metronomic regularity of natural law. between Religion and Science (1874), and Presupposing both the science and the Andrew Dickson White, A History ofthe aristocratic social hierarchy of his day, Warfare ofScience with Theology in Edward introduced anthropomorphic Christendom (1896). For a more recent language to create a clash between this example, see Richard Dawkins, The God harmonious order and the willful self- Delusion (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, interest of humans who dared to ignore 2008). their proper rung on the ladder of Charles Taylor, A Secular Age existence. As a preacher of penitence, (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, he carried his anthropomorphic imagery 2007), 270-95. to extravagant heights in order to induce I For a sampling of relevant recent a reversal of behavior in a recalcitrant work, see Philip Husbands, Owen Holland, town. The sermon effectively threatened and Michael Wheeler, eds., The Mechanical the people of Enfield with what Mind in History (Cambridge: MIT Press, amounted to "metaphysical ostracism," 2008); and Lorraine Daston and Gregg an expulsion no less thoroughgoing than Mitman, eds., Thinking with Animals: New the primordial ejection of Adam and Eve Perspectives on Anthropomorphism (New from the garden. The palpable effect of York: Columbia University Press, 2005). this imagery depended on the evocation Ralph Waldo Emerson made the classic of the natural and social orders rising up American argument for the positive like, and yet unlike, an angry monarch to reciprocity between the human and the crush rebels against the cosmic natural. This idea of mutuality takes a different turn in our contemporary situation, commonwealth. in which industrial and technological EFTA_R1_01522193 EFTA02444956 Page 1109 advances have begun to alter the climate and thereby blurred the boundary between the human and the natural in another way. See for examples of this phenomenon, Bill McKibben, The End ofNature (New York: Random House, 1989). Nicholas Epley, Adam Waytz, and John Cacioppo, "On Seeing Human: A Three-Factor Theory of Anthropomorphism," Psychological Review 114(2007): 864-86. Sheldon Sacks, ed., On Metaphor (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978); David Tracy, The Analogical Imagination: Christian Theology and the Culture ofPluralism (New York: Crossroad, 1981). Alain Besancon, The Forbidden Image: An Intellectual History of Iconoclasm, trans. Jane Marie Todd (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000); Joseph Leo Komer, The Reformation ofthe Image (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004). Merritt Y. Hughes, "Earth Felt the Wound," English Literary History 36 (1969): 193-214. EFTA_R1_01522194 EFTA02444957 Page 1110 Personifications of God motivation to depict God as one's personal guide and friend, well within Jonathan Edwards wrote during a one's sensory reach. By conjuring up an time in which monarchs reigned anthropomorphic God with loving supreme. Writing from this perspective, emotions, intentions, and actions, the he argued that the universe is a cosmic Vineyard Church creates a desire for a society organized under the leadership of personal relationship with God. But a King of kings, a society against which developing a relationship with an humans have rebelled and, as a invisible God defies rationality. People consequence, humans are at risk of must learn how to transform an abstract annihilation except for the mercy of the concept of an invisible God into a King. Judgment day will come, concrete sensory presence in their lives. according to Edwards, and those who Just as the social brain can perceive have failed to meet their moral nonhuman objects as human, the social responsibility to the directive of the brain is also capable of selectively universe face eternal isolation. Clark attending to sensory experiences and Gilpin notes that by conjuring up a interpreting these sensations as God's personified God — a God with emotions, presence. intentions, and the capacity to act — Edwards instilled great fear and trembling in his listeners that presumably motivated them to change their behaviors in the desired direction. It is hard to imagine that Edwards would have had comparable success had he resorted to simple instructions or exhortations to engage in certain behaviors and avoid others. The innate tendency of people to understand divine entities in terms of what people do understand, namely their own thoughts, feelings, and beliefs, provided the leverage on which Edwards relied to drive his message home. Tanya Luhrmann also discusses a personalized construction of God — a God with whom one can consult and who intervenes in one's daily life. People are intrinsically motivated to form social connections, and very little in life is more rewarding to people than their social relationships. Luhrmann, who adopts the perspective of a participant observer, finds that a new evangelical Protestant movement, the Vineyard Church, appeals to this EFTA_R1_01522195 EFTA02444958 rage lin invisible and immaterial, as God is Biz- - within the Christian tradition? This is not l c...re--v.-- the question of whether God is real, but , rem, Hr_tiri ; a:L j i rather how people learn to make the , churchOHM 1"27 -41171.11- judgment that God is present. Such a experience -Flgil ="1" = God is not accessible to the senses. --iiJust — When you talk to that God, you can F. neither see his face nor hear his voice. Chapter 1212 You cannot touch him. How can you be confident that he is there? How Does God Become Real Anthropology cannot answer the How does God become real to question of whether God is real. But the people when God is understood to be traditional method of the discipline, participant observation, can use the 't The lead author is Tanya Luhrmann, Ph.D., a slow, careful method of fieldwork to professor in the Stanford Anthropology explore the way that people learn to Department. Her interests include the social shaping of psychological experience, and the experience God as present in their lives. way that social practice may affect even the most And what the method can teach us is that concrete ways in which people experience their this often intensely private and personal world, particularly in the domain of what some relationship between a creature and its would call the "irrational". tier first project was creator is built through a profoundly a detailed study of the way apparently reasonable people come to believe apparently unreasonable social process. beliefs ("Persuasions of the Witch's Craft", In fact, one of anthropology's Harvard, 1989). Her second project explored the most useful contributions to apparently irrational self-criticism of a postcolonial India elite, the result of colonial understanding the experience of God is identification with the colonizers ("The Good to draw attention to just how much work Parsi", Harvard 1996). Her third book identified faith takes, and to the fact that different two cultures within the American profession of kinds of faith—and different psychiatry and examined the way these different understandings of God—demand cultures encouraged two different forms of empathy and two different understandings of different kinds of work. Many who do mental illness ("Of Two Minds". Knopf, 2000). not believe in God approach the question She trained at the University of Cambridge (PhD of religious belief as the problem of why 1986), and taught for many years at the people should believe in the existence of University of California San Diego. Prior to an invisible, intentional agent in their moving to Stanford she was the Max Palevsky Professor and a director of the Clinical world. One of the more persuasive Ethnography project in the Department of recent answers emerges from the Comparative Human Development at the observation that many of our cognitive University of Chicago. traits evolved to help us survive. Religion is often understood as a matter Evolutionary anthropologists and of belief: a yes/no proposition. This essay suggests that it may be more helpful, and more psychologists argue that belief in accurate, to understand religious commitment as invisible beings is an accidental a response to sensory experience that can be byproduct of the way our minds have learned, and that the capacity to learn depends evolved over the millennia. Our quick, upon one's knowledge and belief, one's effortless, automatic intuitions lead us to proclivity for experiencing the world in particular ways, and the impact of devotional "anthropomorphize," or to see faces in practice. the clouds, as one scholar puts it. From EFTA_R1_01522196 EFTA02444959 Page 1112 this perspective, people believe in God expectation that our minds are private, because it is so easy to believe in an expectation so substantial that invisible supernatural presence, and the researchers have shown that it develops great religions are elaborations around around the world at a more or less this basic core. similar age and can be found even in non-human primates. A person must Belief in the Invisible override the expectation that persons are Yet it is also true that in many visible. And finally, a person must ways it is hard for people to believe in override the expectation that love is the invisible, intentional being of God, at conditional, as it is for all social beings least in some ways and at some times. It beyond a certain age, when right is one thing to believe in the abstract that behavior is expected as a condition of there is a good and loving God; it is human interaction. At least, some another thing to believe that this God versions of Christianity expect loves you in particular this very unconditional love. afternoon when your car has broken The deep puzzle of faith is not down in the rain. Many Christians why but how. How is it possible that struggle at some point with whether God people are able to violate such exists or with whether they understand fundamental expectations of presence? God's nature. A young man may come The answer, in part, is that they do not. to university as a devout Christian, take For most Christians, it will be a lifelong a course on religion, and begin to process to believe in all times and in all wonder whether Christ as well as ways that their God is real for them in Krishna are cultural constructions. A the way that their church tells them that depressed woman may understand herself as devout, but find that when she God is real. As the psalmist laments: "how long wilt thou forget me, Oh Lord? sits down to pray she feels that no one is For ever? How long wilt thou hide thy listening to her prayers. And always there are times when terrible things face from me?" (Psalm 13: 1). What they do to make God plausible for them happen to good and faithful people who depends upon their understanding of often continued to believe in God in the God and on what the social world of a abstract, but who find that they can not faith teaches about how to experience longer pray at all. The struggle between their minds and bodies to find evidence espoused religion (the religion one for God's presence. asserts; the Nicene creed) and lived religion (the way in which one Learning to Sense the Presence of God experiences God from moment to In 2004 I set out to study moment) is central to the life of the ethnographically the way God becomes Christian, and perhaps to the lives of real for people in a church that would most believers. exacerbate the cognitive burden of The problem for believers is that belief. I chose an example of the new to experience the Christian God as Protestant church that grew up after the present, one must override three basic 1960s. 2 Those churches set out as an features of human psychology, features invitation to experience God as that are also part of our evolutionary concretely and as vividly as God had inheritance. A person must override the been experienced by the earliest EFTA_R1_01522197 EFTA02444960 Page 1 113 Christian disciples. This God is both own experience of relationship. And intensely human and intensely God loves: and congregants use their supernatural. In these churches, God is own experience of being loved by a understood as so person-like that he human as an example of the way they becomes someone to joke and argue are loved by God. But unlike learning with, someone one chats to when about time, congregants also map back. walking down the street, about the little They build up a model of God by trivial things that matter only to the interpreting out of their own familiar congregant. Coming to know God in experience into a representation shaped such a church is described as to hear by the social world of the church and the God "speak." Dallas Willard, a beloved narrative of the sacred text, and then evangelical's intellectual, puts it baldly: they seek to re-map their own interior that God's face-to-face conversations emotional experience by matching it to with Moses are the "normal human life this representation. This demands God intended for us." I conducted constant effort, continual work on the ethnographic fieldwork at a church that way one pays attention and interprets exemplifies this approach to God, a one's experience. As an ethnographer, I Vineyard Christian Fellowship in could see three kinds of work. Chicago and then on the San Francisco First, God must be recognized as peninsula (there were eight such present. What congregants learn to do is churches in Chicago and four on the to cherry-pick mental events out of the peninsula). For three years I went to everyday flow of their awareness, and to Sunday morning gatherings. I joined identify that moment as other than three small groups, or housegroups, each themselves, as being of God. God was for a year; I went to conferences and said to spcak in several different ways. retreats; and I interviewed many He spoke through the Bible, so that a congregants casually and also more verse "jumped out" at a congregant, or in formally about the way they experienced some way drew their attention. For God. example: Overall, what I observed was that "I was reading in [some book] and I the process of coming to know God in don't even know why I was reading it. such a church could best be described as There's a part where God talks about a mapping process in which the raising up elders in the church to pray congregants learn to use the familiar for the church. And I remember, it just experience of their own minds and stuck in my head and I knew that the bodies to give content to the abstract verse was really important and that it experience of God. This is the way that was applicable to me. I didn't know humans learn most commonplace why. It was one of those, let me put it in abstract words, in effect cognitively my pocket and figure it out later." How mapping from what we know to what we did she know that it was important? can only imagine. God speaks: so "Because I just felt it. I just felt like it congregants learn to infer from their own really spoke to me. I don't really know experience of inner speech the way in why. And a couple of days later a friend which God talks to them. God relates: so asked me to be on the prayer team and it congregants learn to imagine a was like, wow, that's what it was." relationship with God based on their EFTA_R1_01522198 EFTA02444961 rage 1114 resonate with you? They're like "oh, my gosh, yes! How did you know that?' God spoke also through circumstances. What a skeptic might interpret as coincidence is understood as God's Most congregants find this process of intentional decision to direct the pulling out specific thoughts and congregant's attention. For example: ascribing them to God baffling at first: "Everything in my life right now is again, the process violates the basic focused on trying to get to England, and human experience that the mind is I needed to get some ID pictures. So I private. A congregant commented: "now was really anxious—the money hasn't I know that the 'something' is God, really come together—and one afternoon God's voice. But I didn't at all have I just felt like God said, you need to get words to describe it at that time I didn't up and go get those. Go get those ID understand. It was very confusing." pictures that you need. I was like, that's The social world of the church totally inefficient. I don't have a car, so taught specific ways to differentiate it's like walking half an hour to between mental events that are God and Walgreens and another half an hour that are not. This technique has been back. Like, I could do this later and taught in the church since the earliest combine it with several things I need to time as "discernment," although the get done. But I felt it was a step of faith content of the word and its rules has to do this thing. So I did it—grumbling. varied with the era. In the modern Then on the way there and back I ran experiential evangelical church, the rules into three people I knew, and I felt that of discernment are more often taught by there was a kind of pattern, and that I example and gossip than explicitly. was in the right place at the right time." Nevertheless, there appeared to be four principles. A thought might be said to come from God if: the thought was These ways of recognizing God are widely shared in many forms of unexpected; the thought was consonant with God's nature; the congregant had Christianity. More specific to additional confirmation (one "tested" the experiential evangelical Christianity is thought); and one felt peace during the the expectation that God will speak experience. The process was understood directly into the mind, by placing a to be ambiguous, and left room not only mental image or thought or sensation for the congregant to be wrong, but for there. For example: different congregants to disagree about "I'm praying for someone and, you whether God had, in fact, spoken in a know, they say their situation, what they particular manner. One afternoon, a want me to pray for. I start praying and woman spoke in front of the church start trying to, you know, really explaining that God had spoken to her experience God, and, you know, I see and told her that she should carry out these vivid images, and I'm explaining some mission work in a lovely part of these vivid images and what I think they Mexico. The man sitting next to me said mean and, you know, sort of checking in drily, "God sure wants a lot of with the person, you know, does this evangelizing in Puerto Vallarta." EFTA_R1_01522199 EFTA02444962 Page X115 Second, God must be real. If God is real, a Christian (at least, experienced in relationship. Such the modern evangelical Christian) should churches invite congregants to experience the emotions that one would experience God in their imaginations as feel if one were loved unconditionally. a person. Again, this violates a basic Most do not. It is, in fact, difficult for psychological expectation: persons have humans to experience themselves as faces to observe and hands to shake. unconditionally loved because no matter Human relational interactions are based how warm and loving a parent may be, on sensorial response. Churches like the at some point the child is expected to Vineyard explicitly suggest that one control his or her behavior and parental should imagine a sensorial response love will becomes contingent. The task from God and encouraged congregants of feeling unconditionally loved imposes to participate in a kind of let's pretend upon the congregant not only the burden play in which God was present. The of identifying and relating to an invisible pastor suggested one Sunday morning being, but experiencing emotions in that congregants should put out a second response to that being's love which the cup of coffee for God, and sit down with congregant rarely, if ever, truly him to chat. People went on "date night" experiences. Congregants talk about the with God. They would get a sandwich, experience of unconditional love as rare: and sit down on park bench to talk with they speak of "those moments" when God as they imagined his arm around one really feels God's love. their shoulders. They would ask God I was driving home from grocery truly trivial questions like what shirt they shopping in the car and I stopped at a should wear in the morning and what light and suddenly for no reason that I movie he thought they would like. These could come up with, I was weeping and I behaviors were clearly play-like. One felt a massive and awesome sense of the congregant remarked: "I definitely do presence of God in the car with me. It that. When I can't decide what to wear. just came and I had absolutely no control Like, God, what should I wear?" Then over it. I pulled over to the side of the she laughed. "And you know, then I kind road—I remember thinking that I was so of forget about the fact that I asked God. in love with Jesus at that moment that no I think God cares about really, really one else on the planet could come close. little things in my life. I mean I know After about twenty minutes of real God cares, but I don't expect him to tell intensity the feeling subsided somewhat, me what to wear. I'm like, Oh, I think but the presence of Jesus stayed with me. I'll wear that and forget I even asked I drove home not really ever able to fully God!" This invitation to play was C.S. express what happened without sounding Lewis' explicit contribution to twentieth like I'd taken something illegal. century Christianity: "let us pretend to turn the pretense into a reality." In churches which encourage such play, The more immediate aim seemed to be heresy fades in importance. The pastors to experience what Galatians 5:22-23 and the committed congregants worry calls the "fruits of the spirit": love, joy, about "deadness," not flawed imagining. peace, patience and so forth. The social Third, congregants must learn to life of the church was rich in emotional respond emotionally to God as if God is practices which sought to reshape the EFTA_R1_01522200 EFTA02444963 Page 1116 congregants' interior emotional world by Jake: "I remember desperately wanting modeling the self on God, or on the self to draw closer to God, and [to have] one as seen from God's loving perspective. of these inspired Holy Spirit moments ... One of the most important was prayer I wanted those [experiences] and I ministry, where the person for whom the sought them out, but I never found prayer is given is often crying and in myself encountering them" visible pain; those around the person are offering prayers which describe the ways in which the sobbing person is loved by Irene: "I don't understand the gift of God. Another was treating prayer like a prophecy completely. I'll probably psychotherapy session. One congregant never will and I don't have it and I don't explained: "It's just like talking to a want it because it would scare me." therapist, especially in the beginning when you're revealing things that are deep in your heart and deep in your soul, Here is another congregant who has been the things that have been pushed down able to do so: and denied." In these churches which emphasize God's love and intimacy, hell and fear largely disappear. Nora: "It was pretty early on in my relationship with him. I was just all full The central demand of these of myself one morning. !just had learning practices is to use one's own wonderful devotions and worships and mental experience as evidence and just felt so close. I went out, and it was content for the responsive presence of the most god-awful day. It was icy rain this God, who is believed to be other and gray and cold and it was sleeting. than oneself, and to use pretend play to I'm just MI of the joy of the Lord, and I integrate those mental events into a say, "God. I praise you that it isn't representation that is persuasively snowing, and that nothing's external to the self. The emotional accumulating, and that the streets aren't practices provide both direct evidence of icy"—and then I went around the corner, God's love and, more generally, and I hit a patch of ice, and just about evidence that participation in church is went down. It was so funny to me. I just satisfying and worthwhile. In effect the burst out laughing out loud. It was just process asks the congregants to carve so funny that he would put me in my God out of their own experience and to place in such a slapstick personal kind of experience those phenomena as other; way. But then he just graced me the rest and it uses the emotional practices taught of the morning. The bus showed up right by the church and the social world of the away, which it never does. I was congregation to help them hold that God reading, and I missed my stop to get off, separate and apart and lovingly and I heard God say, "Get off the bus." I responsive. looked up and hollered, and the bus This is hard work to do, and not actually stopped, half a block on, to let everyone was able to do it, or to do it me get off. I just felt that intimacy all easily. Here two congregants describe morning. Like when you go from their difficulty in experiencing God holding a new boyfriend's hand to directly despite their efforts. kissing him goodnight ...." EFTA_R1_01522201 EFTA02444964 Page 1117 are clear that some kind of practice effects can be seen. 3 Some people experience God speaking directly to them in an easy relationship. Conclusion Others do not. Prayer is basically training in As a result of my involvement absorption, at least the kind of prayer in with the Templeton group, I decided to which the person praying focuses carry out some quantitative and inwardly and disattends to the everyday experimental work to see whether we world in order to engage with God. It could figure out the differences between would be hard to over-estimate the those who found it easy to do this work, importance placed on prayer and prayer and those for whom it was difficult. That experience in a church like this and work suggests that there is a indeed, in Christian America today. psychological capacity that makes the Many of the best-selling Christian books process of knowing this kind of God are books on prayer technique, and they easier, though its absence does not sell in the millions. Such books often prevent religious experience, and its begin by presenting the concrete sensory presence does not predict it. It is the experience of God described in the capacity for absorption, which is at the Hebrew Bible as the everyday heart of imagination. Absorption is the relationship for which the ordinary capacity to focus one's attention on a believer should strive. In these manuals, non-instrumental (and often internal) the act of praying is understood as a skill object while disattending to everyday that has to be deliberately learned. exterior surrounds. Absorption is related discovered that these evangelical to hypnosis and dissociation, but not congregants assumed that prayer was a identical to either. All of us go into light skill which had to be taught, that it was absorption states when we settle into a hard, that not everyone was good at it, book and let the story carry us away. and that those who were naturally good There are no known physiological and well trained would experience markers of an absorption state, but as the changes associated with a more richly absorption grows deeper, the person developed inner world. Their mental becomes more difficult to distract, and images would seem sharper; they would his sense of time and agency begins to be more likely to report unusual sensory shift. He lives within his imagination experiences. They would be more able, more, whether that be simple in short, to experience God. The more mindfulness or elaborate fantasy, and he quantitative work—done in feels that the experience happens to him, collaboration with Howard Nusbaum that he is a bystander to his own and Ron Thisted--suggests that those awareness, more himself than ever who have a proclivity for absorption and before, or perhaps absent, but in any who trained that proclivity through case different. And as the absorption prayer are indeed more able to grows deeper, people often experience accomplish the demanding learning that more imagery and more sensory this concept of God sets out.° They arc phenomena, sometimes with more able to identify God's presence in hallucinatory vividness. Scholars do not their mind. They are more likely to discuss training in absorption, although experience God as an invisible researchers of hypnosis and dissociation EFTA_R1_01522202 EFTA02444965 Page 1118 companion. They may be more capable Foundation 2006 (Pew, 2006, Spirit and of responding to God emotionally. Power: Ten nation survey. Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life) found that All theologies have trade-offs. 23% of all Americans belong to a This one offers an intensely personal and loosely similar style of "renewalist person-like God. He can comfort, like a Christianity." friend, and respond directly, like a friend. He can be like a real social 3 Good summaries of work on hypnosis relationship for those who make the and dissociation, with some reference to effort to experience him in this way. But absorption, can be found in Spiegel, H. because that social relationship lacks so and D. Spiegel. 2004[1978], Trance and many features of actual human treatment. New York: Basic Books; sociality—no visible body, no Seligman, R. and L. Kirmayer. 2008, responsive face, no spoken voice—such "Dissociative experience and cultural a theology demands a great deal of effort neuroscience." Culture, Medicine and from those who follow it. They must Psychiatry 32(1): 31-64; and Butler, L. constantly work with their attention, 2006, "Normative dissociation." reinterpreting the ordinary and natural Psychiatric Clinics ofNorth America. into the presence of the extra-ordinary 29: 45-62. and super-natural. Faiths which manage 4The empirical work is presented in God differently—less personal, more Luhrmann, T., H. Nusbaum and R. present in the everyday natural world— Thisted. 2010. "The absorption make fewer demands on their followers' hypothesis." American Anthropologist. attentional habits. But it may be, March; cf. Tellegen, A. and G. Atkinson. perhaps, that such a God may be easier 1974, "Openness to absorption and self to take for granted. Paradoxically, it may altering experiences ("absorption"), a be that this high-maintenance, effortful trait related to hypnotic susceptibility." God appeals to so many modern people Journal ofAbnormal Psychology 83: (as many as a quarter of all Americans, 268-277 according to a recent Pew study) precisely because the work demanded makes the God feel more real in a world in which disbelief is such a real social option. References I Scholars who contribute to this perspective include Scott Atran, Justin Barrett, Pascal Boyer, Stewart Guthrie, and Harvey Whitehouse. 2 These churches have been described by Miller, D. 1997. Reinventing American Protestantism. Berkeley: University of California; see also Wuthnow, R. 1998. After heaven: spirituality in America since the 1950s. Berkeley: University of California Press. A survey by the Pew EFTA_R1_01522203 EFTA02444966 Page 1119 Belief and Connection connection is apparent in the very fabric of daily existence. Thus, whereas We tend to think of beliefs as Luhrmann discusses God as a palpable wisps of the mind that have no power in friend that one can learn to attend to and the material world. However, as Gary experience as an active presence in one's Bemtson and Louise Hawkley have life, Tanner discusses God as the discussed, beliefs can affect our health initiator of life and the very fabric of even to the extent of determining life existence, a presence so ubiquitous that and death. As Tanya Luhrmann there is no specific point on which one discusses, in some forms of Christianity, can focus to attend to or experience God. there is a real belief in the presence of God. This is not simply a belief of God in the world, but a belief of a God who is by one's side. The idea of God as a friend and companion clearly motivates the desire to make such a presence manifest in tangible ways. For some, it is the sense of God with which they commune, for others it is what they believe to be a sensory experience of God that they seek. Luhrmann outlines how this belief, coupled with a supportive social structure, can lead to powerful personal experiences, such as hearing the voice of God, reflecting the operation of our social brains. Our sense of social connection is not dependent on a single set of religious beliefs, however. In human social connections, we can form individual relationships with a spouse or friends but, as John Cacioppo outlined, there are other kinds of connections that our social brain seeks, as well. We seek connections with emergent structures such as groups, clubs, teams, congregations, and beyond. Kathryn Tanner argues that the belief that God created the world and bears causal responsibility for it serves to connect believers to life in a broader way than is provided through individual relationships. This broader connection to life does not depend on the manifestation of a presence to whom we can talk because the evidence of social EFTA_R1_01522204 EFTA02444967 Page 1120 to scientific hypothesis generation.' Scientists can better test for the social and health consequences of religious human,presencennecreatonSva Influences - life" — commitment when they know more about the character and range of beliefs ri,Chistiarit .. beirci`.t. --trelationship world t !IC- about God that such commitment brings. ' This chapter hopes to show, in particular, that exactly what Christians believe about the nature of God's Chapter 13's influence on their lives is likely to have Theological Perspectives on God as an an important bearing on one of the Invisible Force questions of this volume: How can religion encourage a sense of connection An individual's beliefs about to others, especially in situations of God are one factor to be included in a perceived social isolation, and thereby multi-dimensional investigation of the assuage the adverse health consequences social consequences and possible health of loneliness? benefits of religion, an aid in particular Depending on what they think God is like, Christians vary in the way 13 The lead author is Kathryn Tanner, Ph.D., the they expect God to be a present Dorothy Grant Maclear Professor of Theology at influence on their daily lives. God's the University of Chicago Divinity School. Her research relates the history of Christian thought nature is supernatural or transcendent, to areas of contemporary theological concern which means God is not very much like using critical, social, and feminist theory, with a any of the ordinary persons or things special focus on the possible practical with which they come into regular implications of Christian beliefs and symbols. contact. Christians use the same terms She has lectured widely throughout the United States and Europe, and is the author of six books: for God that they use for talking about God and Creation in Christian Theology: ordinary persons and things but they Tyranny or Empowerment? (1988, Blackwell); therefore know that neither set of terms The Politics ofGod (1992, Fortress); Theories of is really adequate to capture who or what Culture: A New Agenda for Theology (1997, God is. On the one hand, God is Fortress); Jesus, Humanity and the Trinity (2001, Continuum and Fortress Press); Economy of something like a human being in that Grace (2005, Fortress); and Christ the Key God loves them and wants to do them (2010, Cambridge). good, and in that God is unhappy with Christian beliefs are not just theoretical their failings and trying, through the use matters, involving putative truth claims about the of carrots and sticks, to get them to nature of ultimate reality, but practical ones: Christian beliefs are often promulgated with the change. But, on the other hand, God is hope of impacting the way human beings live, by really not very much like an ordinary establishing, for example, the meaningfulness of human being in that God is present at all and motivations for certain forms of social times and everywhere, working behavior. Prior research has concerned the inexorably to bring about what God possible economic, social and political consequences of Christian beliefs about God's intends throughout the entirety of relation to the world. This essay extends such peoples' lives by way of influences of questioning to the topic of perceived social both personal and impersonal sorts--for isolation. How might belief in God as an example, through personal words of invisible force in everyday life affect an advice and warning found in the Bible as individual's sense of social connection? EFTA_R1_01522205 EFTA02444968 Page 1121 well as apparent accidents of fortune like rather something one feels all the time car crashes and the weather. Though simply in virtue of the beliefs one holds retaining personal characteristics such as about God and the world. Given a love or anger, God operates less like an particular construal of those beliefs—a individual human person with limited relatively impersonal one, I argue— reach and partial interests, and more like simply having those beliefs in mind, light, air or gravity do—quite with some awareness of their quite pervasively and constantly. obvious presuppositions and Usually one side or the other implications, makes clear one is never comes to the fore in the way Christians alone, never a self-sufficient operator. In feel connected to God: for some contrast to the understanding of God as friend, here God's invisibility does not Christians the personal side of God is central; for others, the more impersonal. threaten to interrupt a sense of God's Thus, some Christians expect God to be presence and influence. God's very much like a human friend, offering invisibility to the contrary enables the companionship and good advice?' As sense of God's presence and influence to Tanya Luhrmann explores in her essay, be the routine backdrop of all one's their religious lives often revolve around experience, to constitute a general the internal sensory or imaginative outlook on the world, no matter what the experiences that make a God of that sort circumstances. seem real to them--the sense that God is Belief in Creation as a Backdrop to in the room with them, that God speaks the Whole of Life to them, and so on. They work to For example, a common cultivate a prayer life that heightens the Christian construal of the belief that God vividness of those experiences and is the creator of the world makes it thereby allays doubts about the actual possible for the sense that God is with existence of this invisible, otherwise one—one's supporter and sustainer—to seemingly unreal, divine friend. In short, be a constant feature of one's life as a good practitioners of prayer gain a whole. Contrary to first impressions, stronger and more reliable sense that God's creation of the world need not God is present as a friend directing the refer to the origin of the universe, or to course of their lives. the beginning ofits more specific Other Christians have features or components. Were either to expectations of a more overarching and be its meaning, belief in God as the impersonal sort about the way God is a creator of the world could not be a very force in their lives; these expectations. I central component of a generally suggest below, are the consequence of applicable Christian outlook, of much their holding certain beliefs about God relevance, that is, for more than the as the creator, sustainer, and savior of occasional speculation about origins: the world. In this case a strong sense of e.g., why am I here at all? The belief God's presence in one's life does not concerns instead a causal dependence depend on having experiences of a upon God of a more continuous sort, literally personal sort or on developing spanning, in short, the whole time of the the spiritual practices that help cultivate universe's existence and therefore the such experiences. The sense that God is whole time of one's individual life. To present as an influence on one's life is be created by God is to exist in a relation EFTA_R1_01522206 EFTA02444969 Page 1122 of dependence upon God for what one is, pedagogical correction, just punishment However, long one exists.'" A human for sin, the necessary testing of one's being therefore depends upon God for faith, or simply a beneficial form of more than the fact of his or her birth: he sympathy with God's own suffering on or she remains dependent upon God in the cross. For both the general reasons the same way ever after. God's creation just mentioned—because of its holism of the world in general is simply not and temporal inclusiveness--belief in temporally indexed; it is no more closely God as the creator of the world associated with the beginning of things encourages love, gratitude, and trust than with what comes later. A toward God, and toward the world that preoccupation with temporal origins God brings about, as constant Christian therefore commonly drops out of dispositions, basic Christian attitudes of Christian accounts of creation: the world wide-ranging applicability, whatever is just as dependent upon God for its might be going on in one's life. existence whether it has a beginning or Social Connectedness and Invisibility always exists?' Belief in God's creation of the world for these reasons blurs into The same all-inclusive causal belief in God's supportive maintenance dependence upon God at all times is of it at every point in time. what ensures individuals arc never left on their own, never abandoned to their Also enabling belief in God as own devices. Christian theologians creator to form a general backdrop to all (especially in the Protestant tradition) one's experience—to be relevant on usually develop the psychological every occasion as a universally implications of this in terms of avoiding applicable worldview--is the fact that either anxious or arrogant self- God is thought to be responsible as concern.'" According to this theology, creator for the whole of what happens in one does not believe he or she ever the world at any one time. To believe operates independently of God. that God is the creator of the world is at Therefore, one should never attribute the very least to believe that God holds successes and achievements in a prideful into existence the entirety of the world in way to oneself, but rather one should any and all respects in which it is good. always give the glory to God as their In the case of one's own life, therefore, ultimate source. For the same reason, every aspect of value at every moment— one should never despair of failings, as if one's existence, fine qualities and one's own inadequacies were the last capacities, enjoyments and word; one believes a supremely achievements, beneficial connections powerful and loving influence. God, with natural and social environments, remains an operative force in one's life, and so on—is to be attributed to God's However, desperate the situation agency as creator. While there is a good otherwise appears to be from the deal of disagreement within Christianity standpoint of one's own powers and on this matter, Christians, moreover, not capacities to improve one's lot in life. uncommonly affirm that God is equally behind the bad things that happen, at By discouraging isolated self- least insofar as those bad things can be regard or self-understanding generally, turned to good account--for example, the same nexus of Christian ideas about harm suffered turned into a salutary God as creator has clear consequences EFTA_R1_01522207 EFTA02444970 Page 1123 for loneliness or perceived social Having God as one's creator (in isolation. Because they believe the best case scenario) is like having a themselves to be creatures of God, perfectly loving human benefactor; but it Christians feel related to God whatever is the unusual invisibility of this happens. Whatever their social benefactor that allows Christians to think circumstances--no matter, at the God present even when not apparently extreme, how isolated or strong their so. Being in a relationship with God for feelings of abandonment by human Christians who believe God is a good others--individuals are to remember that creator is something like being in a they remain in a relationship with God, relationship with a human person who who is concerned about them. Even never lets one out of her sight and who when they feel themselves utterly intends one's good comprehensively. It forsaken by others, Christians have is, for example, very like being in a reason to believe God cannot be relationship with a loving parent who is forsaking them. They can believe they fully responsible, not just for the fact of are never alone even when they appear one's existence, but in a comprehensive to be absolutely so. In such way for one's nurturance throughout an circumstances, Christians can always extended minority. Unlike a relationship avail themselves of a completely with an ordinary human person of that counterfactual sense of social connection sort, however, God is believed to be with the best-connected "superfriend" of invisible and this is what allows all—the God who remains, they believe, individuals to assume God's constant in a relationship of ultimately beneficial presence, all appearances to the contrary. causal efficacy with not just themselves The invisibility that underlies the but everyone and everything. Christian affirmation of God's constancy It is the very unapparent, here is a function of the very diffuseness counterfactual character of God's of God's influence, a diffuseness of influence on human lives—the influence no human person, invisible or invisibility of God's influence, in short— otherwise, could possibly match. Belief that permits Christians to perceive their in God as the creator of the world does relationship with God as an unbreakable not encourage one to single out God as constant. Because God's influence is the cause of any specific happening in a unapparent or invisible Christians can way that suggests God is one cause continue to believe God is operative for among many, the cause of this particular creation's benefit in the absence of any happening rather than some other with a of the obvious confirming evidence different cause. Belief in God as the required in ordinary cases of beneficent creator of the world does not allow one human influence. Christians who believe to identify God's influence in overly that God is a universal influence for close fashion with any particular causal good as the world's creator do not influence of a beneficent sort. Instead, as expect God to be present in the way one I have suggested, whatever is of benefit expects a human person to be; and to the individual, over the long or short therefore God's apparent absence, in term, taken as a whole, is to be attributed human terms, need not break down their to God's influence. sense of being in relation to God. The Christian cannot, then, locate or pick out God as one could a loving EFTA_R1_01522208 EFTA02444971 rage 1124 parent from within the field of variously out of sight and mind, drops out of operative forces or influences on one's Christian consideration for most intents life, and for that reason the Christian and purposes, most of the time. Such a need neither fear God's loss nor rue God has little to offer as a "pare-social" God's absence as one would such a entity, as a factor fomenting or parent's. Unlike relations with human supplementing a sense of social others, which are situation-sensitive and connection. thereby susceptible to change of In the back of thcir minds character, rupture, and decline, God, Christians may believe that God is the Christians believe, is with one, whatever source of everything, but they may not happens, in exactly the same capacity-- feel compelled to consider that fact as the creator and sustainer of whatever actively in the course of their everyday it is that remains good about one's life, lives. God hides behind, so to speak, all be that only at a minimum the bare fact the creaturely influences that God is that one continues to live. The Christian working through, which become matters who believes God is his or her creator is of primary Christian preoccupation. At therefore confident that God continues to the center of attention arc all the work for his or her ultimate good, that ordinary influences and connections with God is engaged in the effort to increase one's natural and human environments; it, whatever the impediments in human preoccupation with them pushes out of life suggesting the contrary, absent, that focal awareness the fact of God as the is, almost any confirming evidence. ultimate source of them all. Apart from The Problem of Inattention specifically religious obligations—say, Although invisibility and the demand to give God thanks and apparent absence do not pose the same praise at times of worship—Christians problem here as they do when God is who believe God is their creator would one's friend, this rather more impersonal have no particular reason to dwell on that fact. understanding of God's influence as creator and sustainer has its own Christian theologians commonly problem maintaining a strong sense of tie this sort of practical worry--about connection to God. The diffuseness of what from a Christian point of view influence that lies behind God's constant amounts to sinful neglect of one's invisible presence can prompt simple connection to God--to the understanding Christian inattention to God. The very of double agency in the account of monotony of the always pertinent creation I sketched above." According Christian affirmation that everything is to that account, it is true, God's to be attributed to God can make that influence on human life does not have to affirmation recede from focal awareness, go by way of the human and natural make it fail to come focally to mind. causal powers and influences on human Belief in God's uniform presence would life that God creates; God can influence thereby become functionally human life without producing sufficient indistinguishable from the sense of created causes for what God wants to God's absence. The invisibility of God happen in human life. (The Christian that follows from a belief in the claim that Jesus was resurrected from the comprehensiveness of God's influence dead—an event without natural causes— simply means in that case that God drops is a case in point, one that Christians are EFTA_R1_01522209 EFTA02444972 Page 1 125 usually very reluctant to give up.) But and so on. God also acts to give them part and parcel of the account of creation God's very presence—by way, for is the suggestion that God ordinarily example, of their relationship with Christ influences human life by bringing about who Christians believe is God in human the very natural and human influences flesh. The very presence of God in that shape it. In general, because God human life means one's relationship influences the world as its creator, God's with God cannot be ignored. The created working does not begin where created causes and influences, through which causes break off; God works, instead, in God also influences human life, and through the created causes that God consequently no longer have the same brings about. Christians are therefore capacity to distract human attention from able to give a double account of most God. happenings in the world: one that Christians often believe, discusses what has happened in terms of moreover, that God's direction of human the coordinated created powers and life by way of God's own presence to or activities sufficient to explain it within within it is no optional matter: God's the created order; and one that talks presence forms an essential component about God's creative activity in bringing of human life. In addition to created about those same coordinated created capacities and influences brought about powers, activities, and their by God, God's presence is necessary for consequences in their totality. It is the ordinary human capacities to operate as sufficiency of the explanation in terms of they should.' To be morally good, for created causes—the self-containment of example, requires not just virtuous that explanation within its own order— capacities of one's own, given to one by that allows human beings to attend to the God, but the presence of the Holy Spirit created order without taking into account within one. Knowing well requires not the relationship of dependence upon God just the formation of good ideas through that is its presupposition. the usual human processes of The temptation to lapse into investigating one's environment—the habitual obliviousness of one's entirety of which has its source in a good relationship with God is easily creator God--but also a mind informed countered, however, by other beliefs by the very Word of God. And so on. about God that Christians hold. Such beliefs imply that attention Christians do not just believe that God is to God's presence, some sort of God- the creator and sustainer of the universe, directedness, should be a constant but believe a lot of other things about feature of an individual's everyday, God. For example, the common ordinary life, in order for that life to be Christian belief that God acts as more lived well. The individual Christian is than a creator in individual lives helps to accordingly given a reason to bring to counter obliviousness to God. God does mind his or her relationship with God, not merely act as creator by giving motivated to attend to that relationship individuals the created gifts that make as much as possible, indeed, in the effort them what they are—for example, their to lead a better life. An active God- own capacities and operations, the reference becomes part of a prospective, ability to influence and be influenced by goal-oriented process of self-reformation their human and natural environments. EFTA_R1_01522210 EFTA02444973 Page 1126 in accord with what is believed to be Christian claims about salvation God's intentions for one. often have an eschatological edge. They frequently point, that is, to an end time, Beliefs like this about God's indefinitely deferred from the presence as a constituent feature of perspective of anything achievable in human operations arc at times this life. What God gives to remedy the incorporated by Christians within an sin of human life through Christ is, account of creation: God's presence to accordingly, not commonly thought to or within them is then believed to be an be fully effective in any visible way in element of what God as the creator of this life. Christians typically think that the world gives to every human being; their connection to Jesus brings with it a and is in that sense part of the natural or new availability of the presence of God ordinary constitution of human life that as a force for change in their lives, but God intends in creating the world.'" But what they expect to achieve by way of more often than not the gift of God's that constantly available relationship presence as an effective influence on human life is specifically associated by remains invisible in the form of an always deferred hope. Once again it is Christians with salvation. Human beings, invisibility—here the invisibility of the Christians typically believe, have either revolutionary changes in one's life for lost altogether, or at a minimum, which one continues to hope--that habitually fail to attend properly to a permits Christians to believe the presence of God always theirs, in ways presence of God, made available to them that corrupt human well-being. The in a new way in Christ for the very Christian claim is that God saves human beings by giving them the presence of purpose of bringing about those changes, is nevertheless always with them. God as an effective force for human transformation in virtue of something Conclusion that Jesus suffers or accomplishes. The main intention of this God acts as an invisible force in chapter was to make the case that basic human lives here because God Christian beliefs are likely to have a influences humans through God's very bearing on perceived social isolation. presence. Christians, if they follow the After suggesting that Christianity is not common teaching of theologians in this all of a piece on that score, I developed a regard, believe God is invisible or particular construal of basic Christian unapparent because God is not capable beliefs that would seem to have great of being delimited or circumscribed by potential to alleviate perceived social the usual boundary drawing and sorting isolation through attention to connection mechanisms used to cordon off and pin with God. While that argument was down other things.' God is not, in merely a logical or prima fade one, it short, a kind of thing, set off by clear forms a testable—though as yet boundaries that distinguish God from untested—hypothesis: Does the what God is not. But there is also here particular construal of the beliefs the kind of invisibility discussed earlier: commended here for their the invisibility of apparent absence in encouragement of a focal sense of human terms. constant connection with God really have those consequences? Do people actually feel less lonely, in other words, EFTA_R1_01522211 EFTA02444974 Page 1127 when they hold such beliefs? Can they See Luhrmann in this volume. be made to feel less lonely by calling Thomas Aquinas is one prominent theologian them to mind? More specifically, how in the Christian tradition who highlights this does the influence of this construal on idea: "creation ... is the very dependency of the feelings of social isolation compare with created act of being upon the principle (God] that of other construals—for example, a from which it is produced." Summo Contra construal that directly associates God's Gentiles, Book Two: Creation, trans. James F. creative influence with the irredeemable Anderson (Notre Dame and London: University bad? How might the stronger sense of of Notre Dame Press, 1975), chapter 18, section 2, p. SS. God's presence in the hardships one suffers balance out in the latter case See again, for example, Thomas Aquinas, against the unhappy quality of the Summo Contra Gentiles, Book Two: Creation, connection? Might one feel oneself to be chapters 31-38, pp. 91-115. better off alone, in other words, if God is See, for example, Martin Luther, Lectures on as much one's tormentor as one's Galatians (1535), in Luther's Works, ed. Jaroslav benefactor? Finally, comparable Pelikan (St Louis, Missouri: Concordia Publishing problems to the ones for belief surface in House, 1964), vols. 26-27. the more experience-driven God-as- friend outlook in Christianity, and make Thomas Aquinas again provides a clear experimental testing pertinent?" If the theological exposition of this view. See, for example, his Summa Contra Gentiles, Book problem in both cases is that a strong Three: Providence, Pan 1, trans. Vernon J. sense of connection with God is hard to Bourke (Notre Dame and London: University of sustain—because God is invisible in the Notre Dame Press, 1975), chapter 70, section 8, one case or crowded out by more p. 237: "It is also apparent that the same effect obviously pressing matters in the is not attributed to a natural cause and to divine other—how is the imaginative force of power In such a way that it is partly done by the idea of relationship with God better God, and partly by the natural agent; rather, it is shored up? By imagining that one is on a wholly done by both." date with God, or by imagining that God For prominent examples of such a view in the is always all around one like the air one history of Christian thought, see Augustine, The breathes or the sun that shines? And Literal Meaning of Genesis, trans. John what works for the greater number of Hammond Taylor (New York: Newman Press, people? What if the former imaginative 1982), chapters 10-12, pp. 49-51; and Cyril of capacities are hard to cultivate, and Alexandria, Commentary on the Gospel According to John, trans. P. E. Pusey (Oxford: require in any case exceptional abilities James Parker, 1874), Book 1, chapters 7-9, pp. of concentration or inward focus that 66-87. many people lack? Might beliefs be easier for most people to hold in mind See, for example, Athanasius, "On the without sustained or disciplined Incarnation of the Word," trans. Archibald practice? A simple visit to church or Robertson, in Philip Schaff and Henry Wace (eds.), Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, vol. IV, occasional perusal of a prayer book Second Series (Grand Rapids, Michigan: would do? Eerdmans, 1957), sections 3-5, pp. 37-39. References See, for example, Gregory of Nyssa, "Answer to For the general importance of belief for such Eunomius' Second Book," trans. M. Day, in Philip investigation, see the essays by W. Clark Gilpin Schaff and Henry Wace (eds.), Nicene and Post- and Tanya Luhrmann in this volume. EFTA_R1_01522212 EFTA02444975 Page 1128 Nicene Fathers, vol. V, Second Series (Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson, 1994), p. 257. `See luhrmann in this volume. EFTA_R1_01522213 EFTA02444976 Page 1129 The Elusiveness of Meaningful cycle are not notably successful, in large Connection part because the preconscious disposition of lonely people toward the Kathryn Tanner's chapter has world is difficult to change. Like Tanner, developed the classical Christian idea although using different terminology, that God is the creator and sustainer of Masi's review of the scientific literature the world, in order to suggest the ways suggests both that the character of one's in which this notion of the creator might general disposition toward the world is be one factor providing persons with a profoundly important for one's sense of social connection and a hopeful, connections to others, and that the generous, and caring disposition toward processes by which these general the world that assuages the adverse dispositions change are complex and health consequences of loneliness. In warrant further scientific attention. this classic interpretation of God as creator, the idea refers not to the origins of the universe but rather to the all- inclusive dependence of life upon God at all times. This sense of a sustaining divine presence spanning the whole time of one's life thus contributes a deep sense of one's connection to the whole order of creation. However, as Tanner notes, people may become inattentive to a presence so pervasive, just as people can become inattentive to the forces of gravity holding them to the surface of the Earth as they go about their everyday life. In more extreme versions of this inattention, the person understands humanity as "alone" in the universe, a sort of metaphysical loneliness that might exacerbate more concrete feelings of loneliness. Perhaps surprisingly, Chris Masi, from the perspective of a physician and medical researcher, casts a fascinating and fresh perspective on the theological notion that we live in a sustaining connection to creation as a whole. After describing the negative health consequences of loneliness, Masi proceeds to describe a cycle of loneliness in which a person's sense of isolation frustrates well-intended efforts to make social connections. Masi finds that efforts to intervene and break this EFTA_R1_01522214 EFTA02444977 l' a g e 1130 loneliness The I7th century English philosopher Thomas Hobbes proposed that without the organizing structure of mterventiorfg_ government, humans would experience helium omnimum contra omnes (war of all against all) and life would be Chapter 1414 "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short"(I). While this colorful description Visible Efforts to Change Invisible is often quoted, less attention is paid to Connections Hobbes' premise that such misery can be avoided if humans codify and enforce "The lead author is Christopher M. Masi, M.D., the rules of a civil society. Not everyone Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Department agrees with Hobbes' views, but history of Medicine at the University of Chicago. He is is replete with examples of human co-founder of Every Block A Village Online, an misery when anarchy reigns and of Internet-based community development program, and is past president of the Illinois relative peace when a social contract is chapter of Physicians for a National Health observed. A question that philosophers Program. He is the current president of the continue to debate is whether Midwest Society of General Internal Medicine collaboration for mutual benefit is part and has received numerous awards, including a of human nature or whether promotion Models That Work Award from the United States Bureau of Primary Health Care and the of the self above all others is man's New Investigator Health Sciences Research primary motivation. In this volume, Award from the Gerontological Society of Cacioppo argues that sociality is an America. With a medical degree, as well as a integral part of human nature. He notes PhD in social service administration, Dr. Masi's that given each child's prolonged period research focuses on the socioeconomic factors underlying health disparities. lie currently has of total dependence, survival into child- two projects, one aimed at developing an bearing age depends entirely upon the intervention to reduce loneliness and one focused support and protection of adults, most on the role of sex hormones in gender, age, and often parents or kin. As a result, those racial differences in cardiovascular disease. He who survive long enough to procreate is a reviewer for several scientific journals and grant-making organizations and has published pass along genes for nurturing and research and reviews on diverse topics, including protection, thereby hardwiring a form of health insurance reform and racial disparities in sociality into our genetic code. breast cancer and hypertension. Human capacity for creativity, This protective behavior helps compassion, and learning is unparalleled in the ensure that genes within a family are animal kingdom. However, humans reach their passed on to future generations. full potential only when they are socially Cooperation among unrelated adults or engaged. Lack of social engagement impairs the support and protection of children by creativity and learning, and limits opportunities for caregiving and emotional growth. Numerous adults exists beyond kin, as well, studies have shown that loneliness is also a risk because these activities also provide factor for illness and premature mortality. survival benefit. Examples from early Because loneliness is increasing in modern human existence include hunting and society, it is critically important to understand gathering, which are more likely to this condition, as well as strategics to reduce it. This essay describes our review of the literature succeed when pursued as a group than regarding loneliness reduction interventions. individually. To these structural benefits EFTA_R1_01522215 EFTA02444978 Page 1131 of non-familial sociality, we may now "saw the people set on the sunny add physiological benefits. A 1979 side of some high mountain, population-basal study showed that there refreshing themselves with adults lacking social ties were 1.9 to 3.1 the pleasant beams of the sun, times more likely to die during a 9-year while I was shivering and follow-up than those who had more shrinking in the cold, afflicted social contacts, all else being equal (2). with frost, snow, and dark Since then, at least five population-based clouds. Methought, also, betwixt prospective studies (3) and numerous me and them, I saw a wall that smaller studies have found positive did compass about this mountain associations between social integration and either survival or improved health For chronically lonely people, outcomes. The mechanisms by which the wall between themselves and others social integration enhances survival are is partly of their own making and several and include improved health reflects continuous surveillance for behaviors, increased access to resources negative signals from others (5). The and material goods, and strengthened challenge is to help lonely individuals immunity against infection (4). break down the barriers between Whereas sociality is a normal themselves and others and ultimately state, loneliness is an unusual state, akin return to the normal state of sociality. In to hunger, thirst, or pain (5). As with his vision, Bunyan achieved this, but those states, loneliness is unpleasant and only through great effort: serves to remind us that we should "About this wall I thought change the status quo. Therefore, myself, to go again and again, loneliness can be an adaptive motivator still prying as I went, to see if I for increased social surveillance and could find some way or passage, interaction. Unfortunately, not all by which I might enter therein, individuals succeed at achieving the but none could I find for some level of social connectedness they desire time. At the last, I saw, as it and suffer instead from chronic feelings were, a narrow gap, like a little of loneliness. Cacioppo and others have doorway in the wall, through shown that lonely individuals interpret which I attempted to pass; but the events and social interactions more passage being very strait and negatively than non-lonely individuals. narrow, I made many efforts to As a result, they unconsciously develop get in, but all in vain, even until I defense mechanisms, including social was well-nigh quite beat out, by barriers, which shield them from insults striving to get in; at last, with and rejection. While this approach may great striving, methought I at first achieve its goals of self-protection, it did get in my head, and after that, also reduces opportunities for positive by a sidling striving, my social interactions and perpetuates shoulders, and my whole body; feelings of social isolation (5). John then I was exceeding glad, and Bunyan, a 17th century Christian writer went and sat down in the midst and preacher, described the barriers of them, and so was comforted associated with loneliness when he with the light and heat of their wrote of a vision in which he sun (6)." EFTA_R1_01522216 EFTA02444979 Page 1132 Genetic studies indicate that chapter, interventions are needed to help heritability accounts for approximately lonely individuals regain normal social 50% of loneliness while social connections. As Bunyan's account circumstances account for the other 50% suggests, breaking through the wall of (7). Research also suggests that loneliness may require considerable loneliness is common - reported by as effort. When individual effort is not many as 20 percent of the population at sufficient, assistance from others may be any given time (8). In addition, some needed. Unfortunately, contemporary evidence suggests that the prevalence of interventions to reduce loneliness have loneliness may be increasing, at least in fared more poorly than has been the U.S. A recent national survey found recognized. a threefold increase in the number of Repairing Broken Connections Americans who indicated they had no confidant or person with whom to Almost a century ago, scholars discuss important matters (9). Although began to propose strategies for reducing differences between this survey and its loneliness. Karen Rook (11), for 1985 predecessor may be sufficient to instance, amassed over 40 interventions account for this increase, this suggestive dating back to the 1930's in her attempt report raises the possibility that to identify effective loneliness reduction contemporary societal factors may be strategies. Since Rook's review, five interfering with the natural tendency for scientific publications have provided humans to form meaningful, long-term qualitative reviews of strategies to social connections. One factor is social reduce loneliness, social isolation, or mobility, which increased dramatically both (12-16). The most recent during the 20'h century. A second is the publication identified 30 interventions aging of the U.S. population. In 1900, published between 1970 and 2002 (16), 4.1% of Americans were 65 years or and evaluated the effectiveness of those older. By 2006, that percentage had intervention studies that were not flawed increased to 12.4%, representing 37.3 by poor design. Among the thirteen trials million Americans (10). With less value deemed to be of high quality, six were placed on older individuals in the U.S., considered effective, one was considered we have witnessed an increase in partially effective, five were considered marginalization of this segment of ineffective, and one was inconclusive. society. Third, as life expectancy The authors' conclusions were similar to increases, more elders are living longer those of prior reviewers who found that as widows or widowers and are therefore interventions which emphasized social at increased risk for loneliness. Other skills training and/or group activities factors which may place Americans at were the most successful. increased risk for loneliness include less However, qualitative reviews are intergenerational living, delayed subject to invisible biases that can color marriage, increased dual- career our judgments of the scientific evidence families, increased single-residence we see. Thomas Kuhn, a 20'h century households, and increased age-related physicist and epistemologist, noted that disabilities and health conditions. Given scientists too easily accept results which the mental and health risks associated conform to previous intuitions and too with loneliness described in Hawkley's readily reject results which do not (17). EFTA_R1_01522217 EFTA02444980 Page 1133 In the case of loneliness interventions, scientific integrity of the findings), all of the reviews essentially confirmed between 1970 and 2009 (to include and the findings of previous reviews that extend the time interval reviewed social skills training and group-based qualitatively in prior research), and had interventions can succeed in reducing to measure loneliness quantitatively. loneliness. Is this conclusion justified, or Fifty-two intervention studies for is this a case in which prior conclusions loneliness met our inclusion criteria. have been perpetuated in the manner These studies were divided into three Kuhn describes? categories based on the experimental To combat bias favoring results design used to assess the effects of the that confirm dominant theories, some intervention. Twelve studies used a scientists have argued that specific study single group pre-post design in which criteria should be met to warrant an loneliness among participants was evaluation of the effectiveness of the assessed at baseline and again after intervention (18). These criteria include exposure to the intervention. The single random assignment of study participants pre-post design is weak in terms of to receive the intervention, evidence that measuring the effectiveness of an the intervention is more effective than no intervention, however, because intervention, findings that are replicated individuals who have high scores on a by at least one independent research loneliness measure on one occasion are group, and results that are published in likely to score less extremely on a peer-reviewed journals. Previous second occasion even if no intervention reviewers of loneliness interventions had occurred. Said differently, people have, in fact, placed a premium on whose measurements suggest they are randomized trials that contrast a group very lonely at one point in time, on randomly selected to receive the average, appear to be less lonely when intervention with a group randomly measured at a later point in time. Our selected to receive no intervention. meta-analysis of these studies indicated However, none has employed meta- there was indeed a lowering of analysis, a quantitative technique for loneliness as measured before and after calculating the average effect of diverse the interventions, but we cannot interventions designed to accomplish the conclude from this evidence that the same goal. Whereas qualitative reviews reductions in loneliness were due to the are subjective and vulnerable to interventions. confirmatory biases, quantitative reviews Eighteen studies utilized a non- are objective and relatively impervious randomized group comparison design in to bias as long as all relevant studies are which some of the participants sought included in the analysis. out the intervention (the experimental To minimize bias in our meta- group) while others (the control group) analysis, we first combed the literature did not. In this design, assignment of to identify all the intervention studies individuals to the experimental or that specifically targeted loneliness. To control groups was based upon further meet our criteria for inclusion in convenience, participant preference, or the meta-analysis, studies had to be some other factor, which means the published in a peer-reviewed journal or groups that did and did not receive the as a doctoral dissertation (to ensure the intervention may differ in ways that EFTA_R1_01522218 EFTA02444981 Page 1134 explain different outcomes in the two contact with others. However, people groups. For example, people who not only tend to like lonely individuals volunteer to be in the experimental arm less than nonloncly individuals, lonely of a study may be more gregarious by individuals are especially negative nature and may be more likely to toward other lonely individuals. become less lonely over time regardless Therefore, bringing lonely individuals of exposure to the intervention. Results together is unlikely to result in warm, of the meta-analysis suggested the satisfying social connections. Finally, interventions might be effective, but to some interventions were designed with know it's the intervention and not an the notion that what lonely individuals artifact of subject selection, we need to need is social support, such as someone look at the effect of these interventions who is available to provide help when when assessed using randomized group needed. However, loneliness affects not comparison designs in which only how people think, but how people participants are randomly assigned to the think about others: loneliness experimental or control group. diminishes people's executive functioning and biases them to see others Twenty-two studies utilized such as threatening and rejecting even when a design. Quantitative analysis revealed they are not (5). that, on average, the interventions had a small but significant effect in reducing Cacioppo and Patrick (5) loneliness. Moreover, efficacy in proposed a framework for reducing reducing loneliness did not differ loneliness which includes four elements. significantly as a function of First, unconscious barriers that intervention strategy nor as a function of chronically lonely people develop to individual- versus group-based shield against being hurt by others tend implementation. Whereas once a to reduce their likelihood of having consensus existed that social skills positive social interactions, and they training and/or group activities could may benefit, therefore, from reduce loneliness, we found insufficient encouragement and practice in forming evidence to support that conclusion. social connections gradually in "safe" environments where threat of rejection is Why have successful minimal. For instance, because interventions to reduce loneliness been chronically lonely people are self- so elusive? There are several possible focused in their hypervigilance for social reasons. Some of the interventions have threat, they may benefit from learning to been designed with the notion that if shift their attention from themselves to only lonely individuals had better social skills they would be able to form others through other-oriented activities satisfying connections with others. such as volunteerism. The notion is to intervene to diminish or eliminate the However, recent research suggests that negative effects loneliness can have on at least for most adults, the social skills they know are not related to the social perception and cognition. Second, we tend to think of loneliness as the loneliness they feel. Other interventions same thing as a personal weakness, as have been developed with the notion that being a social isolate, being depressed, lonely individuals simply need to interact more with others, so the or being weak. As noted above, we now interventions are designed to increase know these accounts to be incorrect, and EFTA_R1_01522219 EFTA02444982 Page 135 that acute loneliness, just like acute throughout the school year to assist the physical pain, serves an important teachers in supporting and encouraging biological function for our species. children in reading, writing, and Being aware of how loneliness fits into mathematics. This strategy engages at our remarkable achievements as a social least two of the principles that emerged species and what loneliness does to our out of Cacioppo and Patrick's theoretical social cognition and behavior can help framework (5)—the provision of a us better understand the actions of others "safe" venue for making social toward us. Third, to the extent that connections (i.e., the classroom of non- desperation for social connections leads threatening children), and the shifting of chronically lonely individuals to older adults' attention away from their misguidedly vest their interest in those own concerns and toward the needs of who are unlikely to meet their someone else. In addition, this strategy relationship needs, they may need to capitalizes on Erikson's notion of learn how to be selective and choose gencrativity (i.e., helping future friends and groups with whom generations) (20). Interventions of this reciprocally rewarding relationships can form deserve further assessment (21). be expected. This decision is critical to Conclusion success. Research indicates that the people with whom we are most likely to We began this chapter by noting form positive, lasting relationships are that loneliness is not uncommon and, those who have similar attitudes, beliefs, although unpleasant, may prompt values, interests, and activities to our individuals to attend to and repair their own. Therefore, people should not seek social connections. Loneliness affects friendships based on physical cognition as well as well-being, appearance, status, popularity, or however, and when loneliness persists it convenience, but rather on attitudes, is a risk factor for myriad health beliefs, values, and behaviors. Finally, problems. Previous reviewers have because chronically lonely people expect suggested that loneliness can be reduced to be disappointed with themselves and through interventions that emphasize others in their relationships, they may social skills development and group- benefit from training and practice in based activities. By quantitatively taking a more optimistic perspective, in analyzing twenty-two well-designed expecting the best from themselves and studies, we found no evidence that these from others. We play a much more strategies were any more effective in important role in shaping our social reducing loneliness than increasing environment than we often realize. social opportunities or social support, or modifying maladaptive social Although no intervention to date cognitions, whether in a group or has incorporated all of these elements, at individual context. A larger number of least one randomized trial has intervention studies may be needed to demonstrated that an intervention based determine the relative efficacy of these upon volunteerism (Experience Corps) intervention strategies. In the interim, it can increase social activity in older is clear from this review that global adults (19). In this trial, older adults are impressions and intuitions will not paired with grade-school children and suffice when trying to reduce loneliness. dedicate at least fifteen hours per week Future interventions should EFTA_R1_01522220 EFTA02444983 Page l 136 acknowledge that loneliness is not 5. Cacioppo JT, Patrick W. synonymous with social isolation but is a Loneliness: Human Nature and social pain that functions to motivate the the Need for Social Connection. formation and renewal of meaningful New York: W.W. Norton & social relationships. When feelings of Company, 2008. loneliness fail to accomplish their 6. Bunyan J. Grace Abounding to adaptive purpose, chronic loneliness the Chief of Sinners. Grand may ensue. Chronic loneliness tends to Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, be self-perpetuating through 1986. confirmatory biases that alter cognitions, emotions, and behaviors. Given the 7. Boomsma DI, Willemsen G, importance of social connection to Dolan CV, Hawkley LC, people's health and well-being, it is Cacioppo JT. Genetic and important that we solve the puzzle of environmental contributions to how to help the chronically lonely loneliness in adults: The connect with others in meaningful and Netherlands Twin Register satisfying ways. Study. Behavioral Genetics 2005;35(6):745-52. 8. Steffick DE. Documentation on References affective functioning measures in the Health and Retirement Study. Ann Arbor: Survey Research 1. Hobbes T. Leviathan, or the Center, University of Michigan; Matter, Forme, and Power of a 2000. Report No.: DR-005. Commonwealth, Ecclesiastical! and Civil. In: 9. McPherson M, Smith-Lovin L, http://www.carlymoderntexts.co Brashears ME. Social isolation in mif-hobhcs.html, 1651. America: Changes in core discussion networks over two 2. Berkman LF, Syme SL. Social decades. American Sociological networks, host resistance and Review 2006;7I(Junc):353-75. mortality: A nine year follow-up study of Alameda County 10. Administration on Aging. A residents. American Journal of statistical profile of older Epidemiology 1979;109:186- Americans Aged 65+. In: 204. Department ofHealth and 3. House JS, Landis KR, Umberson Human Services, 2008. D. Social relationships and 11. Rook KS. Promoting social health. Science 1988;241:540-5. bonds: Strategies for helping the lonely and socially isolated. 4. Berkman LF, Glass T. Social American Psychologist integration, social networks, 1984;39(12):1389-407. social support, and health. In: Berkman LF, Kawachi I, eds. 12. McWhirter BT. Loneliness: A Social Epidemiology. New York: review of current literature, with Oxford University Press, 2000: implications for counseling and 137-73. EFTA_R1_01522221 EFTA02444984 Page 1 137 research. Journal of Counseling population: Initial evidence on & Development 1990;68:417-22. the Experience Corps model. 13. Cattan M, White M. Developing Journal ofUrban Health evidence based health promotion 2004;81(1):64-78. for older people: A systematic 20. Glass TA, Freedman M, Carlson review and survey of health MC, et al. Experience Corps: promotion interventions targeting Design of an intergenerational social isolation and loneliness program to boost social capital among older people. Internet and promote the health of an Journal of Health Promotion aging society. Journal of Urban 1998;13. Health 2004;81(1):94-105. 14. Findlay RA. Interventions to 21. Rowe JW, Kahn R. Experience reduce social isolation among Corps: Commentary. Journal of older people: Where is the Urban Health 2004;81(1):61-3. evidence? Ageing & Society 2003;23(5):647-58. 15. Perese EF, Wolf M. Combating loneliness among persons with severe mental illness: Social network interventions' characteristics, effectiveness, and applicability. Issues in Mental Health Nursing 2005;26:591- 609. 16. Cattan M, White M, Bond J, Learmouth A. Preventing social isolation and loneliness among older people: A systematic review of health promotion interventions. Ageing & Society 2005;25:41-67. 17. Kuhn TS. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962. 18. Chambless DL, Hollon SD. Defining empirically supported therapies. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 1998;66:7-18. 19. Fried LP, Carlson MC, Freedman M, et al. A social model for health promotion for an aging EFTA_R1_01522222 EFTA02444985 Page 1138 attesting to the challenge of effectively Reflections on Invisible Connections addressing the problem of ruptured Echoing a prominent theme in social connections. this volume, Christopher Masi highlights Invisibility should not thwart once again the centrality of social attempts to alleviate distress, however. connectedness for human well-being and Biological causes of disease were no the function of loneliness in signaling a more visible or evident in the 18th rupture in a sense of social century than psychological causes arc connectedness. One might reasonably today. Yet significant scientific advances expect that a social species like Homo during the l9`" and 20th centuries sapiens would have a sufficiently large behavioral repertoire to be able to completely revolutionized medical practice, life expectancy, and quality of resolve feelings of isolation and restore a life. Farr Curlin is less interested in the sense of social connectedness. Although invisible causes of disease than in the resolution is accomplished readily in primordial need for social connection some instances for some people some of that John Cacioppo introduced and that the time, the reality is that at times Curlin regards as a preexistent condition people are at a chronic loss for how to for medicine. If science can be viewed as satisfy their need for social connection. a cognitive system that steps us back so Unfortunately, the invisible bonds of that we can deal more objectively and social connection are not easily repaired. effectively with another person's We see others' social activity, but we do distress, then religion can be viewed as a not see how they feel about their social cognitive system that steps us forward to lives and sense of connection. Despite connect and care for others. Curlin our inability to recognize loneliness in argues that the practice of medicine others, or, as Nick Epley and Jean Decety argued earlier in this volume, requires a balance of these forces, and that the resulting tension between the because of this handicap in seeing into the minds of others, we tend to attribute two produces better care for the patient than does the practice of medicine using to others what we ourselves have felt or either alone. would expect to feel in particular circumstances. Is it any surprise that we target for intervention those circumstances where we observe few opportunities for social interaction, inadequate social skills, and poor social support? On the other hand, because loneliness is in the mind of the sufferer, it is perhaps surprising that we would expect changes in objective social circumstances to be sufficient to alleviate loneliness in all its sufferers. Masi provides a quantitative review of strategies employed to alleviate loneliness to show that interventions to date have been only modestly successful in reducing feelings of loneliness, EFTA_R1_01522223 EFTA02444986 Pa gc 1 139 Social Brain, Spiritual Medicine? No one ever asks what science corseven E has to do with medicine any more than .patients! ir eftWes eler s they ask what books have to do with r :irras-OUP5saoarimair -Sigalar education or what tools have to do with carpentry. Before the middle of the 19th century, there was almost nothing that medicine physicians, however well intended, Chapter 1515 could do to actually restore health to the ill. Modern science changed that. Over the past century and a half, dramatic IS The lead author is Farr A. Curlin, M.D., a improvements in health outcomes have hospice and palliative care physician, researcher, been wrought through the application of and medical ethicist at the University of sterile surgery techniques, specialized Chicago. His empirical research charts the hospital care, public health measures to influence of physicians' moral traditions and prevent the spread of infectious diseases, commitments, both religious and secular, on physicians' clinical practices. As an ethicist he antibiotics to treat those diseases, and addresses questions regarding whether and in myriad subsequent technologies. All of what ways physicians' religious commitments these have been undergirded by the ought to shape their clinical practices in our discoveries of biomedical science. plural democracy. Curlin and colleagues have authored numerous manuscripts published in the As a result, the life expectancy in medicine and bioethics literatures, including a developed nations has doubled. People New England Journal ofMedicine paper titled, live not only longer but with much less "Religion, Conscience and Controversial disability. Diseases that formerly Clinical Practices." As founding Director of the Program on Medicine and Religion at the disfigured and killed, such as smallpox University of Chicago, Dr. Curlin is working and polio, have been almost completely with colleagues from the Pritzker School of eradicated. Epidemics of malaria, yellow Medicine and the University of Chicago Divinity fever, measles and diphtheria have been School to foster inquiry into and public discourse restrained. Injuries from war or other regarding the intersections of religion and the practice of medicine. traumatic events, which in earlier In the world of contemporary medicine. periods led predictably to death or science is front and center, and for good reason. profound disability, now can be Science provides modem medicine with ameliorated using sophisticated surgical extraordinary diagnostic and therapeutic reconstruction techniques, advanced capacities that can be employed to care for patients. Yet there is more to medicine than prostheses, and intensive rehabilitation. science can know. Science cannot provide Medical science already has visions to animate care of the sick, moral accomplished an extraordinary amount frameworks to guide the application of medical in alleviating human illness and technology, or practices that nurture and extend forestalling death, and there is good ow sociobiological capacity to care for others. For these medicine turns to religious and secular reason to expect further progress. Yet, moral traditions and practices. This essay for all that science has made possible, examines how religious concepts are implicit and medicine is animated by other, less operative in practices of medicine and in the tangible, forces. formation of fully human physicians. By attending to these concepts, we may gain a richer understanding of the way self-conscious human extend our unique, human, biopsychosocial practices like medicine both depend on and capacities. EFTA_R1_01522224 EFTA02444987 Page 1140 To give a robust account for the own brains that mirrors (albeit at a level practice of medicine, one must explain attenuated by training and other why sick and debilitated strangers are contextual factors) the response we worthy of attention and care, and how would have if we were suffering the pain the medical arts contribute to human ourselves. These features of the human flourishing. For some Americans, such brain allow us to pay attention to and to accounts begin in secular moral some extent share in the suffering of tradition, but for most they begin in others—capacities that are psychological religion; nine out of ten Americans building blocks for caring for the sick. endorse a religious affiliation. Either Yet to explain medicine strictly way, medicine looks beyond science to on the basis of empirical science, one find a vision that animates care of the must solve a particularly thorny version sick, a moral framework that guides the of the more general problem of application of medical technology, and explaining altruistic human behavior. practices that nurture and extend the Decety notes, "The emergence of human capacity to care for patients as altruism, of empathizing with and caring persons rather than as mere objects. In for those who are not kin, is ... not this sense, even though religious easily explained within the framework of concepts are rarely made explicit in neo-Darwinian theories of natural public and professional discourse about selection." Indeed one can scarcely medicine, they are everywhere implicit imagine a practice less conducive to the and operative, and necessarily so. reproductive fitness of a population than Why care for the sick? spending enormous resources caring for the sick, the deformed, the weak, and the Humans in all cultures are moved aged. Natural selection and the physician to care for the sick. The question is why? The concept of the social brain provides would seem to be at cross-purposes: one works to eliminate the sickly, the other the beginning of an answer. The peculiar to save them from elimination. On this human need and capacity for account, medicine appears to be the sort constructive, complex and meaningful of dead end into which the evolutionary relationships seems to involve process sometimes blindly drifts. neurological structures and functions that also facilitate attending to the sick. Cacioppo, however, argues that For example, Epley describes the human altruistic behaviors can be explained capacity to pay attention to our own within evolutionary theory by paying mindedness and the mindedness of attention to inclusive fitness and the others. We are not only conscious of multiple levels of selective pressure: ourselves, but we are conscious of others ...for species born to a period of being conscious of themselves and of us. utter dependency [e.g., humans], This capacity allows us to be mindful of the genes that find their way into others' bodily suffering and mindful of the gene pool arc not defined their consciousness of our relation to solely or even mostly by them in that suffering. To mindfulness is likelihood that an organism will added the capacity to empathize. Decety reproduce but by the likelihood describes a neurological structure that the offspring of the parent through which the sight of pain in will live long enough to another person triggers a response in our EFTA_R1_01522225 EFTA02444988 Page 1141 reproduce... one consequence is sterilization of mentally 'unfit' women that selfish genes evolved in the case of Buck v. Bell by writing, through individual-level selection "Three generations of imbeciles are processes to promote social enough." Sterilization rates under preferences and group processes, eugenic laws in the United States including reciprocal social increased following this ruling until the behaviors, that can extend Skinner v. Oklahoma case in 1942, after beyond kin relationships which point they declined. The concept of inclusive fitness helps to The practice of medicine explain why humans care for the young expresses more than a straightforward when they are sick, and even why they social instinct for protecting the young. care for those who when healthy are able To borrow from Browning, it may be to contribute to caring for the young. In that medicine builds on and extends the addition, it may be that hunter-gatherers dynamic of inclusive fitness much like in were more likely to survive and Catholic moral theology caritas (love) reproduce when they cared for a builds on and extends eros (desire). wounded or sickened member of the Browning writes, "[Aquinas] held — and clan—thereby establishing an Christianity has always taught — that expectation of reciprocity that would Christian love includes more than kin contribute to social cohesion, collective altruism and the care of our familial effort, and defense of other group offspring; it must include the love of members. These provide at least the neighbor, stranger, and enemy, even to rudiments of an evolutionary rationale the point of self-sacrifice." The for the practice of medicine. theological concept of God as creator and Father of all "made it possible for Yet, medicine does not involve Christians to build on yet analogically caring merely (or even primarily) for the generalize their kin altruism to all young, much less for those who are most genetically fit. Rather, medicine in large children of God, even those beyond the immediate family, their own children measure involves caring for those who and their own kin." Even those beyond either have no capacity to contribute to the reasonable hope of reproducing or the gene pool because they are aged and helping others to reproduce. otherwise infertile, or whose contributions to that pool will reduce Notably, the self-conscious population fitness because they are commitments that animate medicine do genetically predisposed to sickness and not include promoting population fitness disability. Concern about the latter led or ensuring survival of offspring to the Francis Galton and many of his point of reproduction. Rather, physicians American and European contemporaries discipline themselves to practices that to embrace social Darwinism and to make possible the commitment of champion efforts to keep the diminished medicine: to preserve and restore the and infirm from reproducing. In the health of patients, notwithstanding United States, the eugenics movement patients' other characteristics. Religions was memorialized in the infamous words ground this care for the sick in sacred of Supreme Court justice Oliver Wendell and transcendent obligations to God and Holmes, who justified the neighbor, and it is not incidental that the constitutionality of the forced hospital began when Christian monastic EFTA_R1_01522226 EFTA02444989 Page 1142 communities enfolded the care of the taken for granted precisely because of its sick into a communal life of liturgy and dominance, so the influence of religious prayer. This is not to say that the ideas on medical practice is often substantively irreligious lack proper invisible in those areas where motivation to practice medicine. It is to commitments are shared in common say that an animating vision for among different religions and other medicine as a good and worthy activity moral traditions. For example, we seems to require moral concepts that generally take it for granted that science alone does not provide. mending injuries, treating infections, and removing diseased organs are good How should medical science be things to do. That is because the moral deployed? commitments that undergird these Medicine is not only animated by practices are shared by virtually all something like a religious vision; it also moral communities, religious or requires a thick moral framework for its otherwise. Moral commitments that arc ongoing direction. To know how best to shared by all may not seem `moral' at care for patients, we need to know all. Yet even the idea of sickness implies something about what human flourishing a norm of and concern for health that are entails and how medicine can contribute not fully derivable from empirical to it. Medical science is less helpful here science. than one might hope. The influence of religion on Science facilitates the sort of medical practice becomes more visible religious humanism that Browning where the commitments of particular encourages, because it helps us better traditions diverge from one another or understand the empirical world and where they diverge from the values of therefore helps all moral communities the dominant culture. For example, refine their efforts to bring about human religious measures have been found flourishing. Science elucidates a range of consistently to strongly predict technical possibilities and provides physicians' attitudes regarding ethically information about what we can controversial practices such as abortion, reasonably expect as the consequence of physician-assisted suicide, withdrawal of choosing one course over another. Yet, life-sustaining therapies, contraception, even the successes of medical science physician interaction with patients about highlight its limits. As medical science spiritual concerns and, as we have found, generates technologies that can be put to physicians' ideas about the relationship ever-wider uses, it exposes between religion and health.2 disagreements about which of those uses Yet overtly controversial issues arc worthwhile. Although medicine merely highlight the tips of proverbial proceeds in scientific ways in the care of icebergs. Disputes about practices such patients, it does so in pursuit of goals as abortion or physician-assisted suicide that science cannot set. These goals concern whether the practices are come from moral traditions and cultures, intrinsically unethical. Much more religious or otherwise. commonly physicians agree about the In the same way that the range of legitimate clinical strategies, influence of a dominant culture on but they disagree about which is to be medical practice is often invisible or recommended in a given moment. For EFTA_R1_01522227 EFTA02444990 Page 1 143 example, physicians may agree that the traditions have much to say, but about experience of depression can be treated which medical science remains silent. legitimately by antidepressant Caring for the patient as person medications, referral to a psychiatrist, or referral to a counselor whose practice is So far I have suggested that rooted in a specific religious tradition. religions provide a vision that animates Yet our research suggests that the care of the sick and a moral framework religious characteristics of physicians that guides the application of medical strongly influence which of these technology. Religions make another options they would recommend in a contribution by fostering practices that given cases. nurture the human capacity to care for patients as persons rather than as mere Controversies over a particular objects. medical intervention often represent deeper unspoken disagreements that, Patients commonly complain that unfortunately, science cannot settle. For their physicians treat them as mere example, controversies over the use of objects or specimens rather than stimulants to manage childhood behavior appreciating and attending to them as disorders, or the medicalization of social unique persons. This problem has always anxiety, seem to reflect disagreements plagued the profession. To learn how to about more basic questions: What brings heal, the novice physician must learn of human happiness? Which moods and patients as representing abstract general behaviors should be considered normal types and classes. She must learn about parts of human experience and which coronary artery disease and hematuria should be considered abnormal? What before she can begin to interpret Mrs. sorts of suffering should we try to Smith's chest discomfort and Mr. alleviate? What leads to disordered Jones's red urine. These abstractions behaviors? What resources (social, allow knowledge of when and how psychological, spiritual or otherwise) are things happen, and that knowledge best suited to addressing disruptions in guides technological interventions that individuals' mental and emotional may bring healing to the body. These states? How does modem medicine fit abstractions also help doctors objectify into our response to these experiences? their patients' humanity enough to Although physicians may not ask or violate social norms that operate in every answer these questions explicitly, they other social situation, such as asking implicitly answer them in their responses patients to expose their nakedness in and recommendations to patients. vulnerable positions, or cutting patients apart in hopes of making them whole. So, for all that is hoped for in 'scientific' and 'evidence-based' As long as the process does not practice, clinicians must in the end act as go too far, scientific detachment serves practical moral philosophers, making to make our concern effective. Yet the judgments about how best to pursue the collective experience of both patients goals of medicine for a particular patient and physicians suggests that such in a particular context, all things detachment usually does go too far and considered. Among those things to be occurs too easily. As a result physicians considered are moral valuations about treat patients as mere objects and which religions and other moral EFTA_R1_01522228 EFTA02444991 Page 1 144 instances of disease; they treat patients regardless of one's social status, one's as less than the human persons they are. biological fitness or one's reproductive capacity. Epley notes that we are better Physicians, it would seem, are able to pay attention to what another is subject to a particular form of the more thinking or feeling when we are general psychological challenge of motivated to do so. Christianity seeks to paying attention to other minds. Like all stimulate such motivation by humans, physicians easily ignore the encouraging Christians to meditate on mindfulness of others. This matters, the fact that Jesus comes to us in those Epley reminds us, "because mindful who are sick and otherwise suffer°. agents become moral agents worthy of Moreover, it reminds us that we are care and compassion." As such, patients never alone. As Katherine Tanner who are seen as mindful "evoke empathy details in her chapter, God is always and concern for well-being, whereas with us. This central theological claim, agents without mindful experience can when remembered in song, prayer, be treated simply as mindless objects." There are obstacles to recognizing the liturgy, reading of Scriptures and other rituals, provides a particular form of mindfulness of patients. Illness makes a what psychologists call "mindful patient different, or deviant, from human surveillance"—our actions become more norms, and we tend to pay less attention "prosocial" (even altruistic) when we are to the minds of those who are different aware of being observed by others. All from ourselves. In addition, of these practices depend on and extend "Considering other minds requires some the capacities of the social brain. They attentional effort. It does not come automatically." Physicians learn to go are also, from the vantage of Christianity, ways in which one may through the technical motions of caring come to receive grace, the unmerited for the sick until those motions become help of God. 'automatic'—that is the mark of a skilled and effective clinician. But paying Religious practices have attention to the mindfulness of patients therefore at least the potential to requires a sustained investment of time encourage and strengthen the human and energy that physicians are often capacity for attending to the unwilling to make. mindfulness, and therefore the How could religious practices personhood, of those who are sick and diminished. As Epley suggests, "Making help? As Luhrmann notes, most people minds visible, and hence more like one's find it very difficult to pay attention to own, enables people to more readily God. To help in this difficult and follow the most famous of all ethical lifelong task, many religions have dictates—to treat others as you would developed disciplines of prayer and have others treat you." other practices that call to mind what we tend to forget—including the ideas that Conclusion motivate genuine human concern for Science and religion are invisibly those who suffer. Christians, for and inextricably intertwined in the example, practice remembering that all practice of medicine. Science has people are ultimately united as children provided modern medicine with of the one creator God, that "the ground extraordinary diagnostic and therapeutic is level at the foot of the cross" EFTA_R1_01522229 EFTA02444992 Page 1145 capacities that can be employed to care 3 Curlin FA, Odell S, Lawrence RE, for patients. Science gives knowledge of Chin MH, Lantos JD, Meador KG, the remarkable neurological and Koenig HG. The relationship psychological features of the social brain between psychiatry and religion that make activities like caring for the among US physicians. Psychiatr sick possible. But science can also Sery 2007;58(9):1193-1198. depersonalize the patient viewed through 4 Holy Bible. Matthew 25:40. the eyes of the physician scientist. Religions (and other moral communities) motivates an attention to the person who is the patient, providing a fuller vision for the worthiness of caring for the sick, and drawing the physician and patient closer together. Religion and moral communities can also provide a framework to guide the application of medical science in that endeavor, and practices that strengthen the human capacity for treating patients as the mindful persons they are. It is the balance of the tensions produced by the forces of science and religion that may hold a key to better medical practice and patient care. References 1 Curlin FA, Lantos JD, Roach CJ, Sellergren SA, Chin MH. Religious characteristics ofU.S physicians: A national survey. J Gen Intern Med. Jul 2005;20(7):629-634. 2 See Curlin FA, Chin MH, Sellergren SA, Roach CJ, Lantos JD. The association of physicians' religious characteristics with their attitudes and self-reported behaviors regarding religion and spirituality in the clinical encounter. Med Care. 2006;44:446-53, and Curlin FA, Sellergren SA, Lantos JD, Chin MH. Physician? observations and interpretations of the influence of religion and spirituality on health. Archives of Internal Medicine. 2007;167(7):649-54. EFTA_R1_01522230 EFTA02444993 Page 1146 Invisible Forces Farr Curlin meditates on the puzzle of medicine—what is its evolutionary and social function, what draws individual practitioners to it, and what grounds its fundamental values. The values of scientific inquiry lead to treating the objects of inquiries in just that way: as objects. But objectifying patients and their disease would seem to work against the human values of empathy and caring for the weak that also seems to be part and parcel of what medicine is as a practice. Curlin argues that religious values inform and nurture the human side by insisting that there must be a connection between physician and patient, acting as an often unrecognized invisible force that humanizes the practice of medicine. Religion is neither necessary nor sufficient for an individual to adhere to such values. The question of what it is that grounds the fundamental values that govern our relationships, and how those values are reflected in invisible social, psychological, and biological forces, is central to the work of our network. In a concluding essay, Ronald Thisted reflects on the many threads of investigation and discussion that have made up our conversation, and how they are interwoven into a network of inquiry that sheds light on invisible forces and the social brain. EFTA_R1_01522231 EFTA02444994 I) a g e 1147 on-going conversation that we have come to recognize as being centered on nezion 'ea tcon's1 -5 liatuals unseen forces that shape, and are shaped a ie= -rs5.7 trad .vidva_ n ot tre arTo_thaer iklit . by, the social nature of human beings. 3---connectiorLatrrget ittrat The essays that make up this volume Kgivali totivireut .±..„9-E 112449rcesv)bszoritze:7,et give a hint as to what our conversation r ...4.ffiphainan ji S.ti th en has been like, but the linear structure that a book imposes cannot fully evoke the give and take of vigorous debate, the Chapter 1616 excitement of viewing an old problem from a new perspective, or the Epilogue satisfaction that comes from sharing the Over the past six years, our search for knowledge — even when we network of scholars has engaged in an did not agree on the interpretation of what we discovered in our search. 16 The lead author is Ronald Misted, Ph.D., a We deliberately chose to describe Professor in the Departments of Health Studies, Statistics, and Anesthesia & Critical Care at the our membership as a network rather than University of Chicago, where he currently chairs a committee, or seminar, or task force, or the Department of Health Studies. Trained in club, or salon. A network is defined as philosophy and mathematics at Pomona College much by the connections between people and in statistics at Stanford University, his as it is by the individual people interests include the nature of argument and evidence, particularly in the context of health, themselves. Networks can be described disease, and medical treatment. He has pictorially as nodes (points that represent published articles on topics ranging from individuals), some of which are treatment for back pain to computational connected by edges (lines that represent mathematics, and from social determinants of links between two individuals). In our health to the size of Shakespeare's vocabulary. He is a Fellow of the American Statistical network, we have focused on the value Association, and a Fellow of the American of the edges, and have held the Academy for the Advancement of Science. conviction that much is to be gained by The question of how we come to exploring previously untested know—or to claim that we know—things, is left connections. We started with a set of unexamined all too often. The similarities and differences in modes of argument across nodes having only a handful of edges, disciplines, and the variations in what counts for and we ended with many more edges evidence supporting or refuting a position within than nodes. and across disciplines can be illuminating. Statistics, and statistical argument, provide a rich As a result, our network — and framework for thinking about such issues as each individual in the network — has measurement, learning, uncertainty, variation, been enriched as we have learned more and experiment. Statistical principles provide a about, and more from, perspectives that framework for disciplined investigation, for initially were unfamiliar to each of us, communication about the extent of and limitations to the information at hand, and for the end result being that our whole is combining information from different sources. decidedly greater than the sum of our Although there is enormous variability between parts. This illustrates a recurrent theme individuals, there are also commonalities to their in the book, that of emergent experience that transcend their differences. As a phenomena—characteristics that can be species and as individuals, we rely on these common threads, even when they are invisible to ascribed to entities at a higher level of us. organization that, without conscious EFTA_R1_01522232 EFTA02444995 Page 1148 design or intent, seem to arise from shaped to release creative energy and behaviors and interactions at a lower shared purpose. level of organization. How this can Bemtson notes that "beliefs and come about is a puzzle, but it is a puzzle emotions have consequences, both that is amenable to thoughtful behavioral and physiological." The investigation, both scientific and network starts from the premise that one philosophical. What forces are at play, can learn about such apparently invisible we might ask, that makes such a phenomena as beliefs by studying and collection cohesive? Just what reasoning about their consequences. chemistry can transform a collection of individuals into something both more In his essay, Browning advocates than and different from what in starting with a critical hermeneutic aggregate they bring to the table? We phenomenology, a "careful description" seek to understand more fully the bonds of our instruments, our observations, and of marriage, family, friendship, or the stories we use them to tell. Clearly membership—invisible forces that bind articulating our assumptions and starting and simultaneously transform the points has been of immense value. After underlying nature of their constituents doing so for the benefit of colleagues no less than chemical bonds transform outside our disciplines, those colleagues atoms of hydrogen and oxygen into in turn have helped us become aware of water. unarticulated assumptions implicit in our approaches or in our experiments. Our origin was rooted in distaste These observations have led in turn to for the unproductive and unenlightening better science and more convincing shouting matches between proponents of evidence. Our colleagues in the network views of science that denigrate religious have helped each of us to see more belief and views of religion that are anti- facets of the same elephant that scientific. We started from the individually we are too blind to assumption that scholars from the appreciate fully. sciences and from religion and philosophy could have fruitful Revising our thinking and our conversations about what is known, what research to take those observations into counts for knowledge, what can be account has increased the rigor of our observed, and what can be tested thought and broadened the scope of our through experiment and observation. conclusions. The presence of a rich And we all believe in the value of the variety of disciplinary perspectives has scientific method as a means for helped us to weave the nets of Sir Arthur expanding our knowledge. Internal Eddington's parable more tightly, tension is needed for the structural enabling us to see for the first time some integrity of buildings and bridges, and of the "smaller fish" that earlier would that is no less true of social structures have escaped our notice. such as our network. Through Shedding light on invisible forces (a appropriate construction, deep tensions koan) between theology and science (or even between scientific disciplines or Invisible forces of culture, theological perspectives) that have the connection, and curiosity bind us potential to drive us apart can instead be together and define us as a species that is EFTA_R1_01522233 EFTA02444996 Page 1149 at once both individual and social. we are not fooling ourselves into seeing Because both individuality and sociality only what we hope to see. are fundamental to the human species, Humans have a deep need to we are fundamentally interdependent, create meaning in their interactions with connected by invisible, yet powerful, the world and with each other. We also threads. In exploring these threads, we have a deep need for making have also been led to questions about connections beyond ourselves. The how social forces can have effects on biological structure we call our brain has individuals, how the meaning that evolved to reward social connection, just individuals (and groups) apply to as it rewards the satisfaction of hunger particular phenomena or relationships or thirst. The human biology that directs affect both behavior and biology, and and reflects these human needs is what how our biology makes social we have termed the "social brain." connection possible. We have used the phrase "invisible forces" to describe the It is worthwhile to reflect on the mechanisms that account for these range of invisible forces that we have effects that we essentially take for considered here. These forces operate at granted, and to suggest by analogy that several different levels, from the they can be investigated rigorously just molecular, to individual bodily as other phenomena, such as gravity or functions, to social groups, to societies, autonomic regulation, that also are not to species. They include such disparate immediately present to our visual or ideas as evolutionary selective pressure other senses can be studied. favoring social connectedness, anthropomorphism, loneliness, social Human minds are unparalleled at connection, emergent phenomena, discerning patterns in what they see connection to a higher being, against a background of noise and transcendence, empathy, language as variation, and they are equally adept at carrier for meaning, belief, collective attributing meaning to them. As the will, group synchrony, autonomic essays in this volume demonstrate regulation, and neural resonance. These repeatedly, we readily ascribe patterns forces interact with one another, too: we encounter (or seek to encounter) to loneliness, for instance, acting as an invisible forces of nature, of God, of internal signal of the inadequacy of kinship, of genes, of culture, of love, of one's bonds of social connection, with social connection. A common premise consequent effects on health, mediated underlying the work of the network is through autonomic regulation, or the role that what we know (or what we think we of belief in mediating scientific know), and how we come to know it, arc objectivity and empathy. social endeavors embedded in a shared view of both the world and how one It is tempting to view individuals, talks meaningfully about the world. And both souls and bodies, as arising from mindful of our human facility to see lower-level forces within, such as the patterns (even where none exist!), we are operation of specialized neurons and acutely aware that constant rigorous regulatory biological processes. And it testing of assumptions, methods, and is tempting to view social structures and arguments is necessary to make sure that the forces that tend to maintain them as arising, perhaps emergently, from the EFTA_R1_01522234 EFTA02444997 Page 1150 individuals that make up societies. On paired systems of biological checks and this view, the social level of organization balances; when one system is activated, arises out of the interaction of lower- the other tends to restore equilibrium. level entities. But invisible forces For instance, one set of muscles flexes operate in both directions; one's degree the arm, and an opposing set extends it. of social integration or isolation (at the We have seen that the sympathetic and higher level) can have profound parasympathetic components of the influence on one's mental and physical autonomic nervous system—the system health (at the lower level). Just how that makes us breathe and that makes our these forces operate—in both heart pump—operate in this way, and directions—is one of the main themes of that chronic stimulation of some this book. systems, like overstretched elastic bands, A recurring theme is the human lose their ability to spring back. The need for connection. As we have notions of observing a behavior and explored this fundamental need, it has performing that behavior not only arc become clear that it can be satisfied in conceptually similar, they may be rooted part by connections not necessarily to in a common set of neurological other human persons, but to other minds. structures which may, in turn, help us to Since the minds of others are in part of understand how we can perceive another our own construction, connections to a human being as being like us, but not us. higher being, or to our pets, or even to a Anthropomorphism is the belief that transcendent order underlying the world, other minds mirror our own; this colors can fulfill part of what we strive to the way we perceive the world and the attain. Indeed, such non-human other actors in it, a mechanism that allows us to simulate getting under the attachments can share the character of human connection: we can feel valued skin of the other person. by our pet (just as we can feel validated Happiness and loneliness are in a social relationship), we can have an perceptions about our place in the world intimate dyadic relationship with God that profoundly affect our physical (just as we can be intimate with a close bodies and our social relationships. friend), and we can feel a sense of Religious beliefs, too, can have profound belonging to the universe (just as we can effects on health and physical well- feel that we belong to social group). being, working through the same This explains how different, even biological mechanisms that in health contradictory, notions of a relationship maintain equilibrium. to God, for instance, can lead different Unseen, yet powerful, forces people each to find meaning in such a regulate social behavior. Empathy, for relationship: finding God on the instance, contributes to the regulation of downtown bus versus encountering God social interactions. Synchronous in the purposeful unfolding of the natural behavior points to a phenomenon that order. makes the individual feel subsumed by The ideas of symmetry, the group, feeling part of a larger, complementarity, coordination, and co- organic whole. These behaviors can be regulation also run through several of as disparate as "the wave" at a sports our essays. Regulation of biological stadium or congregational prayer at a systems is often maintained through church service. Shared feelings of EFTA_R1_01522235 EFTA02444998 Page 1151 transcendence and belonging can Our relationship to it comes into play in simultaneously lead to greater fitness of conceptualizing loneliness, the individual and increased cohesion anthropomorphism, spirituality, group and sustainability of the social behavior, empathy, and inclusive fitness. organization—another indication of When we speak of loneliness, this positive selection associated with the boundary seems to be an impenetrable social brain. barrier. When we speak of empathy or The notion of resonance with anthropomorphism, however, the self- another appears repeatedly through the other boundary is defined by the book. Our connections to others derive similarity and congruence of individuals in part from being able to see what they to one another, providing a transparent see, to hear what they hear, to know window through which we perceive and what they know, to feel what they feel. interact with others (who must be like us). And when we speak of group Or we have to be able to believe not only that this is possible, but that it happens. synchrony, the boundary vanishes The social brain, in which the same completely: self and other are one. regions arc activated by our own Successful engagement with experience of pain and by our perception others requires work. It is the work of of others in pain, makes both aspects attending to something, and it is work possible. There is a close connection that often is needed to resolve competing between being able to "feel for" another forces. Thinking about other minds is a (empathy) and to "see into" another demanding task and requires attentional mind (anthropomorphism). effort. It is this effort that allows us to Language has the potential to manipulate the transparency of the self- affect people and groups in part because other boundary by what we put in it is tied to meaning. Language is the through learning, attending, seeking, and medium through which we convey, projecting. In effect, we can tune the preserve, and transmit meaning from one degree of resonance we have with individual to another, and from one members of different groups. Similarly, social generation to another. Language consistent attentional effort is also is powerful because it can activate required for the physician to attend to belief, which in turn can activate the mindfulness of patients, for the physical responses. Words can bind; Vineyard church member to experience words can terrify; and words can cause God as present in one's life, and for another to find connection to an physical pain and death. The power of omnipresent yet invisible God who words comes from the meanings they entail about our connections to one works through the very workings of the another. world. Paradox What it means to feel a connection to a higher being is a theme Our investigation of invisible that several essays explore. As is forces involving the social brain has led evident in these essays, the Network has us repeatedly to factors that considered very different, even fundamentally conflict. An important divergent, pictures of what such invisible force is the respect we pay to connection might entail. These apparent the boundary between self and other. inconsistencies that can be found in EFTA_R1_01522236 EFTA02444999 Page 1152 these portrayals are rooted in the mind, purpose, or intention." Our different aspects of human connections, network sidestepped this question from and each is grounded in a social context. the beginning, focusing instead on Social connection can be intimate, related matters such as the consequences relational, or collective. For the member of believing in such a mind, and of of the Vineyard Church, connection with seeing into that mind, for the one doing God is an intimate two-way relationship, the divining. while in Jonathan Edwards's sermon in Those arc questions amenable to the Great Awakening, the connection is empirical investigation, and it is at that relational and involves the coherence (or juncture that we can see benefit from our lack of it) of the individual with God's discussions. As Berntson says, "beliefs approval. And the Christian theological color the way we perceive the world, view of connection as a higher order can they direct and shape our actions, and be conceived in terms of one's belonging define our personalities." Studying and within a whole that God's constancy debating about how they do so has been makes larger than oneself. gratifying and immensely enjoyable. While religion certainly speaks to We have engaged in no theological individual connection to others and to debate, but have focused on questions the divine, religious practices can also about human beings, their beliefs, their serve an evolutionary and social function behaviors, and how those things affect by strengthening the human capacity for and are affected by multiple levels of attending to the personhood of those human connection. who are sick and diminished. The How we conceptualize our objectivity of medical science all too relationships to persons and things often leads to an objectification of the outside our selves has implications for patient or, more frequently, the patient's our health and well-being. Specifically, disease. The social brain's capacity to we have seen that viewing our see others as minds rather than objects relationships in terms of meaningful makes it possible to assign meaning to connections with other minds can have patients and the ways in which they lack positive implications for individual — as wholeness. well as social — health and function. The Crescat scientia; vita excolatur more that we can learn about those implications, the more our increase in The possibility that religion and knowledge has the potential to enrich science can enrich one other, even as one human life. sets aside truth claims about such matters as the existence of a deity, is by no means obvious. But we have come to see that science can describe what religion does in rigorous ways that benefit religion, and religion can serve a meaning-making function that science itself disclaims. Gilpin notes that rifts between science and religion "have centered on whether one can make scientific sense of the notion of divine EFTA_R1_01522237 EFTA02445000